{"id":35525,"date":"2011-06-13T12:59:59","date_gmt":"2011-06-13T09:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=35525"},"modified":"2014-01-06T09:42:30","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T07:42:30","slug":"erdogans-party-wins-third-term-in-turkish-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/06\/13\/erdogans-party-wins-third-term-in-turkish-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Erdogan\u2019s Party Wins Third Term in Turkish Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"
By SEBNEM ARSU<\/h6>\n
\n

ISTANBUL \u2014 The conservative party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a clear victory in parliamentary elections on Sunday with a strong showing that critics worry might be used to further consolidate its power after nearly a decade of rule and to circumscribe civil liberties and its political opposition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

\"\" <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Umit Bektas\/Reuters<\/h6>\n

The conservative party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan greeted his supporters after winning the parliamentary elections in Ankara on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

With 99 percent of the returns counted, Mr. Erdogan\u2019s ruling Justice and Development Party won about 50 percent of the votes, according to the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency. The main opposition group, the Republican People\u2019s Party, won nearly 26 percent, and another opposition party, the Nationalist Action Party, had 13 percent, the agency said.<\/p>\n

The returns give the pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party, known as the A.K.P., its third term in office since it first won a parliamentary majority in 2002. The results, however, failed to provide the absolute majority that the party wanted to push for major changes, including a shift to a presidential system and the drafting of a new constitution. The party will now have to work to forge consensus with its opposition.<\/p>\n

Mr. Erdogan, in an address to hundreds of cheering supporters at his party headquarters in Ankara, the capital, acknowledged the need to work for a consensus if constitutional reforms were to be realized, a priority shared by the country\u2019s political parties and civil organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur nation delivered to us a call for consensus and dialogue in making this new constitution,\u201d Mr. Erdogan said. \u201cThis constitution will be established upon brotherhood, support, sharing, unity and togetherness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People\u2019s Party, congratulated Mr. Erdogan on his success, but emphasized that he and his party would be scrutinizing the government\u2019s approach to upholding democratic principles as any push for a new constitution went forward.<\/p>\n

The current Constitution was prepared after a military coup in the 1980s, and many here believe that it elevates protections for the state above those of citizens, at the expense of individual rights and freedoms. Under Mr. Erdogan\u2019s stewardship, the government restored political and economic stability after years of turmoil, though opponents say the gains have come at the price of an increasingly autocratic exercise of power.<\/p>\n

Supporters credit Mr. Erdogan with elevating Turkey\u2019s profile in the Middle East, turning the country into an increasingly assertive regional player at a time when several of its neighbors are locked in sometimes violent struggles for democracy. One of most violent, in Syria, Turkey\u2019s neighbor to the southeast, has sent thousands of refugees spilling over the border.<\/p>\n

Mr. Erdogan has moved the country further up the road, although sometimes a bumpy one, to European Union membership. His party has brought the country strong economic growth of 8.9 percent, though unemployment remains stubbornly high at nearly 12 percent and income distribution remains uneven.<\/p>\n

But his party has moved from the reformist approach it took in the early years of its rule, leaving an opening for opponents like the Social Democratic Republican People\u2019s Party, which had some success in the current balloting for 550 seats in Parliament in winning back centrist Turks wary of the conservative tack the ruling party has taken.<\/p>\n

\u201cI support some of the party\u2019s politics for stability in the country,\u201d Bahar Forta, 62, a dermatologist, said as she was leaving a polling station at a high school in Sisli, an upper-middle-class neighborhood in Istanbul. \u201cHowever, I also see that the power they hold \u2014 almost like a single-party system \u2014 will ultimately pave the way for an autocratic regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many younger voters, their biggest concerns were violations of civilian liberties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a thin line between stability and democracy,\u201d said Mustafa Guler, 27, a computer technology consultant, who was on his way to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom for minorities is still an issue, alcohol use is controlled by a government agency,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cEven leave all that aside \u2014 what can be more absurd in this day and age than to close down YouTube? My vote is to break their majority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Web sites, including YouTube, have been blocked in recent years by the government Internet Monitoring Agency, often without explanation.<\/p>\n

Critics point to the fact that Turkey currently has more than 60 journalists in jail, many charged with crimes related to their published work, according to the Turkish Press Association.<\/p>\n

At least two \u2014 Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik, both investigative journalists critical of the A.K.P. and supportive Islamic organizations \u2014 have not been notified of their charges since their arrests in March.<\/p>\n

Despite these shortcomings, some liberal circles have praised government efforts in challenging the status quo of the powerful military, which has staged three coups and until recently maintained a virtually untouchable place in Turkish politics.<\/p>\n

The government oversaw a controversial trial of a group accused of plotting a coup against the ruling party in 2003. The investigation included the arrests of hundreds of officers, retired as well as active duty, tarnishing the military\u2019s image and effectively eliminating it from politics.<\/p>\n

\"Thanassis
Thanassis Stavrakis\/Associated Press Supporters in Ankara cheered screen images of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife, Emine, on Sunday. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Thanassis Stavrakis\/Associated Press<\/div>\n

Supporters in Ankara cheered screen images of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife, Emine, on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By SEBNEM ARSU ISTANBUL \u2014 The conservative party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a clear victory in parliamentary elections on Sunday with a strong showing that critics worry might be used to further consolidate its power after nearly a decade of rule and to circumscribe civil liberties and its political opposition. Umit Bektas\/Reuters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":35526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[1153],"class_list":["post-35525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}