ELECTIONS IN TURKEY: 6 PEOPLE KILLED, OVER 100 INJURED
Karine Ter-Sahakyan

PanARMENIAN.Net
31.03.2009 GMT+04:00

The ruling party receives 40% of votes, which is considered a defeat
in Turkey.

Turkish municipal elections, on which the Justice and Development
Party (AKP) and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan pinned all their
hopes, are now over, falling short of Islamists’ expectations. The
elections revealed all the problems, which the AKP has been trying to
solve through force or empty slogans and promises. The elections also
proved that in spite of persecution and arrests, Kemalists and the Army
in particular, still preserve their positions in the Turkish society.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Its mite in the Â"defeatÂ" also had the world
crisis, though its share is smallest in the fact that Turkey is
not yet ready for Islamists’ absolute rule. We can assume with
some confidence that the main problem lies in the personality of
the Turkish Premier. Mr. Erdogan’s statements and actions did not
add to his authority. The reception of Erdogan in Istanbul airport
after the scandal in Davos was just an organized action. Moreover,
it was successful as it was firstly directed against the Jews and
only secondly to the support of Erdogan.

No one believed the elections would be peaceful, but they really
substantiated all our most horrible fears. Six people were killed and
about a hundred were injured in the most Â"problematicÂ" provinces,
populated basically with Kurds. According to Turkish media, altogether
590 people were detained in polling stations during the elections. In
Izmir, where the AKP came off second-best, the police made a list
of addresses of a number of people, 228 of whom were taken to police
departments.

In the south-eastern city of Kahramanmaras the police have pursued
a similar strategy, giving executives of polling stations names of
the people they were looking for. Most of these people were accused
of minor financial machination or of inflicting physical injuries
to other people. 183 people were detained here. Besides, 70 people
were detained in Erzerum, 30 people – in Manisa, and another 100 were
arrested for various disturbances in the southeastern city of Adiyaman.

In many election centers similar problems were also faced by the
disabled, who wanted to take part in the election. However, all these
measures did not help the authorities preserve their position of the
leader. In comparison with previous elections, the ruling Justice
and Development Party won 8% of votes less, losing in a range of big
cities, particularly in Antalya. The party received 40% of votes,
which is considered a defeat in Turkey.

The Council of Europe condemned the unlawful actions during the
municipal elections in Turkey. "I condemn the violence which erupted
during local elections in Turkey on 29 March, leaving six people dead
and some hundred injured," stressed Ian Micallef, a.i. President of
the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. In
his words, it is both tragic and absurd that the ultimate exercise
in democracy – elections – lead to bloodshed.

Prime-Minister Erdogan showed his dissatisfaction over the issue,
speaking rather roughly of the Â"ungratefulÂ" inhabitants of
Antalya. "We have done so much for them!," Erdogan said.

Be that as it may, after the elections the Erdogan government
will meet more difficulties in trying to explain its moves to its
people. It would also be hard for Turkey to justify herself to the
EU for the democratic reforms, which, in reality, have never been
carried out. Even if they have been materialized, it wasn’t done the
way it should be done by the countries eager to enter the European
family. In a word, confrontation between Islamists and Kemalists is
not yet over, and nobody yet knows what results it might have. But
one thing is clear – an Islamic country, even one as progressive as
Turkey, in no way falls into the pattern of a democratic country.