President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey has said the country is entering an uncertain period of coalition government after his 13-year-old reign of solid majorities for the Justice and Development party (AKP) was ended by a stunning voter backlash against his increasingly authoritarian rule. 
 
 Election result heralds a new Turkey, but not the one Erdoğan wanted Read more 
 
 “Our nation’s opinion is above everything else,” Erdoğan said in his first public reaction to the parliamentary elections on Sunday that represented a watershed by shaving nearly 10 points from the governing party and putting a liberal pro-Kurdish party in parliament in Ankara for the first time. 
 
 Erdoğan’s conciliatory tone contrasted sharply with the highly polarising language he used during the campaign. 
 
 He said no party had won a mandate to govern alone and urged all political parties to work towards preserving an environment of confidence and stability in the country. 
 
 Coalition talks will dominate the coming weeks in Turkey after voters snubbed the president’s plans to change the constitution and extend his grip on power, delivering the biggest blow to the AKP since it swept to power in 2002. 
 
 The election result wrecked Erdoğan’s ambition of rewriting the constitution to establish himself as an all-powerful executive president, while the country’s large Kurdish minority has been granted its biggest voice ever in national politics. 
 
 “I believe the results, which do not give the opportunity to any party to form a single-party government, will be assessed healthily and realistically by every party.” 
 
 Turkey election results: what you need to know Read more 
 
 The election breakthrough for the leftist HDP, a new party largely representing the Kurds but also encompassing liberals nationally, was greeted with wild celebrations in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir in south-eastern Turkey. Cars paraded through the city with drivers honking and people hanging out from windows making ‘V’ signs as occasional gunshots were fired into the air. 
 
 
 
 The results will give the Kurds – who, with 20% of Turkey’s population, are the country’s biggest minority – true representation in parliament. The HDP surpassed the steep 10% threshold for entering parliament to take more than 12% of the vote and around 80 seats in the 550-strong chamber. The party’s result also denied Erdoğan’s AKP its majority. 
 
 The 10% hurdle, dating from the military-authored constitution of 1980, had been intended in part to diminish Kurdish representation in the parliament. 
 
 Sunday’s vote was the first time in four general elections to see a fall in support for Erdoğan. While the AKP comfortably managed to secure the biggest portion of the vote, its 41% share of seats represents a sharp drop from its performance the 2011 elections, when it won nearly half the national vote. For the first time since 2002, the AKP will need to form a coalition government or call new elections. 
 
 The government’s deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmus, told reporters he was confident that his party would form a coalition with one of the other three parties, calling the idea of a new election a “distant possibility.” 
 
 It remains unclear, however, who will be a likely partner for the AKP after the most likely candidate, the rightwing Nationalist Movement party (MHP) ruled out the possibility of a coalition. 
 
 According to the state-run Anadolu agency, the party leader, Devlet Bahceli, said the party was “ready to be a main opposition party” against an AKP-led coalition or minority government during a speech from party headquarters in Ankara early on Monday. 
 
 “Nobody has a right to drag Turkey into [AKP] minority and some circles’ scenarios,” said Bahceli. “A snap election will happen whenever it will happen.” He welcomed the election results, with his party gaining 31 seats in parliament. 
 
 Erdoğan to struggle on despite thumbs down from Turkey's electorate Read more 
 
 Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of the leftist HDP, and surprise star of this election, also dismissed any possibility of a coalition with the AKP. 
 
 “We will not form a coalition with the AKP. We stand behind our words. We will be in parliament as a strong opposition,” Demirtas said in a press conference in Istanbul on Sunday night. He added that the election results had clearly put an end to all plans of an executive presidency. 
 
 “As of this moment, the debate on the presidency, the debate about dictatorship, has come to an end in Turkey. Turkey has returned from the edge of a cliff,” he said. 
 
 Pro-government newspapers on Monday morning were already calling for early elections. “The ballot box revealed the ballot box”, read the headline of the conservateive daily Yeni Safak. 
 
 Burhan Kuzu, the AK party deputy and head of the parliamentary constitution commission, said snap elections were inevitable. “No government will emerge from this scenario. Not even a coalition,” he told BBC Türkçe. “Early elections look inevitable.” He added that the election results reflected the weakness of the parliamentary system. 
 
 “The parliamentary system is a curse for the whole world. In Turkey only majority governments ever worked, coalitions always destroyed it.” He said that the only solution would be an executive presidency. 
 
 New elections could be called any time in the next 45 days. 
 
 Official results based on 99.9% of votes counted put the AKP in the lead, followed by the Republican People’s party (CHP) on 25%, the MHP on 16.5% and the HDP in fourth place with 13%. Turnout was 86%. According to official projections, the AKP will have 258 seats in the 550-seat parliament, CHP 132, MHP 81 and HDP 79. 
 
 Turkey election 2015: Kurdish Obama is the country's bright new star Read more 
 
 The AKP has dominated Turkish politics since it first came to power in 2002, but has suffered from a dip in economic growth and controversy over Erdoğan’s perceived authoritarian tendencies. 
 
 The results wreck Erdoğan’s dream of agreeing a new constitution to switch Turkey from a parliamentary to a presidential system that he had made a fundamental issue in the campaign. Such a change would have required a two-thirds majority in the parliament. 
 
 Speaking from the balcony of AKP headquarters in Ankara – the traditional venue for the party’s victory speeches – the prime minister and party leader, Ahmet Davutoglu, sought to put a brave face on the results. “The winner of the election is again the AKP, there’s no doubt,” he said, pledging to ensure Turkey’s stability. But he added: “Our people’s decision is final. It’s above everything and we will act in line with it.” 
 
 But the atmosphere outside the AKP’s headquarters was muted. Several hundred supporters chanted for Erdoğan, the party’s founder, but there was little sign of the huge crowds that gathered after past election victories. 
 
 
 
 Erdogan’s divide-and-rule strategy of rallying his religious-conservative base has led to increasing polarisation in Turkey, and in some cases to violence. Erdoğan had repeatedly lashed out at the HDP and its charismatic leader Demirtaş before the elections. 
 
 The HDP ran on a platform defending the rights of ethnic minorities, women, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people - forming an electoral coalition between the Kurdish minority in Turkey’s south-east and liberals in Istanbul and elsewhere. 
 
 
 
 “This result shows that this country has had enough. Enough of Erdoğan and his anger,” said Seyran Demir, a 47-year-old who was among the thousands who gathered in the streets around the HDP’s provincial headquarters in Diyarbakir. “I am so full of joy that I can’t speak properly.” 
 
 “It is a carnival night,” said 47-year-old Huseyin Durmaz, a Kurd. “We no longer trust the AKP,” he said. 
 
 Another record was set by the number of women MPs set to take a seat in parliament after an unofficial tally estimated a total of 96 female parliamentarians securing a place in the Turkish grand national assembly – a record high and up from 79 in 2011. ||||| Men line up to vote in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. The acrimonious buildup to the parliamentary vote had raised fears of violence. 
 
 June 7, 2015 Men line up to vote in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. The acrimonious buildup to the parliamentary vote had raised fears of violence. Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Turkish voters delivered a dramatic blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice Development Party on Sunday, with results showing it losing its majority in parliament. 
 
 And, in a historic first, a party dominated by ethnic Kurds surged into the Grand National Assembly in Ankara, marking a new moment in the evolution of Turkey’s democracy as well as a direct challenge to Erdogan’s own ambitions to consolidate power as president. 
 
 “This is a nuclear explosion in Turkish politics,” said Bulent Aliriza, an expert in Turkey at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. 
 
 As uncertainty shrouded the make-up of a future government, Turkey’s main stock index fell by 8 percent and its currency, the lira, dropped to a record low against the dollar. 
 
 Erdogan had been seeking a supermajority to force through constitutional change, but according to the state Anadolu news agency, his center-right party, known by the Turkish abbreviation AKP, secured less than 41 percent of the vote with 99 percent of ballots counted. Although it is still the biggest party in the country, the AKP suffered its worst result since 2002. It was projected to lose its majority in parliament, an astonishing turn of events for a party that has dominated Turkish politics for almost a decade and a half. 
 
 Turkish Kurds take to the streets as their party wins enough votes to enter parliament for the first time, dealing a serious blow to the country’s ruling party. (Reuters) 
 
 The AKP was expected to fall far short of the 330 seats needed to force a national referendum on Erdogan’s plan to scrap Turkey’s parliamentary structure for a presidential system, with him at the top. 
 
 [Erdogan find ally in old Cold War nemesis] 
 
 “The nation’s decision is the best decision. Do not worry,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a cagey post-election speech. He was the face of the AKP’s election campaign, if not necessarily the figure pulling its strings. 
 
 The deciding factor in this election was the emergence of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, which came in fourth with 12 percent of the vote. For a political party to enter Turkey’s parliament, it has to pass a threshold of 10 percent of the total vote. The HDP did so and will command an estimated 78 seats in the 550-seat legislature, mostly won at the expense of the AKP. 
 
 It was a remarkable achievement for a party that was formed less than three years ago and has direct ties to the violent three-decade Kurdish separatist insurgency in Turkey’s southeast. The war between the militant Kurd­istan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and the Turkish state has claimed 40,000 lives since it first flared in the early 1980s. 
 
 “From now on, HDP is Turkey’s party. HDP is Turkey, Turkey is HDP,” the party’s leader, Selahattin Demirtas, said Sunday evening at a news conference in Istanbul. 
 
 The party framed itself as a leftist movement for all Turks and boasted a diverse slate of parliamentary candidates, including representatives of virtually all of Turkey’s major ethnic groups, a large number of women and the nation’s first openly gay candidate. 
 
 A supporter of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party holds a flag in Diyarbakir, Turkey, after elections on June 7. (Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 [Muslims beat Columbus to America and other Erdogan musings] 
 
 The HDP’s progressive agenda appealed to disgruntled urban voters who disliked the AKP and struggled to identify with the other main opposition parties — the secularist Republican People’s Party, or CHP, a staunchly republican party that walks in the shadow of Turkey’s founding father, Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, and the Nationalist Action Party, or MHP, which is “a stone’s throw away from fascist,” said Aaron Stein, an associate fellow at London’s RUSI think tank. 
 
 “The HDP represents the diversity of the minorities in Turkey and a real pluralist democracy,” said Laura Batalla, secretary general of Friends of Turkey, a unit attached to the European Parliament. 
 
 The HDP’s success, given the party’s origins, speaks to the maturing of Turkish democracy. Among the HDP’s parliamentarians are relatives of jailed or slain leaders of the PKK, an organization still considered a terrorist group by Washington and An­kara. Demirtas, the HDP’s charismatic icon, is believed to have a brother among the guerrillas. 
 
 For decades, Kurdish identity was suppressed by the Turkish state. Ironically, it was under Erdogan and the AKP that Kurds began to experience more cultural rights, including the freedom to speak and write in their own language. 
 
 It’s now “impossible to sideline Kurdish politics,” says Akin Unver, a professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. “Despite the civil war of the 1990s, Kurds have evolved politically and established a lasting legacy” on the Turkish national stage. 
 
 It is unclear what may follow. The three main opposition parties have so far ruled out entering into a coalition with the AKP, which may choose to attempt a minority government or enter a scenario where early elections are called. 
 
 Erdogan issued a careful statement on Monday, saying the “current situation” would be “evaluated healthily and realistically by all parties that have taken part in the race.” 
 
 Analysts believe Erdogan’s desire to assume further powers and eliminate checks and balances through an executive presidency badly backfired. 
 
 “Erdogan may have made the mistake of his political life by going for the presidency,” said Aliriza, instead of remaining as prime minister, a post he held from 2003 until last year. “If he had not decided to go for the presidency, we would now be discussing his record fourth electoral victory as prime minister.” 
 
 Under Erdogan’s rule, Turkey has transformed dramatically. 
 
 Reforms have lifted a new middle class and empowered a whole stratum of society outside the secular elites entrenched in the country’s western coastal cities. 
 
 In the Istanbul neighborhood of Kasimpasa, a traditionally lower-middle-class area and AKP stronghold where Erdogan was born, voters praised his years of rule. 
 
 “Thanks to Erdogan, so much has changed. There is prosperity and stability,” said Hafiza Aktas, who cast her ballot at a polling station in the primary school where Erdogan was a student. 
 
 Aktas said the AKP’s sweeping reforms of Turkey’s health system have been life-saving for her family. And, pointing to her red-and-black headscarf, she said the party has lifted decades of secularist suppression of the country’s devout Muslims. 
 
 “I can go everywhere now. I have real freedom,” said Aktas, referring to earlier bans on the wearing of headscarves at public institutions. 
 
 But the AKP has been hobbled by corruption scandals and anger about its increasing control over state institutions, as well as fatigue with Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian style. The party lost considerable votes in central and eastern Anatolia, usually a reliable base of support. Erdogan’s party no longer has a lock on the vision for Turkey’s future. 
 
 On Sunday morning, Demirtas cast his ballot at a school in Sultanbeyli, a working-class neighborhood in Istanbul with a large Kurdish population. 
 
 His arrival at the venue was like a rock star’s. The car carrying Demirtas was mobbed by supporters who chanted, clapped and cried in joy. Youths, some decked out in shirts and flags hailing Kurdistan, clambered onto fences and walls to catch a glimpse of their hero. 
 
 “Our leader is the greatest leader,” they chanted. 
 
 On the sidelines was Melek Karmaz, a Turkish woman who is married to a Kurd and held their child in her arms. 
 
 “There’s no difference between us. We all shed the same tears,” she said, referring to the suffering experienced during the years of the civil war. 
 
 “I am so proud to cast this vote as a Turk.” 
 
 Vildan Ay contributed to this report from Istanbul. 
 
 Read more 
 
 Is Turkey reaching a turning point? 
 
 Turkey’s Kurds find themselves on threshold of unprecedented power 
 
 For Turkey and U.S., at odds over Syria, a 60-year alliance shows signs of crumbling ||||| It may be that Erdogan simply overreached in the last few years. While he’s Turkey’s most popular and powerful leader in decades, his eagerness to expand his reach alienated voters, particularly urban and secular ones. He embarked on a $615 million white-elephant palace project, imprisoned and intimidated the press and his political opponents, tried to block YouTube and Twitter, and feuded with Fethullah Gulen, a religious leader who’d help bring him to power. Anger boiled over in the streets of Istanbul and elsewhere in 2013, sparked by protests over trying to turn a park in the city into a mall. Meanwhile, the economy sputtered. 
 
 Rounding out the rest of the vote on Sunday, the secular-nationalist Republican People’s Party (CHP) won 25 percent; the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) took 17 percent; and the HDP ended up at 12.5 percent. To change the constitution, the AKP would need 367 seats; a majority would have been 276. Instead, it’s projected to take 258. 
 
 An AKP official told Reuters, “We expect a minority government and an early election." The party could seek a coalition government instead, but its prospects aren’t great. The CHP, its main rival, and HDP have both ruled out coalitions—not that they were likely in the first place. The MHP seems like a more natural partner, but the AKP isn’t interested, the same official said glumly: "If there is an AKP-MHP coalition, then we will not be able to achieve even this level of votes at the next election.” 
 
 The party tried to play up fear of a return to the bad old days of coalition governments, instability, and coups as a way to earn support. The stability of the last decade has been one of Erdogan’s great selling points. But his wily political maneuvering means it’s tough to count him out yet. 
 
 Despite fears, the day of the election seemed generally calm. That hadn’t been true of the campaign. On Friday, an explosion at an HDP rally killed two and injured more than 100. The rally was in Diyarbakir, a southeastern, mostly Kurdish city. Authorities haven’t placed blame for the attack. 
 
 It’s almost hard to recall that only a few years ago, Erdogan, a moderate Islamist, was viewed by both Western allies and reformers in Arab countries as a model for Muslim democracy. As a NATO ally in the Middle East, he’s been an important part of various security questions. But as he seeks more power, Erdogan has feuded with Western countries, who no longer see him as the reliable and trustworthy ally they once did. He’s steadfastly refused to get involved in the Syrian civil war, though fighters have streamed across the Turkish border into that conflict, and fighting erupted just over the border in Kobani. Disapproval of his handling of that conflict help build support for the HDP. How large an effect the election has on Turkey’s role as a regional power remains to be seen. ||||| Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Two days before a referendum on extending the powers of Turkey's president, the leader of the main opposition party accuses President Erdogan of running scared from a public debate and calls on voters to back the 'No' campaign. Video provided by AFP Newslook 
 
 People walk in front of a stretch limousine with pictures of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reading, 'Always nation, of course Yes', in Ankara, Turkey, on April 11, 2017, ahead of Sunday's constitutional referendum. (Photo: Tumay Berkin, European Pressphoto Agency) 
 
 ISTANBUL — Sunday's constitutional referendum on granting broad new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has deeply divided Elif Koc's family, like many other Turks. The 18-year-old manicurist said her uncle opposes giving Erdogan so much authority, but she's voting for the change. 
 
 "That can lead us to be a better country,” said first-time voter Koc. 
 
 Whether a powerful presidency will lead to a better country is in sharp dispute. Supporters of the referendum say changing Erdogan's job from a largely ceremonial post to a position more akin to the U.S. presidency will improve the economy and provide Turkey a strong leader at a time of enormous challenges. A civil war in neighboring Syria has sent 3.5 million refugees into Turkey, terrorist attacks are on the rise, and conflict is growing with minority Kurds seeking autonomy. 
 
 “The economy will be stronger, growth will accelerate, there will be new jobs, we will cut the red tape, and the new system will eradicate terrorism,” Prime Minister Banali Yildirim, who would lose his job if the referendum succeeds, told a February rally in the capital, Ankara. 
 
 Those opposed to the change fear Erdogan would undermine Turkey's democracy and secular traditions and institute a religious authoritarianism regime in this mostly Muslim nation. They point to the government crackdown following an attempted military coup last year. 
 
 “It’s paving the way for a dictatorship,” said Ismail Gundogdu, 74, a retired banker. “It’s anti-democratic.” 
 
 Polls show a close contest with the "yes" campaign slightly ahead. 
 
 The outcome is not only vital to Turkey's future, but it also will have major ripple effects in Europe, the Middle East and dealings with the United States and NATO. The U.S. military has a strategic air base in Turkey that is used for operations throughout the Middle East, and the NATO member is a valued ally in the fight against the Islamic State and the defense of Europe. In addition, Turkey is trying to keep the tide of refugees fleeing Syria and other conflict zones from flooding Europe. 
 
 A more powerful Erdogan, who could be around at least another decade, worries European leaders who have expressed concerns about his move away from democracy. That has made the European Union less receptive to Turkey's bid to become a member. Erdogan also clashed with the Obama administration for not extraditing exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, a political rival living in Pennsylvania who the Turkish president says was behind the July coup attempt. 
 
 If voters approve the constitutional change, Erdogan could issue sweeping decrees without legislative approval, appoint his own cabinet and two-thirds of federal judges and have the authority to declare a state of emergency and dissolve parliament. Elected as prime minister in 2002 and president in 2014, Erdogan would have a chance to stand for re-election twice and remain in power until 2029 under the changes. 
 
 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves to supporters during a "Vote Yes" rally in Sanliurfa, Turkey. (Photo: European Pressphoto Agency) 
 
 Turkish pollster Murat Gezici said 18% of registered voters plan to boycott the referendum because they believe Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party will win, and that could become a self-fulfilling prophesy. “Participation is key,” Gezici said. 
 
 There are signs that the government is trying to silence open dissent. TV host Irfan Digermenci was fired for vowing on social media to vote "no," while other media personalities supporting the "yes" campaign kept their jobs. Ali Gul, a law student, was arrested on charges of insulting the president on social media after his comical video supporting a "no" vote went viral. A TV interview with Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, who wanted to explain his reasons for voting no, was canceled. 
 
 Erdogan and his party are mounting an intensive campaign. Ads featuring his photo cover billboards and high-rise buildings. Erdogan draws large crowds, even in Diyarbakir, a region where Turkish airstrikes have killed at least 340 civilians and displaced 355,000 people in the country's southeast Kurdish region in the past two years, according to Human Rights Watch. 
 
 People walk in front of an exhibition named "The leader of the century" by Turkish artist Faysal Bugday, consisting of pictures of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Subway station in Ankara, Turkey, on April 11, 2017. (Photo: Tumay Berkin, European Pressphoto Agency) 
 
 In Istanbul’s more secular neighborhoods, campaign ads exhorting citizens to vote "no" cover buildings. Turkish women’s rights activists, who fear a backlash against them for wearing Western clothing, have created a Women Say No group to campaign on the streets and in cafes. 
 
 Nicholas Danforth, a Turkey expert at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., said the country using a democratic election to install authoritarianism. “Erdogan's continued success is a frightening example of how illiberal populism can destroy democracy at the ballot box,” Danforth said. 
 
 “The best-case scenario would be a modicum of authoritarian stability,” Danforth said. “If the referendum wins narrowly amid allegations of fraud, the worst-case scenario would be mass protests met with a violent government crackdown." 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2on1bex
– "This is a nuclear explosion" is how an expert on Turkey puts it to the Washington Post. The country's ruling party today finds itself with few options to form a new government after it was stripped of its parliamentary majority and opposition parties ruled out joining it in a coalition pact. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP party won about 41% of the votes yesterday and was projected to take 258 seats—18 below the minimum required to rule alone and ending its 13-year single-party rule. As the New York Times reports, after more than a decade as PM, Erdogan was last year elected to the somewhat "ceremonial post" of president, and the result was a stunning rebuke to Erdogan's ambitions to expand his powers; his hopes of passing constitutional changes that would fashion more of an executive presidency, more akin to our own version, are on hold, reports the Atlantic. Turkey has 45 days in which to form a new government after final official results are confirmed, but all three opposition parties have come out against a coalition with the AKP. Turkey's main opposition party, CHP, suggested it should be given the task of forming a government. The liberal pro-Kurdish HDP party dealt the AKP its biggest setback by clearing for the first time the 10% threshold it needed to grab seats in parliament (it'll take about 80 of the chamber's 550). The Guardian frames the significance: "The results will give the Kurds—who, with 20% of Turkey's population, are the country's biggest minority—true representation in parliament. ... The 10% hurdle, dating from the military-authored constitution of 1980, had been intended in part to diminish Kurdish representation in the parliament."