Political Analysis #6

Some more thoughts on opposition structure

It’s the first day of Ramazan Bayramı (a.k.a. Eid al-Fitr) and I woke up extra early to get this newsletter to you!

Fun fact: in Kayseri, on the first day of bayram, the whole family will get together in the morning and eat yahni, which in this case is a chickpea-based dish. It’s not really breakfast food, so it’s weird to have it in the morning, and I think that’s what makes it special.

Yes, that’s breakfast today.

We’re from Kayseri by way of Izmir. One of my maternal great-grandfathers moved here in the late 1920s. When asked where they’re from, people from Kayseri like to respond by saying “not to brag, but I’m from Kayseri.” My grandfather loved that one. He passed away recently at the age of 97. This is going to be our first chickpea non-breakfast without him.

But without further ado, on to the politics!

The election was a big political earthquake, and the presidential palace has withdrawn to its inner sanctums, trying to decide what it means and how they’re going to respond.

It’s a tense time.

This happened after the June 7, elections in 2015, when the AK Party lost its parliamentary majority. It was dead quiet for a while, with lots of back-channel traffic. Then Erdoğan made up his mind and everything happened at once.