Erdoğan's Istanbul Nightmare

by Burak Bekdil • May 27, 2019 at 5:00 am

Turkey's Supreme Electoral Board, consisting of judges apparently under government pressure, cancelled the result of the Istanbul mayoral election on the pretext that some officials serving at the polling stations were not civil servants, as required by the law. "The Board's decision brings Turkish democracy one big step closer to death," wrote Kemal Kirişçi, senior fellow at TÜSİAD, Turkey's biggest business association.
"It appears that losing Istanbul entails too many risks for the AKP for the matter to be left to its own resources. Many are convinced that if the AKP were to lose Istanbul to the opposition, after having held it – with its precursor – for 25 years, a hornet's nest of vested interests, corruption, and abuse of power would be revealed." — Semih Idiz, a columnist for Sigma Turkey, an Ankara-based think tank.
Even if Erdoğan wins Istanbul in the re-run, he will have lost the last few remaining crumbs of his international credibility.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan may have the Supreme Electoral Board on his side, but bread-and-butter issues are looking gloomy for victory in the re-run of Istanbul's mayoral election... Even if Erdoğan wins Istanbul in the re-run, he will have lost the last few remaining crumbs of his international credibility. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

During most of his nearly 17-year-long term as Turkey's leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's self-aggrandizing, assertive foreign policy and his Islamist and nationalist one-man-rule have earned him popularity and votes in a country where average schooling is a mere 6.5 years. Erdoğan believed -- and made the average Turk believe -- that Turkey is a major world power. He claimed that his rule made miracles in the economy. Therefore, since his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, he has not lost a single election. Everything was coming up roses all the time. Not anymore.

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Memorial Day Message

May 27, 2019 at 3:00 am

Gatestone Institute wishes to thank the brave men and women of America's armed forces who gave their lives -- and those who continue every day to risk them -- so that we may sleep soundly in our beds at night. We are in your debt. — The Editors.