Turkish snap election, June 2018

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Why exactly is Thrace so CHP anyway? It's fairly rural iirc.

Main divisions in Turkish electoral politics aren't urban/rural (that's a comforting myth put out by urban middle class opponents of the regime and recycled in the international press without checking) but cultural. Areas that saw significant population exchanges/ethnic cleansing/resettlement during the transition from Empire to Republic are usually very loyal to the CHP or at least have large numbers of people who are; areas with more settled populations now vote solidly AKP. And people from the latter take their voting habits to them when/if they move to the cities: this is why the AKP is dominant in the Istanbul slums.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Incidentally, this is why those Turkish citizens in the diaspora who vote in Turkish elections vote solidly AKP unless Kurdish: they are themselves (or their families are) overwhelmingly from the Anatolian interior. I also have to take issue with the assertion that a member of the diaspora who bothers to fill out a ballot for the AKP is necessarily 'poorly integrated' or hostile to European liberal norms: it's rather telling that attempts to create AKP Abroad type parties in the relevant countries have fallen flat, except for the Netherlands. I think the situation is more like that with British Hindus, who at present overwhelmingly support the BJP for reasons of sentiment and group identity.