Kurdish Protesters Managed To Stop Election Cheating in Turkey
When the law fails to stop the ruling party from cheating, protests work. That’s the lesson Kurds in the city of Van, Turkey, learned during their local election this week.
The dispute between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and opposition Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) was the classic picture of strongman election tactics. And the local reaction showed what it looks like for people to successfully fight back.
Just before polls opened, authorities disqualified DEM candidate Abdullah Zeydan, because he had been convicted of terrorist propaganda for attending the funeral of Syrian Kurdish rebels. (Turkey considers most Kurdish rebels to be terrorists.) By mooting all the votes for the DEM, the government handed the election to an AKP flunkie who only won 27 percent of the vote.
The reaction from the streets was immediate and intense. The Financial Times reported that the unrest in Van sounded “exactly like a war here.” After days of mass protests, Turkey’s national election board reinstated Zeydan as the winner on Wednesday.
It wasn’t the first time that Turkish authorities tried to overturn the will of Kurdish voters. Over the past decade, the Turkish government appointed dozens of unelected “trustee mayors” in Kurdish-majority towns, claiming that the elected mayors were linked to terrorism. DEM itself was founded after authorities shut down the previous Kurdish-led party on terrorism charges.
But it may be the first time that protests managed to reverse the government’s decision. The reaction from the street was immediately, and DEM found allies outside of Kurdish areas. Turkey’s largest opposition faction, the liberal Republican People’s Party (CHP), joined in denouncing the government’s “completely lawless” move.
“In previous instances, the [non-Kurdish] opposition was not as vocal in terms of criticizing the government,” says Gonul Tol, director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute, a nonprofit research center in Washington, D.C. “The opposition [now] understands that the Kurdish vote is important, and they’re running on a platform of restoring Turkish democracy.”
Even though it gave some ground on the election, the Turkish government also took the opportunity to round up opponents. Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that authorities had arrested 340 people in Van and at solidarity rallies across the country for “illegal street protests on behalf of the Separatist Terrorist Organization,” using a catch-all term for Kurdish rebels.
“I want our dear nation to know that we will not tolerate any acts of terrorism,” Yerlikaya said in a statement. “I congratulate our heroic police officers who carried out the operations.”
All across Turk
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