We should congratulate the AKP for its loss in the Istanbul election

The loss is especially bitter for the AKP, given it was Mr. Erdogan himself who stated several years ago that “whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey”.  Opposition supporters are celebrating en masse now.  They hope that the AKP’s defeat in Turkey’s megalopolis, won with a positive, hopeful message from Imamoglu, sets the stage for finally displacing almost two decades of AKP hegemony.

To be honest, this columnist did not expect Mr. Erdogan or his party to allow the opposition to win Istanbul. The re-run of the Istanbul poll itself appeared quite illegitimate, following pressure exerted by president Erdogan on Turkey’s electoral council to annul the earlier CHP Istanbul victory in March. This column on April 10, even ran the headline of “Turks can vote – as long as it’s for the AKP.”

  
At the time, I wrote that “The electoral campaigns are thus always full of sound and fury, even as they signify nothing… That the opposition was still able to win Istanbul despite…irregularities, a government dominated media that gives the opposition virtually no air time, the movement of large numbers of security forces to swing electoral districts (where they vote for the ruling party) and other shenanigans is a small miracle. A miracle that will not be allowed to stand, of course, with re-do elections in Istanbul slated for June.”

Now that the June re-run election resulted in a decisive opposition victory, I am extremely pleased to admit my error.  Democracy still has a pulse in Turkey.  I look forward to being wrong again in future, more important parliamentary elections in Turkey as well.  

Despite all the Turkish institutions eviscerated by Mr. Erdogan, despite his government’s control of some 95% of Turkish media, despite the gutting of judicial independence in the country, and despite the arrest and incarceration of hundreds of thousands of political opponents in Turkey, a shadow of democracy somehow limps on.

For this Mr. Erdogan and his party should be congratulated.  Simply put, they allowed the opposition to win a significant victory and Turkey’s future instantly became brighter for it.  It took little time following the announcement of preliminary electoral results for both Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Yildirim to concede, with Erdogan tweeting “I congratulate Ekrem Imamoglu who has won the election based on preliminary results.”

The AKP government might also consider restoring Turkey’s legal system and abolishing laws prone to political abuse now, with a view to a day in the future when they might no longer rule the country.  For an electoral democratic system to remain healthy, the opposition needs some assurances that they will not face undue harassment. 

The AKP might start with getting rid of overly ambiguous laws against “spreading terrorist propaganda.”  These laws have been used by Mr. Erdogan to jail hundreds of thousands of opponents.  In the case of Kurds in Turkey, thousands were imprisoned for calling for an end to Syria’s offensive in the Afrin region of Syria, with prosecutors claiming they were repeating a peace call by Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan and therefore “spreading terrorist propaganda.”

Just before Sunday’s re-do election in Istanbul, however, pro-government media and high government officials brandished a letter written by Mr. Ocalan from his prison cell calling on his [mostly Kurdish] supporters to not take sides in the Istanbul election.  This contradicted a statement from former Peace and Democracy (BPD) co-chair Selahattin Demirtas (also made from a prison cell in a different Turkish prison) calling on supporters to back CHP candidate Imamoglu. 

By referring to Ocalan’s statement to buttress their political outlook in Istanbul, Mr. Erdogan and his AKP appear as guilty of “spreading terrorist propaganda” as anyone else they imprisoned for this crime. They can therefore apply the law now and arrest themselves, or abolish it and free the countless innocent political prisoners in Turkey.  

The latter course of action should make the AKP’s time in opposition, should that day ever come, much more comfortable.