2023 Turkish Elections in All Aspects

Foreword

The Republic of Türkiye or Turkey with its most common name was established in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The year 2023 marks the 100th year anniversary of the foundation of Türkiye. It is interesting that, at the end of its 1st century, Türkiye had very critical elections in 2023. These elections took place between two blocs or camps proposing very different future perspectives for Türkiye. In that sense, we can claim that there was a struggle for setting the conditions of the 2nd century between two large blocs fighting for the soul of the nation. From my perspective, 2023 Turkish elections were extremely important and interesting for three reasons.

First of all, the competition between two political blocs advocating divergent visions for the future of Türkiye had become a pivotal determinant in shaping the country’s trajectory. On the one hand, incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his bloc upheld an authoritarian-leaning presidential system and espoused a nationalist/Islamic worldview as a substitute for conventional Kemalist secularism. In the foreign policy domain, Erdoğan sought to position Türkiye as a more assertive regional power by leveraging the growing significance of the national defence industry and supporting Ankara’s confrontational stance against Western policies in various realms, including the Kurdish Question (PYD/YPG in Syria) and the Eastern Mediterranean (by adopting a more assertive stance in the Cyprus Problem and towards Greece), through forging close partnerships with authoritarian states such as Russia and China. On the other hand, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his opposition bloc advocated a return to a parliamentary regime, restoration of the conventional Western-oriented foreign policy, implementation of democratic and secular policies inside, revitalization of Türkiye’s bid for European Union (EU) membership in addition to renegotiated terms for Customs Union and the Syrian immigrants deal, and a democratic negotiation process involving all stakeholders in determining the future of Kurds and the Eastern Mediterranean Question.

Secondly, 2023 Turkish elections had quickly transformed into a battleground between the West and the East over the future trajectory of Türkiye. While Russia, along with other authoritarian regimes, openly backed President Erdoğan and even delayed Türkiye’s natural gas debt to Moscow to bolster his prospects before the election, the United States (U.S.) and the EU also exhibited a clear preference for the opposition to emerge victorious in the polls. Prior to becoming the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden even stated that democratic means should be employed to topple Erdoğan by supporting the opposition.

Thirdly, Turkish elections were not conducted in a standardized democratic context. The competition took place between highly polarized social groups forming two large political blocs and the victory of one side was largely perceived as the beginning of a new period of political pressures and legal sanctioning of the other. President Erdoğan and his bloc, in particular, were seen as fighting for their survival against an opposition that sought to punish the regime’s controversial and unjustified actions over the past 21 years.

To commemorate and in a sense immortalize these critical Presidential and parliamentary elections on the 100th year anniversary of Türkiye and to make a new contribution to growing academic literature on Turkish Politics, in this book, I tried to collect my articles written on 2023 Turkish elections in Uluslararası Politika Akademisi/International Political Academy (politikaakademisi.org) platform starting from 2019. The book starts with articles about the local elections in Türkiye in 2019, which led to the flourishing of high hopes on the opposition to topple down the government after winning the municipalities of three biggest cities of the country. The book continues with the most important political developments taking place in Türkiye since then and ends with the concluding comments and analyses on the results of 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections as well as some post-election developments.

I hope the book will reach the audience and will help future generations to remember this critical and special year in Turkish political history.

Lastly, I want to dedicate this book to my newborn daughter Lina Su Örmeci…

Ozan ÖRMECİ

20.09.2023

Kartal, Istanbul