Vahram Ter-Matevosyan: Erdogan at One Point Can Turn to Kurds to Get Their Support

• 02.21.2015, 23:50
•  Region,  World

"Armedia" Information, Analytical Agency spoke with Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the National Academy of Sciences, historian Vahram Ter-Matevosyan on the upcoming presidential elections in Turkey. The historian called these elections in Turkey to be one of the defining elections for Erdogan. "We all know that Erdogan has long-term political goals and he wants to turn the Turkish political system into presidential one. He has been pushing this idea for some time now. All his plans and megaprojects, his ambitions will just cease to exist if his party fails to pass the necessary election threshold. If his party fails to overcome 330 votes in the Parliament, the Turkish politics will get into another phase of instability."

 Vahram Ter-Matevosyan mentioned that the upcoming elections are also a proof how mature the Turkish opposition has become since the last elections. According to him there is not much room for optimism for the Turkish political opposition. The historian stated that it would be interesting to see how Kurdish politicians would perform in the elections. "I guess this is going to be a big task for them. A huge question is whether Kurdish political parties will be able to overcome the 10 percent threshold or not. If they succeed in overcoming then it is going to have an effect of revolution in Turkish political history because it is going to be the first time that a Kurdish political party will be able to enter the Parliament and become a fraction within the Parliament." According to Vahram Ter-Matevosyan if the Kurdish parties succeed in gaining more than 10 percent of the votes, then it  will seriously undermine the chances of the opposition parties. From this perspective, he called these elections - the elections of Erdogan and Kurds, because it is going to be critical for both of them. "I suspect that Erdogan at one point can turn to Kurds to get their support and to get to the Constitutional changes that he has been so much aspiring," – concluded the historian.