​AKP-MHP suspend alliance, as Erdogan rips apart Saudi account of Khashoggi murder

TURKEY - In Brief 23 Oct 2018 by Atilla Yesilada

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Let’s put first things first.Tuesday witnessed a monumental development in Turkish politics, as MHP leader Mr. Bahceli broke off the alliance in upcoming March local elections with AKP. While the status of the broader alliance is up in the air, as far as I am concerned, it has ended in practice, too.There are several reasons for the sudden break-up, which need to be explored more fully in the coming days. It appears that AKP and MHP believe they can do better in terms of capturing municipalities by fielding their own candidates. MHP has serious qualms about its rank and file and voters not receiving their fair share of state rant.Yet, the disagreements in principle loom larger. Mr. Erdogan may have grown wary of nationalism, which has alienated his considerable Kurdish base, as well as some of the conservative voters. Returning to practical matters, I expect MHP to throw obstacles in the way of AKP in the Grand Assembly, such as delaying or blocking the 2019 budget, until its pet project, the criminal amnesty, receives support. As far as local elections go, all the polls I have access to herald the rise of MHP, attended by a migration of marginally attached AKP constituencies to the party. It is too early to render judgment on local elections, where the personality of the candidates is as important as party politics, but it is clear that an MHP contesting races hard could lead to both parties losing out to rivals CHP-IYIP. Finally, there are some reports of AKP charting a course towards pro-Kurdish Rights HDP, for which the concrete signal will be the release of its former chairman Mr. Demirtas from prison. In his Tuesday address to the AKP parliamentary caucus, Presid...