Haberler

Now, however, what the election results tell us is that this is not a very high “threshold.” At least a third of Turkish society is capable of behaving in extremely rational and common sense fashion, and it is this group that decides who is to govern.

I am not one of those who believe that the people never make any mistakes. But when I look at Turkish politics, what I see is that compared with the educated elites, those broad groups or sections of society that are commonly described as “the people” have long been far more reasonable, and individuals within that category have been acting in a far more rational and flexible way.

Over the past five months, a flexible and mobile section of the electorate appears to have lived and learned, through its own direct experience, that the AKP’s failure to form a government by itself may have drastic consequences for peace and stability, especially given that the opposition promises nothing but negativism and destruction.

Turkey now has the benefit of a very significant social push to cut across the adverse current that it entered after 7th June. In the days ahead life will be presenting us with a new equilibrium. We have to bet on the new social dynamics making for change.

At the point reached today, the AK Party has again pulled ahead at the end of a marathon of four elections in two years