Monday, June 8, 2015

Erdogan Loses Majority in Turkish Parliament - UPDATE

Leftist HDP Past 10% Threshold
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suffered a serious setback in Turkey’s parliamentary elections today. With 99% of the votes counted, the ruling AKP party has received 40% of the votes, losing its majority in the parliament. It will have 254-257 seats in the 550-seat parliament.

The People’s Democratic Party or HDP, a democratic socialist party, has received 12% of the votes nationwide, past the critical 10% threshold required for its candidates to enter parliament with a meaningful representation with 80-82 seats. HDP is a coalition-type gathering for leftist, progressive, and pro-Kurd politicians and activists, with an anti-capitalist, environmentalist and pro-LGBT community platform.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) has received 25% of the votes (132 seats), with Nationalist Movement Party (MPH) at 16% (81-82 seats).

Erdogan’s moderate Islamist party, effectively Turkey’s Muslim Brotherhood, must either choose a partner, like HDP, to form the next government, or form a minority government for now and call for early elections.


Charts credit: Hurriyet Daily News

Note: Originally posted Sunday night 7 June; updated Monday morning 8 June

28 comments:

Mark Pyruz said...

1) Turkey's debt-supported economy boom in place since 2000 has come to an end.

2) Edrogan's Syria policy is unpopular.

One is oft to hear from externally-residing Iranian commentators how they wish Iran could have been more like Turkey. Iran's national debt to GDP is around 10%. Turkey's debt to GDP is 42.4%. Moreover, Turkish consumer spending based on credit is to put it mildly unsustainable and a threat to the economy.

Turkey's current Syria policy is unpopular with a large majority of its citizens. This too is in contrast to Iran, where even reformists living in Iran support IRGC-QF activities in Iraq and even Syria (since the rise of ISIL).

Anonymous said...

"One is oft to hear from externally-residing Iranian commentators how they wish Iran could been more like Turkey."

What is it with supporters of the IRI that they have something against "externally-residing Iranian"? After all wasn't most of the IRI leadership "externally-residing"? Now that the leadership in the IRI are entrechend suddenly "externally-residing Iranian" has no right to voice an opinion as regards the future of their country? You just mentioned that reformists living in Iran support activities in Iraq and Syira. But these so-called "reformists" are still part and parcel of the same system that the men in the IRI have created. No Iranian truly supports the regimes costly adventures in Iraq Syria and Lebanon.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Pyruz
Those who live in or have visited Iran , reckon that great majority of Iranians everywhere tend to agree with those externally-residing ones that Iran should have been more like Turkey : a more moderate, secular ,modern and more prosperous state not in cahoots with medieval terrorist savages who promote barbarism in the name of religion .It could be argued that Turkey's somewhat flawed democracy is not a perfect model for secular Iranians to aspire to . For Example Turkey is yet to admit to its past behavior towards Armenians and Kurds ,however it has made a lot of progress since its Ottoman days, and stands as a sharp contrast to the savage barbarism that is being practiced in Iran or Saudi Arabia . I think the majority of Iranians tend to agree with that notion .
Turkey's policy towards Syria ? That's an entirely different subject .

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Uskowi
The new non-robot verification protocol makes it near-impossible to publish a comment as anonymous . The earlier numerical version was more user friendly . Thanks .

Nader Uskowi said...

Election results in Turkey showed a coalition of progressive, leftist and ethnic activists could win, and win big. Islamic extremism is not the only game in the Middle East.

Nader Uskowi said...

I agree. Expressions like "externally residing" Iranians used to belittle the group is inappropriate, and especially odd when used in the context of defending the Islamic Republic, whose founder was an externally residing Iranian and many of its current leaders have either resided for long periods externally or even born in foreign countries. Instead, we need to concentrate on their ideas and actions and evaluate them accordingly, if they reside inside Iran or abroad.

Nader Uskowi said...

Please explain. I have no idea what you are referring to. Thanks.

Unknown said...

The only "externally residing" Iranians I hate are the those who vote for people like Mitt Romney in hope that he'd launch a military strike against their country, or those who are so obsessively anti-IR that they wish to derail the nuclear talks and thus keep the sanctions on the Iranian people until, by some miracle, the the regime capitulates, or those who are so pro-democratic that they miss the country's late absolute monarch (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) and worship his son more than Akhonds worship Khomeini.

However, not all "externally residing" Iranian commentators are like that. NIAC is a good case in point, an organization where externally residing Iranian understand the parameters of Iranian and international politics and thus try to produce achievable results within a realistic scope.

Anonymous said...

It asks the user to choose and click on a picture corresponding with a question .On smaller screens it's very difficult to discern a picture or scroll down to view all the choices .Thanks .

Nader Uskowi said...

Thanks so much. We'll look into it.

Nader Uskowi said...

You have NIAC-type views inside the country and abroad. You have pro-Republican Iranians both inside and outside of the country. You have people opposing the Islamic Republic both inside and outside. The place of residence does not necessarily determine one's viewpoint. Let's concentrate on the issues at hand.

Anonymous said...

but itran has l much less dept than turkey and a good developed Nuke and space program
of course Turkey is more secular, liberal ,bla- bla
but with secularism und liberalism,... you cannot buy anything

Nader Uskowi said...

I understand it's a Blogger setting not ours. Will see if it can be changed.

Anonymous said...

If you call a second hand chernobyl type nuclear reactor and a rocket that since six years ago has been launched twice can only deliver a hand held radio into sub orbital flight and then crash back onto earth after a few days as "good developed Nuke and space program" then give us Turkeys "secularism und libralism" anyday.
In case you haven't noticed "secularism und liberalism" buys you freedom from religious bigotry and blind ignorance towards social development.Something that is in plenty in todays Iran.

Anonymous said...

It is a well known fact within the Iranian community that NIAC is an organization that serves the interests and political purposes of Islamic regime within the US. This basically boils down to the political apathy of the Iranian American community within its borders.Maybe it's time for the Iranian American community to organize and truly represent Iranian peoples interests which is their political struggle against the system that is occupying our land on the other side of the globe?

Unknown said...

Yes, indeed.

Anonymous said...

It is not just anonymous comments that are occasionally blocked but it happens even for those who post comments using google identity. A few of my comments, using my google identity, were somehow blocked even though the posting were confirmed by the catcha robot! I cannot imagine this was done by Nader. May be some phantom moderators are at work on this site without Nader's knowledge!? I have since stopped commenting on this site but remain a loyal reader.
Best wishes, Reader

Unknown said...

Wait, my last post was for Uskowi.

As to yours, Anon 1:24, well, it's typical paranoia!

Anonymous said...

Only multi faith multi ethnic and progressive secularism with social and political libralism can save us from the reactionary forces of Islamic extremism. Well done Turkey.

Anonymous said...

AnonymousJune 8, 2015 at 10:52 AM
Its funny how people like yourself always try to denigrate or minimize the achievements of the iri.The bushehr reactor was in no way a "second hand chernobyl type nuclear reactor" but a state of the art vver pwr reactor not the rmbk type at chernobyl,and iran didnt put "hand held radio into sub orbit" it put satellites into actual orbit,not to mention that iran is the only islamic state with this ability and one of only nine countries to actually do this.Perhaps in future before you post you should check your facts so you dont embarrass yourself again.

Anonymous said...

Feel free to personally attack the messenger. But it is your choice to see what is hidden behind the display cabinet.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:27 AM

If you call a second hand chernobyl type reactor a "achievement of the iri" then why has it taken nearly 36 years to achieve this funny miracle which has not yet started to produce a single watt of electricity to light a room? Can you show some evidence that the "islamic state" can place satellites in "actual orbit"? Placing a satellite into actual orbit counts when a satellite remains there for months or possibly years without it crashing back to earth within days or weeks because of sub orbital placement by under powered rocket.

Anonymous said...

AnonymousJune 9, 2015 at 5:45 PM
The bushehr vver reactor took only 16 years to build,the first reactor,a convoy type pwr,started under pahlavi was never finished because of the revolution followed by the imposed war,it was ultimately scrapped tho` some of its unused components were reused in the vver which technologically makes it a first and certainly not second hand,the brand new bushehr vver reactor started construction in 1995 and was connected to the grid in 2011 and has been lighting millions of rooms since 2013.As to the type of reactor a quick search of google would have shown you the difference between a state of the art gen3 pwr vver reactor and the gen2 graphite moderated rmbk reactor used at chernobyl.You seem to have a very poor understanding of the terms you use,for instance "sub orbital" means that it did not achieve orbit,there is no such thing as a sub orbital placement an object will either achieve orbit or it will not the length of time it orbits for is irrelevant,but just so you know irans 3rd satellite Navid orbited for 2 months.As for the evidence that iran put satellites in orbit one has to look no further than nasa who verified these orbits.In future I strongly recommend that you do some real fact checking before posting here so as not to bring any further embarrassment on yourself,also simply repeating the same old baseless claims over and over again doesnt somehow make them less false.
nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftOrbit.do?id=2009-004A

Anonymous said...

And what point are you trying to make exactly? That the Islamic regime has managed to throw up a biscuit tin into the upper atmosphere for two whole months? It is very relevant how long a satellite remains in orbit because it is useless if it comes crashing back to earth after just two whole months. Besides it was the Islamic regime that cancelled the nuclear reactor in bushehr after coming to power back in 1979. They said Iran doesn't need nuclear power. See how dumb and short sighted they are?

Anonymous said...

AnonymousJune 10, 2015 at 6:51 PM
The point I`m trying to make is that the IRI has its achievements,now If you dont like the IRI thats one thing but denigrating or worse outright lying about its very real achievements doesnt help your case or your credibility it only weakens it,you may not like the IRI or what it stands for but the fact remains that it has achieved a lot and does have a majority of support among irans population.In future if you want to criticise the IRI and there is plenty to criticise as no government or political system is perfect or free of fault,however if you are going to do this then be sure you stick to the truth and that you understand what you are talking about,that means no lies,no exaggerations and no half truths,in short no posts like the ones you made earlier about "second hand chernobyl type nuclear reactor" or rubbish like that.I suppose what it comes down too is whether you dont like the IRI for good reasons or whether you`re just one of those malcontents who would have a problem with any government running iran no matter whos/what it was

Anonymous said...

"and does have the majority of support among irans population."

This is where you have lost your credibility. Perhaps you can explain why the regime relies on brutal methods to maintain their grip on the general population? After all,why is it that the regime spends more money on how to hammer the Iranian population into temporary submission than they do on national defence? And besides there is a perfectly legitimate reason why such a corrupt regime is disliked. Because of its use of systematic torture rape and political murder to further its longevity in Iran. If that's being a "malcontent" against such a brutal system in power,then yes being such a person is very positive towards such a evil entity.The only lasting "achievements" of this corrupting entity has been the destuction of Iran's nature like lake orumieh to the forrests of mazandaran and all creatures within.Other lasting "achievements" are thousand fold increase in drug addiction and vice such as legalised prostitution (seghe) and countless other ailments imposed on Iran's soul.

Anonymous said...

AnonymousJune 11, 2015 at 1:43 PM
Last time I looked iranian elections had voter turnouts comparable to or even slightly better than the voter turnouts in western democracies,if this doesnt indicate majority support for the IRI then I dont know what does,also if the IRI was so brutal and oppressive why would they even allow public participation in politics at any level?,why wouldnt it be like the rubber stamp elections in the DPRK or baathist iraq with only one candidate with 100% mandatory voter turnouts?,I`d also like to see some real proof for your claim that the IRI spends more on internal security than it does on external defence,and lastly since you think the IRI is doing such a bad job what would you replace it with or have you been so preoccupied with how bad the IRI is and how much you hate it that you havent actually thought that far ahead?

Anonymous said...

"if the IRI was so brutal and oppressive why would they even allow public paticipation in politics at any level?"

Seriously at any level? Last time I looked only the right and left hand side of Khamenei's side kicks were allowed to particpate in the selections. So you're telling me that communists,nationalists the secularists or any other free thinking Iranian was allowed to participate in the so called "elections"?
Please enlighten me on this marvelous "Islamic democracy" that allows an unelected religious fanatic to impose his will on the selection process so that the unfortunate Iranian is forced to choose between bad,badder and baddest of Khamenei's personal mafioso quislings.The whole charade was formed to create the illusion of legitamacy by rubber stamping it with "voter turnouts."
Why do you suppose the Islamic dictatorship formed the IRGC and the Basij? To help the general population in road safety matters? The IRGC has total control of the economy and drugs trade.Not only are the IRGC stealing Iran's resources and giving it away to the likes of Assad,Hezbollah and secret bank accounts but they are participating in the genocide of the Iranian nation and its environment. After all it is your personal choice in enlighting yourself on this matter. Not a "malcontent" like me that opposes the anti human entity in Iran.