Watershed in Turkey: Watershed in Turkey
As it turns out, for the first time in 25 years, Ankara has now gone out of the control of Islamist parties with the secularist victory.
Local elections anywhere in the world are scarcely of much international interest. Not so, however, Sunday’s tryst with democracy in the quangos of Turkey. The outcome is bathed in pregnant symbolism as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s grip has been challenged fair and square. Specifically, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has lost control of the capital city of Ankara and the no less crucial Istanbul ~ historical cities both, and now with enormous contemporary significance. The main opposition, the secular R
