The results of the current Turkish elections, which ended with the victory of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, constituted a defining moment in Turkey's current and future path, state and society, as the continuation of the Justice and Development Party in power is necessarily a continuation of the approach it took at the internal and external levels, that is, in Turkey's position in the context of regional and international tension and turmoil in the world, in which Turkey is an active element and affected by it, and at the internal level in the continuation of Turkey's reconciliation process with its history and its traditional cultural and identity premises. Then the rebirth of Turkey, after Ataturk's Turkey, which left deep scars, but the results of the Turkish elections in general carried several indicators that can be monitored through multiple aspects.
Implications of Turkish Election Results
It can be confirmed at the outset that the results of the current elections are in fact not only a victory for a particular party or for Erdogan and his political alliance, but rather a success for the whole of Turkey in a complex and pivotal test, and we point to it as follows:
First: The consolidation of democracy in Turkey in light of the crisis of representative democracy
The electoral moment in its first and second rounds witnessed real democratic competition between political forces on the ground of projects and strategies related to the state and society, and it can be said that the emerging democracy in Turkey has become more established, than the reality of competition and political conflict in the developed countries themselves, and this reflects a societal will that carries an original awareness of the importance of political competition, and not to give in to the tendencies that have been affecting The Turkish political scene with coups and others.
The awareness in fact of the importance of democracy and peaceful political struggle through parties and ballot boxes demonstrates a societal awareness that will have a prolonged impact on Turkey's future, making it a state of institutions, in which the power of public opinion renews its will every electoral moment, protecting Turkey from drifting towards totalitarian or exclusionary tendencies, where the political official is accountable every election moment, and this is an important issue.
We have placed Turkish democracy in contrast to ancient democracies, for several reasons, as the situation of competition and political conflict in developed countries has become directly or indirectly affected by elements other than the authority of public opinion, and we mean the financial lobbies, companies and the media, where democracy has been emptied as a mechanism in managing political conflict and producing elites responsible for managing states, of its content that makes public opinion a real authority in drawing the destinies of society and the state, and it can even be said that public opinion has become a victim of manipulation. The soft influence in which multiple institutions and expertise operate, aims to reformulate political and cultural awareness in line with the special interests of the dominant powers.
The case of Turkey with the results of the current elections, which passed in two stages, makes it provide a lesson to the world, especially since the elements of external influence due to the international and internal media through a populist and unrealistic discourse whose approach to the six-party alliance in the relationship with refugees did not have an effective impact from the completion of the case of Erdogan's Turkey, but the success of the Justice and Development Party and Erdogan presents Turkish democracy, as a pluralistic political model, contrary to what the Turkish leader and his party have been accused of, and it is also a victory for rationality. Politics at the expense of the emotional mobilization, which tried to create division at the level of society.
Second: The possibility of establishing a new Turkey to succeed Ataturk's Turkey
Erdogan's victory is an explicit announcement of the birth of the new Turkey as a successor to modern Turkey, in which he attributes the virtue of the establishment to Kemal Ataturk, as the quiet transformation or change that took place in stages within the political system, which ended with modifying the nature of the political system to the presidential system with a comfortable parliamentary majority, which will accelerate the announcement of Turkey's exit from the mantle of establishment during the era of Kemal Ataturk, and it can be said with some reservation, that the end of Erdogan's approach and goal aims to completely take off the cloak that Turkey wore at the beginning of The twentieth century, with an ideological choice in which the features of the rupture with Ottoman Turkey were established with its cultural, identity and historical heritage, and its civilizational relations with the East.
This cloak, which has been protected by the army, the judiciary and the ideological political forces associated with it, and which exaggerates the sanctification of the foundations on which Ataturk's Turkey was built, may not seem to be a marginal difference in visions within Turkish society and politics with its symbols, but the dynamics that Turkish society has gone through over the past two decades, and the events that the experiences with Adnan Menderes and Necmettin Erbakan carry, make the current elite introspect this awareness, and carry the new construction goals, but the importance of the current elections was the announcement The frankness of the new Turkey, in its political, civilizational and cultural point of view with the tools of power, but without neglecting the cultural media that have been establishing the new model, and cultural change is slow and extended in time, and works with a logic that differs from political mechanisms and dynamics.
In short, it can be said that the current moment is the largest transition that Turkey is witnessing at the level of the political and cultural system first, and then in the cultural, civilizational and strategic aspects related to development projects and advancement in its scientific aspects at the internal level, and Turkey's position in international balances, those aspects we have referred to in the previous article. This is expressed in self-reconstruction and Turkey's position from the world order.
Third: Erdogan's victory. Caution for the future
Erdogan's success took place in a complex context at the internal and external levels, and in the context of a democratic exercise, in which charisma already has an impact and good management of the conflict with opponents with cunning and strategies that work on slow exhaustion, but Erdogan here did not succeed with the logic of the savior, and this is one of the positive features in the Turkish political scene and the manifestations and results of conflict and competition, and therefore the importance of the current results has reflected part of the intense competition, which made the success rate close to 53%, which is like other democracies. But at the same time, it carries a warning to Erdogan and his party of the need to take into account social dynamics and public opinion on some issues, especially the youth group that needs a new discourse, and carries an awareness different from the groups that came to the moments of coups and social crises that Turkey experienced due to the army's intervention in politics or external interventions.
Fourth: Turkey and the National Independence Project
The natural path of democracy and the expression of the popular will is heading towards actual independence and rejection of all forms of restriction that Turkey has gone through, and then we will see Turkey's effectiveness at the regional and international levels, and Turkey has restored its relations on the basis of balance with the West and the East, without prejudice to this in its efforts to build Seeing it in a way that preserves its interests and independence, which will continue in the foreseeable future, in a turbulent international context.
In conclusion: Erdogan's victory in the current elections was a victory for realism and political rationality, which is not the result of the current moment, but rather an expression of Erdogan's political approach since the emergence of the Justice and Development Party in the Turkish political scene, and the realism that Erdogan approached, does not mean surrender, as much as it means managing the political conflict at the internal and external levels with much cunning, and the ability to duel political opponents and counter-strategies with the tools of pilgrims and political rhetoric, but it is rhetoric to the extent that it emerges with charisma, it is at the moment It holds effective tools on a real level.
In fact, we are facing a political situation in the world that was able to remain in power for nearly two decades without being completely affected at the level of the popular incubator, and this reflects a state of societal confidence in the political discourse pursued by Erdogan, as well as at the level of practice in managing the affairs of power and governance, and what is related to the development aspect, and therefore the indicators expressed, or the indications incorporated by the current elections, are an expression of societal awareness, which makes Turkey in fact a state and a society that has moved to an era Political and institutional stability, and even to actual renaissance.
Turkey is now one of the candles that lit the world of the East, which has been a field for external interventions, symbolized by backwardness, and away from the spirit of the political and cultural age. It can now be said that Turkey is the best expression of the spirit and political values of the age, which will make it move quickly to fortify its position in the world, which has been closely following the elections, as well as in a new declaration of Turkey with its cultural and historical depth.