Page 224 - America's Failure to Perceive the PKK

It is now clear that the local elections of March 2014 meant some-
thing more for Turkey, than just local elections. The results of the
local elections, which came to represent a vote of confidence in the
wake of a year of various uprisings and turmoil, particularly the Gezi
Park protests, were of separate significance to each of the parties. In
the days that followed the Solution Process, especially with the guar-
antees given to the Kurdish people, the greatest expectation in the

context of the plans for development and regeneration of the South-
east, were that the ruling party or the opposition parties would
emerge victorious in the region. Yet that is not what happened.

The fact that BDP municipalities emerged victorious in all the
provinces of the Southeast and that the BDP
came out on top in cities where the AKP
and MHP had once been dominant, sent
a highly significant message. Efforts
were obviously being made to
seize the citadel from the

The communist groups also
benefited from the democratic
protests of environmentalist
youth groups during the Taksim
Gezi Park protests in 2013. The
th
local elections on March 30 ,
2014 seemed like a vote of
confidence after the protests. But
the most serious consequence of
this election was that the entire
Southeastern part of Turkey was
lost to the BDP, the PKK backed
party.

222 America's Failure to Perceive the PKK