Issues and developments during the Turkish general elections

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) abandoned an inter-party commission tasked with writing a new charter on Feb. 16 over the presidential system debate.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) "is against all decisions to plunge Turkey into war," its leader has said.

"[Prime Minister] Ahmet Davuto?lu said 'the CHP should choose its side.' As was the case in the March 1, 2003 motion, the CHP is against all decisions to plunge Turkey into war," Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu wrote on Feb. 14 on his Twitter account.

Efforts for a new constitution that will be launched by a panel gathered by Parliamentary Speaker ?smail Kahraman should focus on removing coup-era laws from the Turkish judiciary, according to the head of the country's main opposition party. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's recent attack against academics - who signed a petition condemning military operations in Kurdish cities and calling for peace and negotiations - is yet another banal expression of the authoritarian politics that have long prevailed in Turkey under Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule. All authoritarian regimes are anti-intellectual and this tendency intensi

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu has called on the government to implement the local autonomy criteria outlined in the Council of Europe charter, to which Turkey is a signatory, amid a push for autonomy in Southeast Anatolia.

The Justice and Development Party's (AKP) controversial former Istanbul MP Abdurrahim Boynukal?n, who delivered a fiery speech addressing hundreds of protesters who attacked daily Hürriyet on Sept. 6, has been appointed deputy minister of youth and sports. 

The co-chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has chastised both the European Union and the U.S. administration for their approach to the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) style of governance, accusing the EU of covering up the Turkish government's crimes and U.S. President Barack Obama of recognizing President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's de facto change of the country's regime.

In initial remarks in response to a European Commission progress report which urged Turkey to re-launch a process aimed at ending the three-decade-long fight between security forces and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the country's ruling party has strictly refused the report's wording on the issue, suggesting the EU has apparently been "influenced by the language used

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirta? has said there was "no change" in his party's stance opposing a transition of the Turkish government from the current parliamentarian system to a presidential one, nor was there any cause for such a shift. 

Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu and Justice and Development Party (AKP) spokesman Ömer Çelik are treading cautiously and refraining from triumphalist outbursts following their landslide victory in the Nov. 1 elections.