“At first glance one can say that behind the decision for early elections there are economic reasons. The slump of the Turkish lira in recent weeks, the freezing of investments and the slowdown in markets have made it imperative to renew trust,” said Bilgi University sociology professor Ayhan Aktar.
The professor spoke to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) explaining the reasons President Recep Tayyip Erdogan caught everyone off guard by calling premature elections in Turkey.
“We can say that local and foreign investors, depending on the election result, will revise their decisions,” Aktar said. “But in my view the pressures on the economy are not sufficient to explain the decision of surprise elections. Recently an amendment passed in parliament allowing party alliances in the elections. The main opposition, the Republican Party, has appealed to the Constitutional Court and is seeking its annulment.”
“If the Constitutional Court does take such a decision, things in the presidential election will not be so easy for (Erdogan’s) Justice and Development Party,” the Turkish academic continued. “It will be harder to win the elections without an alliance. In the event that he can not form an alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party, it may be impossible for Erdogan to be elected. In my view, one of the important reasons behind the decision to call an unexpected election is to do it quickly so that Constitutional Court decision will no longer be valid.”
The fission between parties has also played an important role, especially in the opposition parties, the Turkish professor told ANA.
“There were rumors that the opposition parties could put forward former Democrat Abdullah Gul as candidate. In the event of such a scenario, elections would be difficult for the Justice and Development Party. In my opinion, these rumors may also be related to this decision,” he said.
Speaking about Greece-Turkey relations, Aktar said that he does not believe the early elections will have a significant impact on the relations between the two countries.
Source: http://greece.greekreporter.com/category/greek-news/tourism/