Turkey had completed another election safe and sound. With the election having taken place on August 10, the president had been chosen by the public for the first time. There were no surprises with the outcome of the elections. R. Tayyip Erdogan, whom all the public opinion surveys had shown to be the lead, had been elected as the 12th President of Turkey by exceeding 50%.
Turkey"s democracy had been the victor of the elections. Elections are the feast, the banquet of democracy. It"s required to love every election, and value every successfully completed election. Every election that is conducted in a liberal and just way will be making a major contribution in two parts, which one of the parts we witness urgently and the other we witness in time. Without a doubt, all the parties, candidates, voters, election officers have a share in the August 10 success. Turkey"s democracy is grateful to all of them.
Tayyip Erdogan had been triumphant in the elections. Thus, he had been triumphant in nine elections we had entered in 12 years. With such success graphic, he deserved the "most successful politician in the history of Turkey". Erdogan had given his years to politics, he had made great effort, and in time, he managed to build his position as an important political figure. By exceeding his party"s vote rates in the local and general elections, on August 10 he had once again proved that his personal potential is much larger than his party"s potential. It"s understood that at least until 2019, Erdogan will continue being the most nominal politician of Turkish politics.
Erdogan"s victory is at the same time AK Party"s victory as well. This victory will provide AK Party a higher morale in 2015 elections. This is important because the direction of Turkey is related with AK Party"s results in the 2015 elections as much as Erdogan"s victory. In the cases that the party would be unable to provide a majority to establish a government or would be unable to reach a power enough to change the constitution by increasing their votes, there will be different results as the outcome.
The second victor of the elections is HDP"s candidate Selahattin Demirtas. Being a president candidate as a Kurdish politician and being able to conduct a campaign, which includes whole Turkey, without facing much trouble, is a step forward for the Turkish democracy. If Demirtas was able to preserve his statement until the end, he could have even acquired more votes. Even though, the increase in the Kurdish movement"s votes is pleasing from the point of both HDP supporters and the Turkish democracy. With this result, the Kurdish movement had proved once again that it is an important actor of the Turkish politics and he should be included in every political move.
There are three losers in these elections: CHP, MHP and the Gülen-led group. These three powers had formed an alliance against Erdogan and had presented Ihsanoglu as their mutual candidate. However, the results were a complete fiasco for them. The AKP-CHP block had gone under the voting rates, which they had reached in the March 30 elections. It"s obvious that this negative result will have a reflection within the parties. CHP and MHP need to review their party structuring and policies. The results of August 10 require everything to be questioned, from opposition party"s leadership personnel to party organization. However, both CHP and MHP will be trying to wriggle out of this by putting the blame on one another, but the spear is too big to be fit in a sack. Alongside the good organizational skills and successful operations, opposition"s clumsiness and the inability to produce policies, had played an important role in AK Party"s successes.
The Gülen-led group may not be a political actor but they are deep down in illegal and nontransparent politics. They don"t seem to possess a communal base. They possess a well-organized and remarkable media power, but it"s unable to be effective in politics. Most possibly, many from the Gülen-led group"s base had disregarded the suggestions and orders and voted for Erdogan. This situation might consolidate the disintegration between the Gülen-led group"s roof and its base.
Since the thrill of the Presidential elections had been left behind, from now on Turkey should enter more cold-blooded discussions. What will happen? Will a system change be actualized? If so, then towards which direction should Turkey advance? In order to reach healthy results, issues should be discussed via systems and principles rather than individuals. Sadly, Turkey is unable to do so. Both the supporters, haters, lovers of Tayyip Erdogan are adopting an attitude through him.
Besides the possibility of a system change, we also need to state that this will not be as easy and quick as we assume. In politics, things will not always go as they are planned. Unexpected developments might occur at any time. Politics has its different aspects than other activities and the capability and potential to produce unexpected twists. Because of this reason, in coming days it would be good to be prepared for surprises.
