The HDP's Election Gambit and Turkey's Tolling Alarm Bells
By Gareth Jenkins (vol. 8, no. 2 of the Turkey Analyst)
On January 13, 2015, Selahattin Demirtaş, the co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), announced that the HDP will run as a party in the June 7, 2015 general election. If the HDP fails to cross the 10 per cent national electoral threshold not only will the country’s Kurds no longer have their own voice in parliament but nearly all of the seats in predominantly Kurdish areas are likely to go to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), thus boosting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s hopes of changing the constitution and introducing a presidential or semi-presidential system.
Turkey Temporarily Stands Down in Eastern Mediterranean Amidst Region-Wide Backlash
By Micha’el Tanchum (vol. 8, no. 2 of the Turkey Analyst)
With the close of 2014 witnessing the beginning of a de facto anti-Turkey bloc emerging in the eastern Mediterranean among the four countries with whom Turkey is in contention, the Turkish government has attempted to reduce tensions by removing a seismic exploration vessel and its escort ships from an area where the Republic of Cyprus has been drilling for offshore energy. However, the stand-down is likely to be temporary as campaigning intensifies in the run-up to Turkey’s all-important June 2015 parliamentary elections.
The Long Road that Led to the AKP’s “New Turkey”
By Fatih Yaslı (vol. 28, no. 1 of the Turkey Analyst)
The regime that the AKP is constructing certainly deserves to be defined as “new.” However, a proper understanding of the rise of the Islamists requires that their ascent is put in the right historical context, and that the true nature of the old Turkish regime is appreciated. Turkey’s Islamization has a long prehistory. It has been a long time since the radicalism of Kemalism was discarded. Instead, religion and conservatism have been consistently promoted in the name of anti-socialism.
Hitler’s Infatuation with Atatürk Revisited
By Halil Karaveli (vol. 8, no. 1 of the Turkey Analyst)
Atatürk was Hitler’s “shining star in the darkness.” The Third Reich instituted a veritable cult of Atatürk. The Nazi admiration provides a lens for a fresh look at Kemalism. In spite of its pretentions to stand for “enlightenment”, Kemalism has failed to midwife a democratic evolution. The question is whether this has anything to do with the aspects of Kemalism that the Nazis admired.
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