Published in The Conversation: April 16, 2024, 11.03am EDT The recent municipal elections in Turkey represented a significant defeat for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, signalling a potential shift in Turkey’s political landscape . For more than two decades, Erdoğan has extended his control over the Turkish media , the judiciary and the state bureaucracy , establishing an uneven playing field and skewed elections. This time, though, his Justice and Development Party — known as AKP — and its coalition with the ultra-right wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) lost 15 key municipalities. Mansur Yavas, Ankara’s mayor and CHP presidential hopeful, gestures to supporters in Ankara on March 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ali Unal) After a disastrous and divisive presidential campaign in 2023, the opposition, led by the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), assumed control of crucial municipal and provincial jurisdictions on March 31, 2024. The CHP, ...
from triglav to caucasus
Commentary on the political and cultural developments in Southeastern Europe