A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Monday, June 13, 2011

Turkey: AKP Again

Prime Minister Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) has easily won a third term in Turkey's elections, but early returns indicate it is several seats short of being able to unilaterally writre a new constitution. The CHP, the old Kemalist Party that's reinvented itself as a social democratic movement, ran second, and the rightwing nationalist MHP ran third, with independents (many of them from Kurdish parties) rounding out the results so far.

I'm no expert on Turkey, but I think this is both an unsurprising and probably a hopeful result. The AKP seems popular, but hasn't been given a carte blanche to do what it wants, either. More here.

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