Sunday, June 7, 2015

Small victory for liberty?

To the right, you see not an Society for Creative Anachronism, but a the image that Turkish president Recep Erdogan chooses to project.


There is small hope at the moment, as his party lost its majority in parliament: Turkey’s election is a blow to Erdogan and a victory for Kurds.

Erdogan was hoping for a super majority, so as to amend the Turkish constitution for an executive presidency. 

Erdogan, started out making some real meaningful changes in the Turkish state, including breaking the power of the military, and providing social services.

He has more recently, moved in a predictably dictatorial way -- suppressing press (last I looked Turkey was the had the most journalists in jail), blaming outside forces for internal protests, preventing independent judiciary actions, you know the drill. 

I find it gratifying that this appears to have backfired -- a bit.  I hope this is Turkey's democratic process asserting itself, and that Erdogan's party, Justice and Development Party (AKP), may reign him in.

On the other hand, the AKP may argue that they still got the most votes (they did) and screw their constitution. They have initially addressed this as a minor set back.

It makes me think of the black knight in the Monty Python's Holy Grail. I am just trying to figure out who has the flesh wound.




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