AK Party electoral loss partially due to helping anti-Assad campaign: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with William Jones, with the Executive Intelligence Review, in Washington, to discuss the latest developments in Turkey following the weak electoral performance of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP).

This is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Why do you think President Erdogan failed to win in these elections?

Jones: There are a couple of things; the most obvious thing of course was he was pushing to create what he called a presidential system that is trying to limit the role of the parliament in what was a very blatant power grab to implement his view of creating a Turkey as not a modern secular state but as a modern Islamist state; and obviously there was a lot of opposition among the Turkish populace.

The system that Ataturk had put into place is still considered the most beneficial development that Turkey has had in years. They benefited from it economically as well as culturally. Turkey became a major force in the area partially because of that; Erdogan was going to change that in [a] very radical way.

But as we see today also, the other issue is the shift that occurred when Turkey then began to join the campaign against the Assad regime in Syria, which of course has created a tremendous economic turmoil in Turkey as well as tremendous turmoil in the region.

So, I think both of these things are now on the table, obviously he is not going to be able to push through his presidential reform and I think also there is going to have some re-thinking as to whether they will proceed with this campaign to try to eliminate the Assad regime in Syria.

Press TV: How much will Erdogan’s defeat to win an out-right majority in parliamentary elections and the fact that Erdogan may have to form a coalition with politicians that are against ISIL change Turkey’s overall policy towards ISIL?

Jones: Obviously, he is going to have to form a coalition with parties that are not in agreement with parts of his program; and I think that will require change, but some of the parties have said explicitly at least initially that they would not join the coalition; much of that may be just talk prior to negotiations; but I think if anything takes place, there is going to have to be some give-and-take on the part of the government itself and on the part of the president; and that would have to do with the internal plans that he had, the reforms that he had on his agenda, which I think will have to be scrapped, and a re-thinking of Turkey’s role in the region, particularly their role in this campaign, in this coalition to, overthrow the Assad regime in Syria.

HRM/HJL

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