The Strategic Defeat of Recep Tayyip Erdogan
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- Published on Thursday, 11 June 2015 22:30
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1127 .... June 12, 2015
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The Strategic Defeat of Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Sungur Savran
So at long last, despite all the meanders and sideways and detours of history, the logic of social struggles has finally put its stamp on the politics of Turkey. The resounding defeat of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP at the polls in the 7th June general elections in Turkey brings out into the open a loss of political clout on the part of Erdogan as a result of the successive blows he received in the last two years at the hands of the masses and, partly, his erstwhile partners.
Two years ago almost to the day, the masses descended on the streets all over Turkey to demand the resignation of the Erdogan government, who... was then prime minister, protesting not only the project of the demolition of the Gezi Park in the very centre of Istanbul with the purpose of building a shopping mall, but even more importantly against the wholesale suppression of freedoms and sectarian war-mongering in Syria. The popular rebellion that ensued lasted from June to September, was ferociously suppressed by the police at the explicit urging of the prime minister himself, but left Erdogan scathed and breathless. As a result of the revolt and the brutal tactics he adopted to put it down, Erdogan came to be regarded by his former allies and partners as a liability rather than an asset in terms of guaranteeing economic and political stability for Turkish capitalism.
