When the law fails to prevent the party in power from cheating, protests work. That’s the lesson Kurds in the city of Van, Turkey, learned during this week’s local elections.
THE dispute between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the opposition Party for Equality and People’s Democracy (DEM) was the classic image of strongman electoral tactics. And the local reaction showed how people can react successfully.
Shortly before the polls opened, the authorities disqualified The DEM candidate Abdullah Zeydan, because he was convicted terrorist propaganda for attending the funerals of Syrian Kurdish rebels. (Turkey regards most Kurdish rebels as terrorists.) By calling into question all the votes for the DEM, the government handed the elections to an AKP lackey who got only 27% of the votes.
The reaction from the streets was immediate and intense. THE Financial Times reported that riots in Van were ringing “exactly like a war here.” After days of mass protests, the Turkish national election committee reinstated Zeydan as the winner on Wednesday.
It was not the first time that the Turkish authorities tried to overturn the will of Kurdish voters. In the last ten years the Turkish government has appointed dozens of non-elected people.”trustee auditors” in Kurdish-majority cities, claiming that the elected mayors were linked to terrorism. The DEM itself was founded after authorities shut down the previous Kurdish-led party accusations of terrorism.
But it may be the first time that protests have succeeded in reversing the government’s decision. The reaction on the streets was immediate and the DEM found allies outside the Kurdish areas. Turkey’s largest opposition faction, the liberal Republican People’s Party (CHP), has joined in denouncing the government.”completely lawless” move.
“In previous cases, the [non-Kurdish] The opposition has not been as vocal in criticizing the government,” says Gonul Tol, director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute, a nonprofit research center in Washington, D.C. “The opposition 1712547236 understands that the Kurdish vote matters and they are running on a platform of restoring Turkish democracy.”
Although it lost ground in the elections, the Turkish government took the opportunity to rally its opponents. Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that the authorities had done so 340 people arrested in Van and at solidarity demonstrations across the country for “illegal street protests on behalf of the Separatist Terrorist Organization,” using a generic term for Kurdish rebels.
“I want our dear nation to know that we will not tolerate any acts of terrorism,” Yerlikaya said in a statement. “I congratulate our heroic police officers who carried out the operations.”
Throughout Turkey, the AKP took a beating in last weekend’s local elections, both by ethnic Turkish and Kurdish candidates. The DEM won in most provinces in the Kurdish-majority southeast of the country, even after the AKP reportedly used election fraud and voter intimidation to push the results in its direction.
“Not all autocracies are the same,” Tol says. “Elections in Turkey are not like elections in Russia. They are actually competitive as there is strong voter engagement in the electoral process.”
In Bitlis, a Kurdish-majority city in southeastern Turkey, the DEM called for a recount because the government had invalidated 2,013 votes in an election that the AKP won by just 198 votes. The recount request made by the DEM was rejected.
“We are not just competing against one political party,” says Ceylan Akca, DEM MP from Diyarbakir, who was in Bitlis for election work*. Reason. “We are competing against a political party that has become the state itself.”
He compares DEM’s experience to that of a homeowner who finds a thief in his home, calls the police, and is arrested instead of the thief.
Elsewhere, the non-profit Human Rights Association accused the AKP to buy 1,200 votes for 57,000 euros ($61,776) in four villages. In the town of Siirt, supporters of the AKP and the rival Party of Democracy and Progress (DEVA) rioted against each other. DEVA candidate’s brother was reportedly kill shot.
In Batman, another Kurdish-majority city where the DEM won the elections, the police intervened destroyed on the victory party of the DEM. Soon after, the fighter planes of the Turkish Air Force buzzed around the city. DEM claimed that the jets were a attempt to intimidate Kurdish voters.
Akca says Americans should be especially concerned about the Batman crash because the Turkish fighter planes all come from the United States, which continues to provide maintenance and upgrades. The US State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The DEM also accused the AKP of electoral fraud through the deployment of the army. Under Turkish law, soldiers can vote where they are deployed, including in local elections. Videos showed uniformed soldiers being taken to the polls en masse in Kurdish cities. Mehmet Zeki Irmez, DEM deputy in Sirnak, defined them as “mobile voters.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office did not deny that the government was bringing soldiers to the polls, and claimed that troops were to be transported “collectively to prevent any breach of security”.
Although the reaction to Van showed Erdogan responding to public pressure, “that doesn’t mean Kurdish victory is certain,” Tol says. “Maybe he’s just waiting for things to calm down.”
* CORRECTION: This article initially incorrectly stated which city Akca represents in parliament.