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Erdogan takes a huge hit in Turkey's elections


Hornius Emeritus

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This is pretty big news:

 

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“It’s a catastrophe for him,” said Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “We now know he is not invincible.”

Turkey’s weakened economy, which had rapidly expanded for years under Mr. Erdogan, was at the top of voters’ concerns, despite Mr. Erdogan’s exhortations that the problems are not of his making. The country tumbled into a recession in March. Unemployment exceeds 10 percent, and up to 30 percent among young people. The Turkish lira lost 28 percent of its value in 2018 and continues to weaken. Inflation has reached 20 percent.


 

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Mr. Erdogan has become increasingly aloof over the years, surrounded in his vast presidential palace by a smaller and smaller circle of aides and ministers.

Yet political analysts were in little doubt that he made the decision to allow the true results for the Istanbul vote to be released Monday morning in order to protect his own electoral legacy.

“Erdogan is not a crazy person, he is intelligent,” Ms. Kocoglu said.

Ms. Aydintasbas said Mr. Erdogan, who has always drawn legitimacy from the ballot box, would have seen it was impossible to alter the result. “There was no real way,” she said. “They did not find a way of doing it without losing legitimacy.”





https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/world/europe/turkey-erdogan-election-loss.html

Edited by Hornius Emeritus
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32 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

fuck that cocksucker

Breaking the Lenten fast from here to say motherfucking this. So happy to see the CHP win big. Fuck Erdogan and fuck political Islam. My hero is Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and my political philosophy is based on Turkish and French style laicite. Long live Ataturk and secular Turkey. My hero had hijabs ripped off the heads of women to bring his country into modernity. That is your historical legacy Turkey! Reclaim it, send Islam back to the gutter where it belongs.

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11 hours ago, Iconoclast Texan said:

Breaking the Lenten fast from here to say motherfucking this. So happy to see the CHP win big. Fuck Erdogan and fuck political Islam. My hero is Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and my political philosophy is based on Turkish and French style laicite. Long live Ataturk and secular Turkey. My hero had hijabs ripped off the heads of women to bring his country into modernity. That is your historical legacy Turkey! Reclaim it, send Islam back to the gutter where it belongs.

It's funny how your secular political philosophy doesn't seem to extend to America.

Edit: I'd even go so far as to say your condemnation of Islam as a "gutter" religion exposes your extreme lack of « laïcité ».

Edited by bolverk
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Back to the notion of « laïcité », I'd also like to point out (as someone who actually attended a French public high school) that secularism extends to all religions. For example, just as the hijab cannot be worn in classrooms neither can the cross. Moreover, sporting such religious signifiers in public are generally frowned upon by most citoyens. 

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1 hour ago, bolverk said:

It's funny how your secular political philosophy doesn't seem to extend to America.

Edit: I'd even go so far as to say your condemnation of Islam as a "gutter" religion exposes your extreme lack of « laïcité ».

How so? Separation of church and state is one of my bedrock political philosophies. I have never advocated or supported social conservative positions trying to inject religion into the public sphere here or on shaggy. Separation of church and state is endorsed by Jesus himself and I have seen my ancestral homeland suffer from mullah fascism. Mixing religion and the state taints both and my faith and the faith of others should not impact the public sphere with specific laws catering to misguided social conservative norms. Finally, you do not seem to grasp that laïcité both in France and Turkey was based on strong anticlerical philosophies and both are applicable to all religions - it is just that they attack the dominant religions in each respective country, Catholicism in France and Islam in Turkey. Ataturk is a hero of mine for many reasons, one of which is that he abolished the Caliphate. I celebrate that victory for humanity on every March 3rd with a stiff drink and lots of bacon. Ataturk hated Islam as much as I do.

Edited by Iconoclast Texan
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23 minutes ago, Iconoclast Texan said:

How so? Separation of church and state is one of my bedrock political philosophies. I have never advocated or supported social conservative positions trying to inject religion into the public sphere here or on shaggy. Separation of church and state is endorsed by Jesus himself and I have seen my ancestral homeland suffer from mullah fascism. Mixing religion and the state taints both and my faith and the faith of others should not impact the public sphere with specific laws catering to misguided social conservative norms. Finally, you do not seem to grasp that laïcité both in France and Turkey was based on strong anticlerical philosophies and both are applicable to all religions - it is just that they attack the dominant religions in each respective country, Catholicism in France and Islam in Turkey. Ataturk is a hero of mine for many reasons, one of which is that he abolished the Caliphate. I celebrate that victory for humanity on every March 3rd with a stiff drink and lots of bacon. Ataturk hated Islam as much as I do.

Pardon my perception of your support for evangelicals as an endorsement of fundamentalist Christian doctrine to be a bedrock of American political principles.

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35 minutes ago, Iconoclast Texan said:

How so? Separation of church and state is one of my bedrock political philosophies. I have never advocated or supported social conservative positions trying to inject religion into the public sphere here or on shaggy. Separation of church and state is endorsed by Jesus himself and I have seen my ancestral homeland suffer from mullah fascism. Mixing religion and the state taints both and my faith and the faith of others should not impact the public sphere with specific laws catering to misguided social conservative norms. Finally, you do not seem to grasp that laïcité both in France and Turkey was based on strong anticlerical philosophies and both are applicable to all religions - it is just that they attack the dominant religions in each respective country, Catholicism in France and Islam in Turkey. Ataturk is a hero of mine for many reasons, one of which is that he abolished the Caliphate. I celebrate that victory for humanity on every March 3rd with a stiff drink and lots of bacon. Ataturk hated Islam as much as I do.

Weren't you giving up CR for lent? It sure as fuck isn't easter yet do you want me to help you out by removing your access?

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Man what a fall from grace for Turkey. I lived outside Adana from 93-96 when dad was stationed at Incirlik, including a year off base where we had free roam of the village...I’d ride my bicycle down to ‘the alley’ to haggle at ‘Sony’ to buy a puzzle box, stop at ‘BP2’ to buy a Pilich Durum for lunch with zero problems. It was moderate, friendly and quiet.

Biggest problem then was massive inflation for the lira and the occasional PKK attack on voting locations.

Now, as an adult, I’ve basically given up any hope of ever going back.

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1 hour ago, immamac said:

Weren't you giving up CR for lent? It sure as fuck isn't easter yet do you want me to help you out by removing your access?

Yes I cheated like if I had had a donut on the sly after saying I’d give it up. Sure thing remove my posting privileges from the CR until Easter

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Maybe the populist wave has crested...

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Istanbul mayoral re-run: Erdogan's ruling AKP set to lose

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Mr Imamoglu's lead of more than 775,000 votes marks a huge increase on his victory in March, when he won by just 13,000.

That's a good ole fashioned ass whoopin' right there.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48739256

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How did this happen?

I'm not questioning why public sentiment seems to be turning against Erdogan and his party. I'm questioning what happened to his grip on power.

First this, and then the protests in Hong Kong and Moscow. Maybe the autocrats aren't winning?

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