Voting and Politics.....Turkey Style

I’ve never been one of those people who is passionate about politics. I never really liked civics class or paid much attention to political upheavals around the world. Since living in Turkey, with a political connoisseur as a roommate, I have taken more of an interest in the subject.

It is an interesting time to be in Turkey right now. Not only is the Arab world i turmoil with uprisings and overthrows, Turkey has a critical election coming up. This country has no doubt been a shinning star as an economic and political power in the past few years and it has shown itself as a major player not only in the Muslim world, but everywhere.

The main political parties here are the AKP(Justice and Development Party, Religious), CHP(Republican People’s Party...Socialist) and MHP(Nationalist Action Party, grey wolves, nationalist) and everyone has an opinion about them. In my small town of Kastamonu, there are vans with politicians painted on the sides and big speakers that pump out messages and music to the people. They have been driving up and down the the streets everyday from morning til night for the past month. I have attended the CHP and MHP rallies where the leaders of those parties have come to energize the town with campaign promises and why they should dislike the other guys.

I attempted to attend the AKP rally, but was stuck in the courthouse because we were told that the Prime Minister would visit there after his speech at the center of town. He never came to the court house because of a security threat and was whisked away by helicopter after his address to the town. Later that day as I walked down the main street, I noticed many police, ambulances and secret police cars ( black with tinted windows and people screaming into walkie talkies) rush by me. Tory and I did not know what was going on at that time, but it was definitely bad. Our friend Silan met up with us and told us that there was a bomb threat at the hospital down the street and that Prime Minister Erdogan’s caravan had been bombed on the way out of the city. When we came home and turned on the tv, we realized that there was a shootout happening at that very moment between the police and members of the terrorist organization, the PKK. We watched in horror and read in all the major newspapers about what was going on just 15 min down the road from my flat.

In a country that is currently in a bloody civil war with the PKK, the organization ran by Turkey’s largest minority, this was the first terrorist attack in this town. Most of the violence is in the southeastern part of the country. There has also been bombings in Istanbul since I have been here. There was a show of unity by the people of Kastamonu that day when they all came into the streets and blew whistles and honked their horns to say “Get out of my town!” to the terrorists. There was also a rally the next day that we missed because we left on a previously planned trip to Antalya. Unfortunatly, a well loved police officer was killed and the town morned his loss over the next few days.

Back to the elections and voting.......The AKP is the current ruling party and is controverial both here and abroad because of its Islamic roots. Some Turks and American for that matter http://www.economist.com/node/18774786 , believe that Mr. Erdogan, the Prime Minister and AKP leader, will eventually turn Turkey into Iran.

My town is small and conservative and has an overwhelming support for the AKP.

All I know is, it will be quite a fascinating and possible less friendly next few years if the AKP wins again.....which most agree that they have a pretty good chance. June 12th is election day and I am interested to see what happens next.