Turkish unrest mounts amid political uncertainty

Gunmen fired on police outside an Istanbul palace and a bomb killed eight soldiers in Turkey’s southeast on Wednesday, heightening a sense of crisis as Turkey’s leaders struggled to form a new government. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country was heading rapidly towards snap polls after efforts to form a coalition government failed, creating an unprecedented situation in the country’s modern history. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its overall majority in the June 7 polls for the first time since it came to power in 2002, forcing it to seek a coalition partner. Under the constitution, the president should now be obliged to give a mandate to form a coalition government to the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which came second in the election. But Erdogan on Wednesday hinted that he would not do so, just days ahead of an August 23 deadline to form a new government.

We are once again swiftly heading towards an election.

President Tayyip Erdogan

The political drama comes as the government wages an unprecedented “anti-terror” offensive against jihadists and Kurdish militants, although it vehemently denies the strikes were launched in the hope of giving the AKP a boost at the ballot box. In the latest violence, eight Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack blamed on the PKK in the southeastern Siirt province, the army said. In some cities in Kurdish majority southeast curfew was declared after spiraling violence. Meanwhile, a senior cabinet minister declared Wednesday he wished to become a “martyr” as the government fights an unprecedented offensive against Kurdish rebels, prompting astonishment and mockery on social media.

My goal is to be martyred, if Allah desires, for my religion, my nation and my country.

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz

Politics turkey