Erdogan´s Staggering Defeat in Turkey´s Municipal Elections: the Beginning of His End?

Last Updated on Friday, 05 June 2009 02:51 Friday, 03 April 2009 01:44

Erdogan´s Staggering Defeat in Turkey´s Municipal Elections: the Beginning of His End?
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

March 30, 2009

The confusion that prevailed in the Turkish political life cedes its place to clarity and conscience, as the extremist Islamist premier Erdogan´s party has been defeated in yesterday´s municipal elections.

With more than 97.3 percent of the votes counted, Erdogan´s Justice and Development (AKP) Party gets 38.97%, whereas the two leading opposition parties, the Center-Left Republican People´s (CHP) Party of Deniz Baykal and the Right Nationalist Movement (MHP) Party of Devlet Bahceli get respectively 23.23% and 16.13% of the suffrage.

This means that the two opposition parties combined total more than the Islamists - for the first time in the 21st century.

Smaller parties have a remarkable presence that bears witness to a certain demise of the bipolar situation that was mostly formed in the 2002 parliamentary elections due to the electoral system. Indicatively, the six smaller parties total 20%, which under another electoral law would make of them the king makers of the Turkish political life. Another, basically proportional, electoral system would probably be more beneficial for the opposition.

The six small political parties are the following:

1. DTP (Democratic Society Party) – 5.42% of the suffrage (mainly originating from Kurmandji populations in Turkey´s South-eastern confines

2. Saadet (Felicity) Party – 5.18% (an Islamist party of the Right that rejects the policies of the ruling AKP party, and Erdogan´s docility toward and acquiescence with the EU, NATO and America)

3. Democrat Party (successive form to former president Suleyman Demirel´s and former premier Tansu Ciller´s DYP, a party of the moderate Right) – 3.71%

4. DSP (Democratic Left Party) – 2.75% (a pro-European Left party, originally launched by the late prime minister Bulent Ecevit, that - at times - cooperated with CHP, the main opposition party)

5. BBP (Grand Unity Party) – 2.22% (a party of the Right that was created following the separation of its founder Muhsin Yazicioglu from the MHP. BBP was enthusiastically supported in Sivas (Sebasteia) by the local majority of Alevis, one of Turkey´s religious minorities. Muhsin Yazicioglu was killed in a helicopter crash while flying from Marash to Yozgat, last Wednesday.)

6. ANAP (Anavatan / Motherland) Party – 0.76% (the Center – Right party that was founded by the late president Turgut Ozal)

The municipal elections´ results reflect a tremendous reaction of the average Turkish society against the paranoia experienced throughout the period of the successive administrations of the Islamist extremist premier Erdogan.

The AKP lost many cities and districts to the opposition candidates, and if the Islamist party still controls the majority of the mayors and heads of municipalities, the only reason is the division of the opposition. As far as the big cities are concerned, AKP elects 45 mayors, whereas CHP, MHP, DTP, DSP, DP and BBP elect 13, 10, 8, 2, 1 and 1 respectively. With respect to the districts, the results are as follows:

AKP 446

CHP 169

MHP 128

DTP 51

Saadet Party none

DP 38

DSP 10

BBP 3

ANAP none

The results in the capital, Ankara, only highlight the calamitous impact of the division among the opposition parties; AKP elects the mayor despite the fact that its candidate, Ibrahim Melih Gokcek, got only 38.47% of the suffrage, just 7% ahead of the CHP, led by Murat Karayalcin, a prominent Turkish statesman, former Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Mayor of Ankara back in the 90s. Together, the candidates of CHP and MHP total more than 58% of the suffrage (CHP - 31.50%; MHP - 26.90% with Mansur Yavas as candidate).

Also Istanbul proved to be a narrow result, mostly thanks to the formidable campaign skills of Turkey´s rising political personality, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the CHP candidate, who got 36.88% of the suffrage (Istanbul AKP candidate, Kadir Torbas, got 44.33%). If MHP and DTP desisted from presenting candidates – since they didn´t have the slightest chance to win – and reported their votes to CHP, Erdogan´s party would have faced a severe defeat.

In fact, CHP controls the coastland and the West of Turkey, having achieved a spectacular victory in Izmir where the CHP candidate, Aziz Kocaoglu, was elected with 53.44% of the suffrage, whereas Erdogan´s candidate, Taha Aksoy, got a meager 32.19% and MHP candidate, Musavat Dervisoglu, got 7.29%.

The municipal elections´ results at the national level marked ethno-religious differentiations, as the Alevis, centered in Sivas, managed to elect the mayor (BBP) in their stronghold, with more than 50% of the suffrage.

On the other hand, DTP, the Kurmandji ethnic minority party, won the elections in eight (8) provinces of the East, namely Tunceli, Diyarbakir, Batman, Siirt, Sirnak, Hakkari, Van, and Igdir. This result corroborates the historical – political analysis that stipulates that there are no Kurds, and that the ethnically, linguistically, religiously and culturally different Zaza cannot be compressed along with Kurmandjis into the cruel, inhuman and explosive "Kurdish" melting pot – which is an Anglo-French colonial fabrication of absolutely racist nature.

In fact, there are no Kurds; there are Zazas, Kurmandjis and other ethno-religious groups that are not related to one another; the Zazas voted mostly for Erdogan´s AKP in provinces like Mus, Bingol, Erzincan, Erzerum, Bitlis, and Elazig.

In fact, the results present a balanced situation with CHP, MHP (Kastamonu, Karabuk, Gumushane, Ardahan, Osmaniye, Adana, Isparta, Usak, Manisa, Balikesir) and DSP (Ordu, Eskisehir) controlling the coastlands (northern, western and southern), DTP preserving his stronghold in the Southeastern confines, and AKP remaining in power in most of the inland.

What next?

A Plan for the Next Parliamentary Elections

The results offer to the opposition the power to take control of the political game. Although there is no reason or possibility for CHP and MHP to merge, the two leaderships should - already from now - prepare a meticulous plan for the substitution of the AKP Islamist extremist party in the government, as soon as possible; more importantly, the plan should involve the other six parties of the opposition. The reality of ineffective vote must be eliminated from the Turkish political life due to the threat that the Islamist premier Erdogan, acting as full puppet of the Anti-Turkish establishments of the West, represents at the national level.

It will be essential that, in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, the various small parties, namely ANAP, DSP, DP, and eventually DTP, do not present independent lists but cooperate with CHP.

Similarly, it will be seminal that BBP and Saadet candidates appear on the lists of MHP in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

Without minor parties, and with CHP and MHP strengthened, AKP is predestined to doom with mathematical precision.

CHP and MHP must also attract discontented members of the AKP who realize that the presence of Gul and Erdogan in the Turkish political life proved to be nationally calamitous and politically detrimental. Abdullatif Sener is a mere example in this regard.

Retired Army Officers to Strengthen Turkish Political Opposition

More significant will be for both parties to strengthen their instances with the admission of retired army officers who can contribute in terms of ideological integrity, political shrewdness, and geo-strategic contextualization.

Retired because of improper involvement of the Islamist premier Erdogan, and following asphyxiating interference of the US and the UK embassies, former brigadier generals Bertan Nogaylaroglu (notably: http://www.amerikadakiturk.com/ATAAConvention2007.html) and Suha Tanyeri (notably: http://www.gazeten.com/iste-cddeki-gizli-belgeler-izle/) must be politically (re)habilitated.

It is essential to note in this regard that the participation of retired officers in the political life is very widely practiced in Israel, and thus, if the practice is extended in Turkey, the European and American allies of Ankara would theoretically be very satisfied.

More urgently, the Turkish opposition should fix the basic fields of confrontation with the Islamist puppets of the West who have been doing their ingenious best to destroy Turkey through their policies. The issues which the Turkish opposition should select as preferential for confrontation with the Islamist premier are the following:

1. The Ergenekon Myth

The fallacy of this story has been fabricated in its entirety by the British and the US Secret Services, the NATO headquarters and the top EU instances, under the auspices of the Apostate Freemasonic Lodge that controls all these establishments and institutions, using them for their agenda implementation.

There is nothing true in the story narrated as ´Ergenekon conspiracy´ by the AKP controlled mass media that, along with the Islamist government, carry out orders issued from outside Turkey, and promote viciously anti-Turkish policies. The Ergenekon fallacy has been conceived by the West top specialists as a tool for coercion against the leading Muslim nation, subversion of the Turkish state, and subordination of one of the few non-colonized establishments.

The real target of the fallacious narrative was not Turkey itself, but mainly Turkey´s potentiality and rightful perspective in Asia and the Middle East. In fact, Turkey´s interests, objectively and impartially assessed, impose immediate termination of all contacts with European Union, focus on establishing a Union of Asiatic Muslim States, withdrawal from NATO, and adhesion to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

To prevent the union of all Turkic nations, to avert the disintegration of the imaginary enemy Iran, and to discourage China´s rise to position of superpower (which hinges on an alliance with a great Muslim nation in alliance with Beijing), the colonial powers carried out a massive effort to subvert and destroy Turkey, using Erdogan and his inane and ignorant Islamists for this purpose.

CHP and MHP must make a common declaration that all accusations – of any individual – regarding any possible connection of any person with the ghost organization "Ergenekon" is fake and therefore invalid. Both parties must organize meetings in favour of the illegally detained persons, who have been dishonestly accused of a hypothetical contact with the inexistent organization. Both parties must state that they will cancel any judiciary decision on Ergenekon as fake.

2. The Kurdistan Myth

CHP and MHP, properly realizing the multi-ethnic and multi-religious realities of Turkey, and of our world, should guarantee full Civil and Human Rights for all ethno-religious groups residing in Turkey. Stressing issues of national integrity, cultural authenticity, and historical identity, the two parties´ leaders should totally reject the colonial fallacy of a "Kurdish Nation", effectively helping every nation, falsely identified by European colonialists and pseudo-Kurdish terrorists as "part of the Kurdish Nation", to demarcate and differentiate themselves (f. i. Kurmandji, Zaza, Ahl-e Haq, etc).

3. The Armenian Myth

CHP and MHP must declare that they will never accept any possible opening of the Armenian border prior to the complete withdrawal of the Armenian military forces from every territory of Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh included. In case Erdogan´s administration of high treason and extreme docility attempts to go ahead with the Anglo-French plan of relationship normalization, CHP and MHP must mobilize their members, followers and supporters and effectively block the borders, threatening any Armenian who would dare cross into Turkey.

4. The European Myth

CHP and MHP must take a clear position against the negotiations between EU and Turkey; they must declare that, even in case of successful exit of the negotiations, their government will pull Turkey out of the EU, if this development happens to take place. Furthermore, the two main opposition parties must launch a comprehensive campaign against European Union, and more particularly France, England and Spain. The oppression exercised in the three aforementioned countries against the Corsicans, the Bretons, the Basks, the Occitans, the Scots, the Irish, the Catalans and the Galicians must become the focal point of CHP and BHP who must also launch a global movement for the Return of all Abducted Antiquities to their respective countries of origin.

6. The Islamic Myth

CHP and MHP must launch an academic – educational – political campaign against the modern sheikhs, their poor educational background, their vast psychological complex of inferiority, and their calamitous ignorance of the History of Oriental Religions that impacted on the formation of both, Christianity and Islam.

At the academic – educational level, they must set up, along with Chinese academia, intellectuals and politicians, a comprehensive program of reassessment, criticism and rectification of the Western Colonial doctrines of Orientalism.

At the political level, they must launch a global campaign among Muslims, with focus on Asia, in view of the establishment of one Modern, Secular, Multi-ethnic, Muslim State in Asia; this is the right of all the Muslims of Asia and has nothing to do with Islamic extremism. On the contrary, this perspective would help eliminate Islamic terrorism and diffuse Kemal Ataturk´s ideal "Peace at Home, Peace in the World" globally.

Extra readings:

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/11319780.asp?gid=244

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/11319384.asp?gid=244

QUTE: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/96516