Turkologist: Failure of Erdogan`s party in the local elections in the  major cities of Turkey  is an evidence of an intra-government crisis

ArmInfo. Failure of the Justice and Development Party in the local elections in the major cities of Turkey indicates that there is an internal political crisis in the  country, which will become a definite stimulus for activation of the  opposition forces in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential  elections in November 2019.  Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies  at Yerevan State University, Turkologist Ruben Melkonyan expressed  this opinion to ArmInfo.

To recall, on March 31 in Turkey 13 political parties run in  elections to local governments. The ruling Justice and Development  Party of Recep Erdogan won the elections in the whole country,  however it lost in 21 provinces, including such large cities as  Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana and Antalya.  "Given Erdogan's  political past, he himself got into politics, winning local elections  and becoming the mayor of Istanbul, these elections are of great  importance for the Turkish president. This is a kind of indicator.  That is why, in general, the recent local elections were highly  politicized and, undoubtedly, went beyond the various problems of  local self-government.

It doesn't matter that AKP defeat in Istanbul,  is not finally clear,  given the ruling party's protest against the election results, "he  said. AKP appealed to the country's Supreme Electoral Council (YSK)  requesting a recount in Istanbul and in other large cities. At the  same time, the Council refuses to consider similar applications from  the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the south-east of  the country. Moreover, YSK refused to provide the document necessary  for the official assumption of office to several elected mayors and  councilors from the HDP.

The defeat of the AKP candidate in Ankara and, possibly, in Istanbul,  the turkologist explains  by the fact that these <capitals>  have  ideological congeniality with the ideas of the secularism of the  creator of New Turkey Kemal Ataturk. Meanwhile, the secularism and  even the figure of Mustafa Kemal is unacceptable for the current, in  fact, Islamist government.

"Against this background, the success of the Kemalist People's  Republican Party in the large Turkish cities doesn't cause much  surprise. This party has extensive representation and political cells  in all of them. By adding to this skillful election campaign and a  representative candidate, you can completely fix the success,"  concluded Melkonyan.