The elections that handed a victory to Turkey’s incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan June 24 were carried out under a state of emergency that has been in place since the attempted coup of 2016, with some 160,000 political opponents imprisoned—including party leaders. The hegemonic state media outlets such as TRT-TV overwhelmingly devoted their election coverage to Erdogan’s campaign, while citizen access to social media and suspect websites was intermittently restricted by decree. The observation team from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Erdogan had benefited from this excessive coverage, and raised questions about the transparency of the vote. It did not challenge the results, however. Erdogan has apparently avoided a run-off election. He will re-enter office with sweeping new powers following a narrowly-won constitutional referendum last year. Opposition leader Muharrem Ince of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) conceded defeat, but warned that Turkey is headed toward “one-man rule.”
Erdogan’s People’s Alliance, which includes his Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the hard-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), are set to win a 343-seat majority in the 600-seat parliament as well.
Selahattin Demirtaş, presidential candidate of the leftist and Kurdish-led Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), actually campaigned from a prison cell, where he has been awaiting trial on transparently bogus “terrorism” charges since his arrest in November 2016. On June 21, he held an “e-rally,” posting Twitter messages via his lawyers from Edirne Prison, in Turkey’s European northwest (strategically far from the Kurdish heartland). “It is a first time in history that there is a rally from a prison cell,” Demirta? tweeted via his intermediaries.
The election was also punctuated by violence. Four people were killed and eight wounded June 15 in the mainly Kurdish town of Suruc, in a clash that broke out as AKP MP Ibrahim Halil Yildiz was touring through the commercial district. State media said Kurdish HDP supporters attacked his entourage, and reported that his brother was among the dead. Opposition sources say Yildiz’s bodyguards opened fire when he received a hostile reception. Erdogan’s campaign condemned the “hideous attack” on Twitter. (CNN, DW, BBC News, Radio Australia, Europe Solidaire, Hurriyet Daily News, BBC News, The Economist)
See our last post on the crackdown in Turkey.
Map: CIA
As state of emergency ends, Turkey mulls new terror laws
As Turkey's two-year state of emergency comes to an end, the government is set to introduce new anti-terrorism laws. The opposition insists the laws are just as oppressive as the emergency powers they will replace.
Turkey declared a three-month state of emergency days after a coup attempt in 2016 and extended it seven times since then. Erdogan had pledged not to prolong it after its next expiration as a campaign promise. Under the state of emergency, Turkey has arrested over 75,000 people. Some 130,000 civil servants have been purged from government jobs (AP)
Turkish professor dies in prison
Sabri Çolak, 69, an engineering professor who was imprisoned over alleged links to the Gülen movement, died in prison on Aug. 24. Çolak, who was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years, died of a heart attack while in a high-security prison in Van province. Reports said it was known that the professor suffered from heart problems. Çolak’s body will be returned to his family in Erzurum province after an autopsy. (TurkeyPurge)
Istanbul police break up landmark Turkish mothers’ protest
Istanbul police on Aug. 25 broke up a regular demonstration by Turkish mothers remembering the disappearance of relatives in the 1980s and 1990s, detaining almost 50 people as participants marked the 700th such weekly protest. The mothers, known as the Saturday Mothers (Cumatesi Anneleri in Turkish), have met on Saturdays since May 27, 1995 in the heart of Istanbul, to remember relatives who disappeared, allegedly at the hands of the state. Police used water cannon and fired tear gas canisters to disperse the protest. Among those detained was veteran Saturday Mothers protest leader Emine Ocak, 82. Social media users posted pictures of her arrest alongside pictures of her similar arrest in 1997. Ocak's son Hasan disappeared after being taken into custody in 1995. (AFP)