AKP wins Turkish elections leading to eruption of violence in Kurdish southeast
President Erdogan's AK Party has won Turkey's elections taking just over 50% of the vote, thereby gaining a 40-seat working majority in the Parliament. The result is a clear improvement versus the results last June, and comes as a surprise to most. As the votes came through, and the clarity of the AKP's working majority became clear, violence erupted in Turkey's southeast with a car-bomb exploding in Nusaybin (on the Syrian / Turkish border, where Turkish troops have been fighting ISIS) and tear-gas was used to disperse violent crowds in the predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

 

Turkish voters handed a more decisive than expected win to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s party in the parliamentary elections Sunday following months of unrest and divisions over its political future.

With 95 percent of ballots counted, the Justice and Development party (AKP) was estimated to pick up 49.5 percent of the vote, according to state broadcaster TRT. Erdoğan’s party would gain enough seats to form a single-party government in the 550-seat parliament after losing its majority in the June election.

“Today is a day of victory. But it is also a day for humility,” the party’s leader and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told supporters.

The result is a stunning turnaround for Erdoğan, who has wanted to expand his powers as president. Opinion polls had predicted a similar outcome to the June election, when AKP picked up only 40 percent of the vote and lost its majority for the first time in 13 years.

The center-left, secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP) holds second place followed by the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the leftist Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). The MHP lost ground since June as some nationalist voters appeared to back the AKP, which over the summer ended a long truce and launched military strikes on Kurdish separatist militants.

The HDP, a mostly Kurdish political group that for the first time in its history secured seats in parliament in June, appeared to reach the 10 percent threshold needed to gain seats in the parliament with about 10.5 percent of the vote.

“Unfortunately, it was a difficult and troubled period of election campaigning. Lives were lost,” said Selahattin Demirtas, the leader of the HDP, after he voted Sunday. “My wish is that a great hope for peace and calm emerges.”

As results came in, riots between police and Kurdish supporters broke out in the eastern, mostly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

Turks last voted in June but the conservative, Islamic-leaning AKP failed to form a coalition. The party was forced to enter coalition negotiations but couldn’t agree with the center-left CHP on a joint program. Erdoğan later called the early election.

In the final days of the campaign, the party sought to galvanize voters by focusing on security and stability. “This election will be for continuity of stability and trust,” Erdoğan said Saturday, in a last plea to get voters behind him.

The country has been struggling with political upheaval for months, leading AKP voters to count on their party to restore order. “Turkey needs a strong and shrewd government at such a critical time,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said at a campaign rally ahead of the vote.

Turnout for the parliamentary elections was projected at 86 percent among the 54 million registered voters.

Bumpy election run-up

The build-up to Sunday’s elections had seen twists and turns that left many in the country in a state of confusion.

The country has been plagued by violence since the June election. Militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have clashed with security forces many times in past months. The country also saw the end of a two-year ceasefire between the government and Kurdish rebel groups in July.

“It was a difficult and troubled period of election campaigning. Lives were lost” — HDP leader

The violence escalated, with one terrorist attack early October killing 128 people at a pro-Kurdish protest rally. The Turkish government was accused of complicity in the wake of the atrocity.

Erdoğan, who has been criticized for a troubling record on human rights and democratic freedoms, stunned his opponents with some unexpected actions, too.

As the world marked the end of daylight savings time October 25, the Turkish government decided unilaterally to postpone the time change until after the elections. The measure was said to drive more people to the voting booth in the early hours on Sunday.

It has led to confusion of Turks over what the specific time is and the hashtag #saatkac (“What’s the time”) trended on Twitter. Turks mocked the measure calling it “Erdoğan Engineered Standard Time.”

With just days to go before the poll, the offices of the opposition media group Koza-Ipek were also raided by police, in what anti-government supporters deemed yet another example of the president’s disrespect for democratic opposition.

EU’s rapprochement with Erdoğan

Just weeks before the vote, Erdoğan got an unexpected lucky break: a plea for help from the European Union. The refugee crisis forced the EU to renew its ties with the Turkish leader in the months leading up to the vote.

Talks of Turkish EU membership have been deadlocked for years. Chapters on human rights, press freedom or minority rights are big hurdles for negotiators and the European Commission has sought to scale down its accession efforts in general.

The refugee crisis that hit Europe over the summer changed this situation, leading to a détente in EU-Turkish relations. European leaders’ despair to find a solution to the influx of asylum seekers led them to extend a hand to the Turkish president and ask for his assistance. Erdoğan paid a visit to Brussels in early October to strengthen the ties.

The EU and Turkey struck a deal on handling the migration flow two weeks ago, trading Turkish promises to stem the refugee tide with looser visa requirements and a kickstart of the EU membership talks.

The rapprochement is likely to have helped the AKP’s campaign, as it offered a glimpse of hope to moderate voters who value the idea of closer ties with Europe.

Agence France-Press and Associated Press contributed reporting to this article.