Election fever! I'm not really a political guy, but since Turkey's magic elections are only a day away, I thought it would be a good idea to give this blog's foreign readers a brief photo-survey of the major parties involved. Welcome to the tangled world of Turkish politics, where the leftists act like rightists, the rightists act like rightists, and ersatz liberals defend ragheaded zealots...
Speaking of zealots, meet the AKP; the "Justice and Development Party". These guys are basically Machiavelian Islamists who use religion as a means to get more and more power, and in the last five years they have done everything in order to get more and more of it.Many (but not most,) Turkish people hate them with a lust that cannot be written down in words, even though they have done some good things like stabilizing the economy, opening Turkey to foreign development and flirting with the E.U. This poster says "Five years are not enough," but these jobless guys certainly seem to have had so.
CHP; the "Republican People's Party" is a strong centre-leftist party that is one of the AKP's biggest rivals. They see themselves as the vanguard of Turkey's secular/humanist ideals, which means that despite their inept leader, most people who don't lead lives as cattle will vote for them. Of course, such people may or may not be a majority in Turkey.
MHP; the "Nationalist Movement Party," is an even bigger challenger of the AKP since AKP's crazy populism, its pimp affair with the European Union, and the opening up of Turkish assets to foreign investment have ticked off many of Turkey's ultra-nationalists. There are real nazis among these guys, but I'd rather live under them than with the religious blightheads we have today. It's the lesser of two evils. Notice their slogan on the blue poster, which reads as "One answer, against the whole world!"
A more low-key right wing party, the DP ("Democratic Party") used to be known as DYP ("The Right Way Party") until less than three months ago. They tried to make an alliance with a similar party called ANAP ("Motherland Party") that later spectacularly fell apart. Which is a pity since had it been realized, the Voltron-DP would have been a formidable opponent against the AKP. Here their poster challenges us with a question: "To polarize? Or fraternize?" no doubt addressing the growing conflicts between the Kurds and the Turks, and the secular and religious masses.
Although the AKP are a bunch of zealots, they actually split off from an even more fanatical Islamist party back in 2001; the SP. ("The Felicity Party") In this election, however, they are actually a good element since their presence will cost votes to the AKP.
There was a time when leftism meant a reaction against nationalism, state dogmas and the like. But the leader of IP, Turkey's Workers' Party, breaks all stereotypes by acting like he's in the MHP (See above.) He's an ultra-rigid Kemalist, but also a socialist, but not like those godless commies because he also thinks that Mohammed was a socialist revolutionary. He's all for freedom of speech but he actively supports laws that make "insulting Turkishness" a crime. He also went to Switzerland to purposefully get charged by denying the Armenian genocide, and made a nationalist epic out of his trial.
More proper communists and angry college students can still vote for the TKP, the "Turkish Communist Party." Once persecuted by the government and enjoying the membership of intellectuals like Nazim Hikmet, now it exists as a political curiosity, more like a street poster art-gang than an actual party. Their leader once had grand plans like "not paying any of the country's debts to the imperialists" if they ever came to power.
This election will also be a big moment for independent regional candidates. There are many of them, ranging from Kurdish separatists in the east (who are not allowed to join parties,) to local business tycoons to odd leftist voices. One such candidate from the western half of Istanbul is Baskın Oran (his name literally means "dominant percentage" in Turkish,) a famous idealist who promises cherry-pink dreams such as "Turks will love Kurds, Kurds will love Armenians, Armenians will love the Gypsies, the Gypsies the Circassians, the Circassians the Alevis, the Alevis the unemployed, the unemployed the homosexuals" as seen on this poster.In theory this is fine, but in practice this twat will only waste away two-or-three thousand good votes that would be better off at the CHP, which defends roughly the same ideals. Too bad, since all the hot Cihangir and Bilgi University chicks will vote for him.
Besides them, there are also many other parties such as GP; the "Young Party", founded by Cem Uzan, (the Turkish equivalent of Rupert Murdoch) who managed to more than 7.5% of the votes vote in 90 days back in 2002,the DTP; the "Democratic Society Party" that advocates Kurdish secession under the veil of "democracy,"
the BBP, the "Great Union Party" which is made up of ultra-nationalist thugs, some of whom were among the murderers of Hrant Dink, and so on.
Actually, here is a more complete list. This photo shows the banner of a very obscure party called "The People's Rising Party." I don't have a clue on who their leaders, or what their plans are like.
Of course, you must never forget the Apoliticals, some of whom will not interrupt their precious summer vacations in order to vote. Yet other losers actually think it is cool not to vote because, like, no one represents them. I wonder if such fuckwits realize how hard people have struggled in every country to be able to vote equally.Here, Doritos ads mock the election by asking "Where's the Party?" Yeah dudes, just keep on rocking and leave the voting to the un-cool.
Despite everything, Turkey is preparing for not only the most pivotal, but also the most colorful election in her recent history. With even the smallest stickers on street corners turning into a battleground for different ideologies, who knows what tomorrow will bring?PS: This was obviously not a comprehensive nor an objective survey, but I hope it helps you get a grip on what's going on down here.
UPDATE!
Tha AKP won this election with a crushing %47 of all votes, so geçmiş olsun (get well soon) to everyone watching.
