Election Time in Turkey

It’s almost election day (June 12) and I for one am looking forward to not having the campaign vans drive by blaring campaign slogans and songs, as well as the leaflets littering the streets. The AK Party will win a third term, but whether or not it gets the “super majority” needed to rewrite the constitution (to even change the parliamentary system to to a presidential one, with the Sultan himself as leader, of course) remains to be seen. Most of my friends are unenthusiastically voting for CHP as a lesser of two evils option.

We even have a sex tape scandal! Here are some link a dinks for more information:

Turkey at the ballot box: What is at stake? (Al Jazeera)

Ottoman Fantasies (Michael Totten blog interview with local American writer who has some pretty good and nuanced insight into Turkish foreign policy. It’s not about the election but a good primer)

Turkey: Sex Tape Scandal Impacting Upcoming Election (From Eurasianet — trust me the videos aren’t juicy at all. Don’t bother Googling)