Divided Turkey votes in critical election as violence spirals
- 9 years ago
urkey votes on Sunday in its most crucial election in years as the deeply divided country confronts a bloody wave of jihadist attacks and a renewed Kurdish conflict.
The poll is the second in only five months, called after the Justice and Development Party lost its parliamentary majority in June for the first time in 13 years of single-party rule and then failed to forge a power-sharing government.
Turks are fearful of a return to all-out war with outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party rebels after renewed violence shattered a 2013 truce in July, just a month after a pro-Kurdish party took up seats in parliament for the first time.
The threat of further jihadist violence is also overshadowing the election after a string of attacks blamed on the Islamic State group, including twin suicide bombings on an Ankara peace rally that killed 102 people - the worst in the country's modern history.
The poll is the second in only five months, called after the Justice and Development Party lost its parliamentary majority in June for the first time in 13 years of single-party rule and then failed to forge a power-sharing government.
Turks are fearful of a return to all-out war with outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party rebels after renewed violence shattered a 2013 truce in July, just a month after a pro-Kurdish party took up seats in parliament for the first time.
The threat of further jihadist violence is also overshadowing the election after a string of attacks blamed on the Islamic State group, including twin suicide bombings on an Ankara peace rally that killed 102 people - the worst in the country's modern history.