{"id":38384,"date":"2019-04-01T22:24:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T22:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38384"},"modified":"2019-04-01T22:24:23","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T22:24:23","slug":"australian-leader-rules-out-helping-children-of-daesh-militant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38384","title":{"rendered":"Australian leader rules out helping children of Daesh militant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nANKARA:\u00a0Local elections held in Turkey on Sunday resulted in a significant shift in the governance of the country.<\/p>\n

\nVoters in Turkey\u2019s major cities turned their backs on officials from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s ruling party and instead opted for administration by candidates from opposition groups.<\/p>\n

\nAfter a nail-biting count of votes in the first municipal ballot since Turks approved constitutional reform in 2017, the \u201cprize\u201d cities of Istanbul and the capital Ankara fell to rival parties.<\/p>\n

\nAs the Turkish saying goes, \u201cwhoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey,\u201d and when voters in Izmir \u2014 the country\u2019s third-largest city, which is popular with Arab property investors \u2014 chose an opposition candidate for mayor, it marked a major change on the local political scene.<\/p>\n

\nThe ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its nationalist coalition partner the MHP lost other authorities including the southern provinces of Antalya, Adana, Mersin and Hatay.<\/p>\n

\nThe local election results confirmed a change of mood among Turkish voters unhappy with the way the country has been governed and concerned about rising inflation and unemployment rates.<\/p>\n

\nThe outcome of the polls was also achieved in a country where almost 90 percent of the media is under government control, limiting publicity opportunities for opposition parties.<\/p>\n

\nA recent survey by Istanbul\u2019s prestigious Kadir Has University, revealed that unemployment, increased living costs and depreciation of the Turkish lira were the most significant problems facing Turkey.<\/p>\n

\nIn Ankara, where the government recently opened retail stores to sell fruit and vegetables at reduced prices in an apparent bid to woo low-income voters, an opposition figure will govern the city for the first time in 25 years.<\/p>\n

\nThe capital\u2019s new mayor, Mansur Yavas, is known for his nationalistic roots and as a moderate character trying to reach out to every segment of society.<\/p>\n

\nHowever, during his election campaign, prosecutors drafted an indictment against him on forgery charges. President Erdogan also warned that Ankara could \u201cpay a heavy price\u201d if Yavas was elected.<\/p>\n

\nIn southeastern Turkey, pro-Kurdish HDP won by a landslide, increasing its vote significantly since the last elections and gaining back all municipalities where the government had assigned trustees in place of elected mayors. HDP decided to give its support to the candidates of the opposition coalition in the west by not nominating any candidates in many metropolitan municipalities.<\/p>\n

\nExperts believe Erdogan\u2019s recent rhetoric and politics based on internal and external enemies, have paradoxically consolidated the opposition camp and pushed rival voters to go to the ballot box instead of boycotting it.<\/p>\n

\nSinan Ekim, a Turkey analyst at Rome-based Istituto Affari Internazionali, said the election results showed the resilience of Turkey\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe CHP\u2019s success in Istanbul and Ankara, against the backdrop of massive corruption and a campaigning landscape that is entirely controlled by the government, is nothing short of historic,\u201d he told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe fact that the CHP will now control 10 of Turkey\u2019s 20 top municipalities in terms of GDP, shows how Turkey\u2019s economic recession was a top concern for voters. The results also show a growing dissatisfaction among the younger generation, reacting to a lack of media freedom and lack of employment prospects,\u201d Ekim added.<\/p>\n

\nHe said Erdogan\u2019s strategy of religion-based electioneering had fallen flat with economic concerns taking precedence over religious identity.<\/p>\n

\nDespite the apparent failure of his party in retaining key cities, the president made a balcony speech on Sunday night, saying \u201cin some areas where they fell short, they weren\u2019t able to communicate their message enough. We will begin to fix our faults beginning from tomorrow morning. We won\u2019t fight with the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAlthough Erdogan\u2019s speech was somewhat conciliatory in tone with him vowing to pay more attention to economic reforms, Ekim said the president\u2019s unreadiness to admit defeat in Istanbul said otherwise.<\/p>\n

\nWith Turkey\u2019s state-run news agency Anadolu stopping the flow of election data until Monday morning, the move was considered suspicious by some as it coincided with an equal vote share for two mayoral candidates in Istanbul.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe government may demand a recount or a revote; or first accept the results and then remove opposition leaders from their positions down the line. The government\u2019s final stance vis-a-vis the results will be telling in terms of the style of leadership that awaits Turkey until 2023,\u201d Ekim said.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey\u2019s next elections will be in 2023 when Erdogan\u2019s presidential term of office ends.<\/p>\n

\nOzgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara office director at German Marshall Fund of the US, told Arab News: \u201cBoth the opposition parties and their social bases have learned how to deal with polarizing politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe expert said the success of the Turkish opposition parties was partly down to nominating candidates that appealed to wider society, setting up a smart and inclusive alliance, giving positive messages, and avoiding confrontation.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cTheir social base continued to post polarizing messages on social media, but less than they used to in past elections. I think Turkish politics is in a process of normalization and rebalancing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANKARA:\u00a0Local elections held in Turkey on Sunday resulted in a significant shift in the governance of the country. Voters in Turkey\u2019s major cities turned their backs on officials from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s ruling party and instead opted for administration by candidates from opposition groups. After a nail-biting count of votes in the first municipal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}