A Breath of Fresh Air in Istanbul?
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/wo...T.nav=top-news

Early election results are saying that Erdogan will have to share power after 12 years of one party rule. :)

The lovely country of Turkey needs to be freed from that clown Erdogan.

Erdogan's a serious problem in a lot of ways, not least because he seeks to overturn the secularization policies of Atatürk but this could get worse before it gets better. The first hurdle will be forming a coalition among Turkey's other parties.

Together, the liberal, secular and Kurdish parties only got 13% of the vote to Erdogan's AKP's 41%. That means that there's 46% of the vote knocking around among the more right wing, more Islamist parties. If Erdogan can build his coalition from among those groups, the net result might be to move Turkey farther to the right and farther away from a secular government.

We would have a similar problem here if the baggers got one of the dolts elected.

I don't give a shit about Turkey.

We have are own problems here with the Republicans.

It's a large and powerful country in a volatile region. We have a history of helpful alliance with them. Though that did not extend to cooperating as desired with GWB's crazy aggression, I can't really blame them there. Erdrogan in ideology and corruption might be likened to a 'Pat Robertson' who gained power. I celebrate whenever and wherever such assholes suffer reverses.

Yeh, it's only perhaps the single most strategic location in the world today.;)

I hope Erdogan does not pull an Assad.

I don't give a rat's ass.

I want single payer here.

Fuck Turkey.

Brilliant.:rolleyes:

Not happening dude. Not happening.

The part that gets me is every talking head opens his/her comments with "our long standing friends". Really? With friends like Erdogan who need enemies.

Turkey has indeed been a long-standing friend. It joined NATO in 1952 and was a steadfast ally throughout the Cold War. That said, Erdogan is a prick and hopefully got his comeuppance.

Hoping! The electoral majority is still sympathetic to Erdogan's ideology...pro Islam/anti secular.

He sure as hell has been no help against ISIS.

I'd say it's more of an electoral plurality, as opposed to a majority. I'm hoping this doesn't get ugly as Erdogan struggles for (further) autocratic control.

As I said in an earlier post, Erdogan's party earned a plurality of 41% but the liberal and secular parties only got 13%. That's a total of 54%, leaving another 46% of seats won by non-liberal and non-secular parties, some well to the right of Erdogan's AKP. That's where Erdogan will look to form a ruling coalition so the government, if not the country, is likely to move to the right.