Elections

By ERDAĞ GÖKNAR | (ISLAMiCommentary) | – – Erdağ Göknar The Nov. 1 parliamentary elections in Turkey resulted in an outcome that few commentators or polls had predicted: Another outright parliamentary majority for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AK Party (AKP). In the almost five months since the AKP lost its parliamentary majority on June […]

Democracy

Turkey election: Erdoğan and the AKP get majority back amid climate of violence and fear

contributors

By Bahar Baser and Ahmet Erdi Öztürk | (The Conversation) | – – Turkey’s president, Recep Tayip Erdoğan, appears to have strengthened his grip on the country after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) won an outright majority in a snap election just five months after an inconclusive poll. It is a result that will […]

Democracy

Turkey: Can a pro-Feminist, pro-Kurdish Party get out the Women’s Vote?

contributors

By Mona Tajali | (OpenDemocracy) | – – The Turkish HDP’s egalitarian gender ideology played a key role in the election of a record number of women to parliament in June’s election. Can these gains be sustained in the political turmoil ahead? On June 7th Turkey held parliamentary elections which marked major turning points in […]

Democracy

Will Turkey’s Elections bring Peace or More Conflict with Kurds?

contributors

By Peter O’Connor | Diyarbakr | (Informed Comment) | – – Tomorrow, on November 1, Turkish voters will return to the polls for the second time in 5 months. At the core of this election is a conflict that’s been eating away at the country’s east: The “Kurdish question”. In Diyarbakir, the unofficial capital of […]

Elections

Dark Money Surge: Conservatives Buoyed by Historic Flood of Contributions

contributors

By Sarah Lazare, staff writer | ( Commondreams.org) – – A new report from Center for Responsive Politics finds single-candidate groups have spent $16.2 million total so far—- over 55 times levels seen in 2012—- and conservatives disproportionately benefit. Political spending by outside groups seeking to the influence the 2016 presidential election is already dramatically […]

Authoritarianism

Turkey’s Snap Elections: Erdoğan is forcing his people to take sides

contributors

By Bahar Baser and Ahmet Erdi Öztürk | (The Conversation) | – – Ever since the June 2015 elections, which thwarted the proposed presidential system that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long craved, Turkey has been hurtling into one of its most turbulent periods in decades. And with a snap election called for November 2015, […]

Authoritarianism

Crisis in Iraqi Kurdistan: Attacked by ISIL & Turkey; and Now Leaderless

contributors

Honar Hama Rasheed | Erbil | (Niqash.org) | – – As the issue of Iraqi Kurdistan’s vacant presidency heats up, delegations from the US, Turkey and Iran have all visited to have their say. But what do they really want? The current Iraqi Kurdish presidency officially ended yesterday. Massoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdish Democratic […]

Authoritarianism

Turkey: As Violence hits Istanbul, southeast, Can Pres. Erdogan turn it to Political Advantage?

contributors

By Alpaslan Ozerdem | (The Conversation) | – – Armed attacks on the US consulate and a police station are the latest in a wave of bloody violence in Turkey that has now reached Istanbul. They are just two violent incidents to take place in the past few weeks, all of which appear to have […]

Elections

Trump Swiftboats McCain the Way W. Swiftboated John Kerry

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The chickens of 2004 have come home to roost in the Republican Party. The Republican strategists around George W. Bush in that year decided to rip John Kerry’s face off by attacking him, in accordance with Karl Rove’s dirty tactics, at his strength. Bush, who hid […]