What Turkey's Elections Will NOT Change

by Burak Bekdil • October 29, 2015 at 10:30 am

Davutoglu said that there is a "360 degree difference" between the Islam he defends and the Islam that the Islamic State defends. A confession? Since in elementary mathematics two things that are 360 degrees from each other means they are on the exact same position.
"[W]herever there is an oppressor we will be [with him]." – Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's Prime Minister.
Speaking of IS, whose two suicide bombers killed over 100 people in the heart of Ankara on Oct. 10, Davutoglu used the adjective "ungrateful" for jihadists. Ungrateful? Ungrateful for what support or favors jihadists may have taken from Turkey?
Gezici Research, found that 58.6% of Turks believe that Davutoglu's government did not take necessary pre-emptive security measures at the site of a peace rally where IS jihadists killed over 100 people and injured hundreds of others. Some of the polled were more direct: More than 20% said the AKP and Erdogan were behind the attack.
The budget for Turkey's intelligence agency will rise by 47% from 2015. And the budget for the Directorate of Religious Affairs 2016 will be larger than those of 12 ministries combined.

Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (left) says there is a "360 degree difference" between the Islam he defends and the Islam that the Islamic State defends.

Regardless of how Turks will vote in snap polls on Nov. 1, there are a few certainties: a) The Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2001 and now run by his prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, will lead the election results, b) Turkey's unpleasant polarization along religious-secular and ethnic Turkish-Kurdish lines will deepen, c) Turkey's self-ridiculing Islamist polity will mostly remain in place, and d) The AKP will either rule in a single-party government or have to share power in a coalition alliance; but it will not disappear. All this is because of the personal ambitions of one man: Erdogan.