What Happens in Istanbul Will Not Stay in Istanbul
Burak Kadercan
April 12, 2019
Commentary On March 31, Turkey went through yet another historic election. On the surface, the election itself is not that important: Unlike the parliamentary and presidential elections of the last year, Turkey’s local elections do not play any meaningful role in the distribution of executive or legislative power. Such elections merely decide who will run the basic public services at the municipal level. The results of the March 31 elections, despite all the fanfare it’s getting in domestic and foreign media, also did not produce a game-changing outcome. The Justice and Democracy Party (AKP) lost some of the largest urban areas, but, along with its ultranationalist ally, the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), was able to secure more than 51 percent of the votes nationwide.
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