​Has the final AKP-MHP counter-assault started?

TURKEY - In Brief 10 Nov 2021 by Atilla Yesilada

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I had closed my last mid-week update with an ominous warning: “Ancient taboos of Turkish politics are crumbling down, as events accelerate to light speed. Expect the unexpected”. There are tentative signs of AKP-MHP indeed launching a final counterattack on the opposition alliance and economic misery to regain their bastions.While since our last Weekly Tracker, chatter about early-early elections have risen moderately, I don’t wish to oversell my thesis. I’m not claiming a presumptive final assault is a harbinger of early-early elections. However, I’m comfortable claiming that political turbulence will reach unprecedented heights in winter months. The opposition Nation Alliance of 6 parties are advancing in the polls on the back of 3 major successes: In addition to closing on a broad constitutional and political reform proposal, constituents have formed a committee to develop a joint economic policy-reform agenda.Its sharp focus on poverty is resonating deeper with a nation, where so far Erdogan and the AKP administration failed to take any countermeasures.CHP leader Kilicdaroglu and IYIP leader Aksener are encroaching on the “comfort zones” of AKP-MHP, by pitching reconciliation to Islamist voters and promising to attack PKK headquarters in Qandil Mountains (Iraq-Iran border).CHP opposing the motion to authorize the Presidency to dispatch troops to foreign nations and IYIP refusing to demonize pro-Kurdish rights party HDP are depriving the governing Republican Alliance of policy legitimacy. AKP-MHP’s what I call the “final counter-attack” strategy has two pillars. The first is broad-based fiscal stimulus, or a social spending package to ameliorate poverty to some exte...