A Reboot in Turkey

An airwaves-silent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, today mulls his next steps as the leader of the land of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, fresh off a self-assessing poor showing of his political party in Sunday's Parliamentary elections.

After bombarding Turkish radio and television with speeches as often as three-times-a-day leading up to the parliamentary elections, with a hope of attaining a two-thirds majority in the legislature so that he could be empowered to wield greater power, President Erdogan has remained virtually silent for the past 48-hours, hence fueling some media to establish a running-clock to time his period of silence after hearing a barrage of his speeches everyday heading into the elections.

Erdogan's silence could be understood as a quiet assessment of his Justice and Development Party's(AKP) failure to garnish the number of seats he wanted to enhance his powers over the legislature and over Turkey. Of the 550 seats, the AKP won 258 - 18 short of a majority to form a one-party government and well short of the expected two-thirds majority needed to change the Turkish Constitution.

However, Erdogan's failure to achieve the supremacy he desired is not indicative of any major revolt in Turkey, but of a stark reminder to the president that the people of Turkey - the artistic and the well educated, from Istanbul to Ankara, demand a sustained say in government and that government must remain with the people by the people.

Moreover, Erdogan's failure should also serve as notice that the electorate of Turkey has long changed from the submissive agrarian laborers and rights- deprived miners to include more dynamic culturally and internationally connected people of Turkish cities and Turkish hamlets. 

Therefore, President Erdogan should accept the Parliamentary election results as a reboot for Turkey - an event from which Turkey could continue to develop as a true democracy with cooperative politics and government of all the people including the Kurds and not as a nation powered by one man and his ideals constructed without consultation with the people.