Free Republic

ISTANBUL — Turkish voters delivered a rebuke on Sunday to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as his party lost its majority in Parliament in a historic election that dealt a blow to his ambition to rewrite Turkey’s Constitution and increase his power. The election results represented a significant setback to Mr. Erdogan, an Islamist who has steadily increased his power as president, a partly but not solely ceremonial post. After more than a decade as prime minister, Mr. Erdogan has pushed for more control of the judiciary and cracked down on any form of criticism, including prosecutions of those who insult...

The mould-breaking outcome of TurkeyÂ’s general election on Sunday will be viewed as a personal rebuff for the president, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, and as a historic political breakthrough for the countryÂ’s 18 million-strong Kurdish minority, which will be represented by a political party in parliament for the first time.

More than 53.7 million Turkish voters head to the polls on June 7 for a crucial parliamentary election. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has framed the June 7 election in Turkey as a key hurdle on the path to the powerful presidential system that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to introduce. With about 99 percent of the vote counted and despite being well ahead of other parties with the support of around 42 percent of the populace, the AKP seemed set to received fewer than 276 seats – the bare minimum to keep its parliamentary majority. The Kurdish...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suffered a serious setback in the parliamentary elections Sunday, according to initial reports. Four hours after the ballots closed, it appeared that Erdogan's AKP party will not have the required majority for passing reforms in the Turkish constitution. With 90% of the votes counted, the Kurdish HDP party received about 11% of the votes, according to Turkish-language CNN. This places it past the 10% threshold required for entering parliament and would give it about 80 MPs. The party has never before passed the threshold. According to reports, AKP received 42 or 43% of the...