Istanbul University Faculty Member and Political Scientist Assoc. Dr. Nuray Mert commented the election results saying that "Everyone in Turkey has singled out the camp they belong to". For journalist Roni Margulies "According to these results, the new government has to bring both the Constitution and the Kurdish issue to the agenda."

While the ruling AKP got 50 percent of the votes, CHP got around 26 percent and MHP 13 percent, the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Block got 6.58 percent of the votes and sent 35 MPs to the parliament. The election result were assessed by Istanbul University Faculty Member and Political Scientist Assoc. Dr. Nuray Mert  and journalist and writer Roni Margulies who were interviewed by DIHA News Agency.

Mert: The result table determined the camps

Remarking that the resulting table is not very surprising when considering the political and social realities of Turkey, Nuray Mert noted that the political table resulted as expected. Stating that everyone in Turkey has singled out the camp they belong to, Mert said; "I call it a camp because the discussions between political circles don't advance as in an ordinary democratic election. In the environment of such harsh discussions, these sides, parties and voters should be seen as encamping sides.Therefore, the camps are quite tight and they don't unite with each other. This has been in this way for a long time and it has been strengthened once more with this elections."

'A troublesome table will come out unless AKP undergoes a change'

Mert, who regards the AKP as a state party which aimed to expand the official ideology  to the entire political area in the two periods and achieved this aim to a large extent, continued as follows; "Turkey has changed its model since the early 2000s, the country is within a complete transformation. In line with this transformation, we were expecting the AKP to become a more democratic state but this didn't happen. The transformation advanced contrariwise; the old strict state model just passed into other hands. Mert warned of a troublesome table unless the AKP, as in the former  two periods, evolves the state model within a democratic framework.

'CHP had the transformation approved'

As to the CHP (Republican People's Party), Mert said the followings; "The CHP had the transformation approved with the votes it received as a party taking the chance of changing itself. I am also of the opinion that the social base of the CHP will not exceed over 30 percent and the party has strengthened its area with the rate of the votes it got."

'The Block has been a hope for Turkey'

As for the Labor, Democracy and Freedom Block which sent 36 MPs to the parliament, Mert said the followings; "This is a very successful outcome for the block but it goes unnoticed that the Block didn't participate in the elections as a political party. Therefore, the elections already began unfair. One of the most concrete sign of the unfairness of the elections is that the Block could send only one MP from Diyarbakýr despite receiving votes two times more than AKP. Despite numerous disadvantages, the Block has been a hope for Turkey."

Roni Margulies: The new government  has to bring the constitution and the Kurdish issue to the agenda

Agreeing with Mert that the result table is not surprising and assessing the success of Block candidates and the vote rate of the CHP as positive, Margulies remarked that the vote rate of AKP, higher than expected, should be thought and discussed by the leftwingers and Kurds. Margulies underlined that the new government  has to bring the constitution and the Kurdish issue to the agenda and continued as follows; "Otherwise, it will not be possible to do politics in Turkey. We will wait and see what and how AKP will move. The government will take offense at itself around this result but it will not ignore the votes received by the Kurdish movement. Therefore, I expect some steps from the government as I think they also know that otherwise wold be worse."

Translation: Berna Ozgencil