[Marxism] Turkish elections analysis

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Turkish Elections and After
by Cigdem Cidamli

The July 2007 elections ended with results beyond the expectations of 
most observers.  We will watch for possible coming earthquakes.

To explain the AKP's election victory, in addition to the AKP's own 
tactics and policies, exogenous factors should be taken into 
consideration.  These include the large vacuum at the centre right and 
center left of Turkish politics resulting from the basic disabilities of 
the dominant Turkish political structure.  The AKP's success is 
substantially due to this vacuum created at the center of Turkish 
politics and the inabilities of the party's rivals, which means that 
such a level of election support may not be sustained in a different 
conjuncture.

Aside from receiving unquestionable and efficient support from 
international capital, the US administration, the EU, and media 
monopolies, as well as benefiting from the aforementioned political 
vacuum, what has the AKP actually accomplished?  Above all, the AKP 
succeeded in responding to the "fears of disorder and economic and 
political instability which might arise from internal tensions and 
conflicts" of the mass of the people, who never feel themselves secure 
and are always in fear of further deterioration of their material social 
conditions: i.e. the poor, a large section of the middle classes, 
shopkeepers, and the majority of Kurdish people.

full: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/cidamli020807.html

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