Erdogan vows ‘no break’ in operations against Kurd rebels

In this month’s election, he managed to replace those lost votes with nationalist voters who are frightened of a Kurdish secession and simple souls who just want stability and peace – but he had to start a war to win them over.

He aims to transform the previously ceremonial office into that of a chief executive, a Turkish take on a Russian or U.S.-style presidency.

With its 316 seats in Parliament, the AKP can now form a single-party government but it still doesn’t have the supermajority necessary to remake the Constitution.

Turkey could hold a referendum on constitutional changes for a new political system, reviving a highly contentious push to increase the powers of the president, an aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said. Turks paid no heed to the “sensitivities” of the West and the parties of the opposition, and voted in favor of stability even if this is achieved by methods that are extremely autocratic.

Erdoğan, who has been in power in Turkey for a decade now – most recently as president of the republic, but previously as prime minister – has treated this set of parliamentary elections, with the original round taking place back in June, as a referendum on his plans for what he calls a “New Turkey”.

“We say that every issue can be discussed”. Wednesday’s speech suggested not.

Three Kurdish rebels also died on Tuesday after clashes erupted with security forces in two areas of the restive southeast, the first reported deaths in PKK ranks since the election. Hundreds have since died.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Turkish military said two soldiers and 15 PKK militants have been killed in the fresh wave of clashes between the two sides that broke out in the Daglica district of Hakkari Province, near the Iraqi border, a day earlier. In the town of Silvan, militants of the PKK’s youth wing dug trenches to keep police out of a few areas and a 22-year-old man was shot dead, security sources said.

The people who loathe Erdogan because he is destroying Turkey’s free media, perverting its criminal justice system and robbing the state blind – he and his AK colleagues have been enthusiastically feathering their nests – will not turn to violence.

While the party fell short of the super-majority it would need to change the constitution unopposed, it won 317 of 550 seats, only 13 short of the number needed to call a referendum on constitutional changes. The consequences of the AK Party’s victory are likely to be enormous, for Turkey, the region, and possibly for Europe, Russian Federation and the United States as well.

Mr. Erdogan appealed to opposition parties to aid in producing a democratic charter in parliament’s next session, warning his political rivals that voters would punish them at elections in four years if they try to block an AKP-led effort.

His spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, rejected suggestions that the proposed change was simply an attempt to grab power. In fact, the outcome is seen as personal victory for the President.

“He is already a strong leader constitutionally and has already passed into history”.

“But in the absence of institutions that would ensure the checks and balances critical for running a presidential system, it makes sense to worry that Turkey may move in the direction of authoritarianism”, said Kemal Kirisci of the Brookings Institution.

Turkey will continue its “open-door” policy towards Syrian refugees, whether or not the European Union provides financial assistance, said Kalin.