President Erdogan, campaigned with the slogan “it’s me or chaos”, and not even a part of the ballet but this President has much to gain with the results of the most recent election on November 1st.   The ruling Justice and Development party, or AKP, won more than 49 percent of the vote in the election Sunday, almost double that of the next party. The win restored the party’s single-party majority that it had lost in a June election.

The Islamist-leaning AKP party won 317 of the 550 seats in parliament but was short the seats needed to  call a referendum on changing the constitution and increasing the powers of the president.  Critics of the election feel it is only time before President Erdogan finds away in parliament for his presidential powers to increase.   

The leader of the HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, said: “This wasn’t a fair election. We could not campaign because we had to protect our people from a massacre.”

The HDP had suspended campaigning after the bombing in Ankara.

According to the BBC, European powers especially those in the EU are hoping that with the elections over they can gain cooperation from Turkey in the enormous refugee crisis faced by every European and middle east country.  These European leaders, in private, are highly critical of President Erdogan and his record on protecting human rights and the rule of law but feel that Turkey is pivotal in handling the crisis.  Erdogan is hoping to use this platform in order to gain access to the EU as a member.  

President Erdogan is demanding that the world recognize the results of this election saying, “The whole world must show respect. So far I haven’t seen such a maturity from the world.”