CaspianReport

Turkey's 2015 elections explained (2015x7)

Yayınlanma tarihi: Haz 21, 2015

The general elections in Turkey finished with the Justice and Development Party, or the AKP for short, suffering decisive losses as they no longer form the single dominant party in the Turkish parliament. The AKP is still the largest party with 40.8% of the votes and 258 seats, but that is 18 seats too few to govern alone. The game changer here is the victory of the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, or the HDP, which is a left-wing party led by Selahattin Demirtas. His party won 13.1% of the votes and 80 seats, which is above the Turkish parliamentary threshold. Thus, for the first time, the long-repressed Kurdish minority will be properly represented in the parliament.