demirkan
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- Jul 25, 2018
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On 24 June, 2018, early presidential and parliamentary elections were held in Turkey. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tried to establish a presidential system in the country as soon as possible, so he did not wait for the next elections scheduled for 2019. As a result, this spring Turkish opposition was confronted with a fait accompli of holding elections in June. The opposition was tricked by Erdoğan, and he won in the first round of the presidential election, exceeding results of his previous election campaign. The ruling Justice and Development Party lost its absolute majority in Parliament but it won a landslide victory in alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party.
Despite the fact that the OSCE described the recent Turkish elections as unfair because the opposition and the authorities were not in equal conditions there, the EU response to Erdoğan's re-election was very restrained. Noting the weaknesses in the methods of election campaigning, as well as, the growing trend towards authoritarianism in Turkey, Federica Mogherini and Johannes Hahn agreed to cooperate with the re-elected President of Turkey and saw in the recent elections evidence of strong attachments of the Turkish people to democratization processes and the commitment to civil liberties. Such statements generate obvious dissonances with large numbers of political prisoners and regular political repression against the Kurds in current Turkey. Even more obviously the so-called 'double standards' and contradictions in the statements of the European leftists regarding the events in Turkey were reflected in a letter of representatives of the Party of European Socialists to their ideological associates from pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, whose Co-Chairman Selahattin Demirtaş was running for the presidency from prison.
The Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) Olaf Scholz, who is a member of the Party of European Socialists, agrees with the need to combat Erdoğan's dictatorship and deeply sympathizes with the Kurds in Turkey, but observes the inability to continue active cooperation between the parties. European Socialists justify their position on the basis of supporting Merkel's policy aimed at restricting migrant influxes to Europe through political and financial support to Turkey's non-democratic regime. Now the effectiveness of the Turkish opposition's activity in countering Erdoğan's regime may decrease to the minimum levels because the Peoples' Democratic Party has lost its support, first of all, in Germany where the Kurds historically were supported and granted shelter. Erdoğan's agreements with the EU will also have a negative impact on the status of Kurdish organizations in Germany, which gives Turkish secret agencies a free hand there. Armenian and Kurdish Diasporas, for their parts, will have heavy times in Turkey because of strengthening positions of nationalist forces in Turkish Parliament.
'A compromise of values' that was made by the Party of European Socialists and, in particular, by the SPD opens up wide opportunities for Erdoğan in external and internal affairs. To all seeming, the Turkish President has not only picked a fine time to hold extraordinary elections and strengthen presidential powers, but he also has chances, with the help of inevitable compromises made by the EU, to strengthen further his dictatorial regime through discrimination of opposition and national minorities. But there is no guarantee that Turkey, after receiving the next tranche of the EU funding, will be fully implementing its obligations to host the refugees.
Despite the fact that the OSCE described the recent Turkish elections as unfair because the opposition and the authorities were not in equal conditions there, the EU response to Erdoğan's re-election was very restrained. Noting the weaknesses in the methods of election campaigning, as well as, the growing trend towards authoritarianism in Turkey, Federica Mogherini and Johannes Hahn agreed to cooperate with the re-elected President of Turkey and saw in the recent elections evidence of strong attachments of the Turkish people to democratization processes and the commitment to civil liberties. Such statements generate obvious dissonances with large numbers of political prisoners and regular political repression against the Kurds in current Turkey. Even more obviously the so-called 'double standards' and contradictions in the statements of the European leftists regarding the events in Turkey were reflected in a letter of representatives of the Party of European Socialists to their ideological associates from pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, whose Co-Chairman Selahattin Demirtaş was running for the presidency from prison.
The Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) Olaf Scholz, who is a member of the Party of European Socialists, agrees with the need to combat Erdoğan's dictatorship and deeply sympathizes with the Kurds in Turkey, but observes the inability to continue active cooperation between the parties. European Socialists justify their position on the basis of supporting Merkel's policy aimed at restricting migrant influxes to Europe through political and financial support to Turkey's non-democratic regime. Now the effectiveness of the Turkish opposition's activity in countering Erdoğan's regime may decrease to the minimum levels because the Peoples' Democratic Party has lost its support, first of all, in Germany where the Kurds historically were supported and granted shelter. Erdoğan's agreements with the EU will also have a negative impact on the status of Kurdish organizations in Germany, which gives Turkish secret agencies a free hand there. Armenian and Kurdish Diasporas, for their parts, will have heavy times in Turkey because of strengthening positions of nationalist forces in Turkish Parliament.
'A compromise of values' that was made by the Party of European Socialists and, in particular, by the SPD opens up wide opportunities for Erdoğan in external and internal affairs. To all seeming, the Turkish President has not only picked a fine time to hold extraordinary elections and strengthen presidential powers, but he also has chances, with the help of inevitable compromises made by the EU, to strengthen further his dictatorial regime through discrimination of opposition and national minorities. But there is no guarantee that Turkey, after receiving the next tranche of the EU funding, will be fully implementing its obligations to host the refugees.
