Turkey’s Municipal Elections: Setting the Stage for Upcoming Elections

GTE Commentary (Istituto Affari Internazionali) No. 11, 14 April 2014, 3 p.

by Soli Özel *

Those who expected municipal elections to give Turkey a respite from the draining tensions and polarization that have marked the last three months have been proven wrong. Dead wrong. The long anticipated victory speech by Prime Minister Erdogan in which much of this hope was vested turned out to be a declaration for the continuation of the war he is waging against the Gülen movement. The movement and its adherents were not the only targets of the Prime Minister’s anger and derision though. Turkey is now a country in which the executive branch considers any institution that tries to put a check on its actions illegitimate.

* Soli Özel is professor of International Relations at Kadir Has University.

Document prepared for the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in the context of the IAI-Istanbul Policy Center-Mercator Foundation project « Turkey, Europe and the World », April 2014.

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