The Kurdish Rescue of Turkish Democracy

With more than 85 percent voters casting ballots, Turks defeated President Recep Erdogan's attempt to consolidate power. “Erdogan had one ambition for this election: for the AK Party to gain the minimum 330 parliamentary seats required to call a referendum on establishing a presidential regime,” writes Kemal Kirişci, director of the Center on the United States and Europe's Turkey Project at Brookings. “But with only 258 seats, the AK Party did not even reach the 276 seats required to form a government, and may now find itself forming a coalition with MHP.” A pro-Kurdish party also won 13 percent of the vote and representation in the parliament. Kirişci suggests the diverse parliament could tackle corruption and reorient foreign policy toward cooperation with the EU and NATO. He urges reassessment of Turkey’s priorities, meeting the challenges of “reconstructing the independence of state institutions, repairing the damage inflicted to liberal democracy and winning the trust and confidence of investors.” – YaleGlobal