On Post-Election State Violence in Turkey
Sep 11 2015 by Turkey Page Editors
On 7 June, the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) won 13.1 percent of the vote in national parliamentary elections and was widely seen as having denied the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party the parliamentary majority it was seeking. For the first time, a pro-Kurdish party had succeeded in getting past the extraordinary ten-percent threshold in Turkey’s elections. The run-up to the elections had witnessed violence against the HDP, but that was nothing compared to the unprecedented attacks suffered by the HDP in the aftermath of the elections. Many in Turkey initially celebrated the HDP’s election results, particularly because the HDP’s success had also deprived the AKP of the Kurdish support it needed to increase its own vote share. The AKP’s share in the elections fell to 40.8 percent and the party was blocked from unilaterally adopting a new constitution with a “presidential system,” a goal the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had set for these elections. The initial celebrations of the HDP’s performance have since given way to despair in the face of the AKP’s post-election scorched earth policies.
More:On Post-Election State Violence in Turkey
