Erdogan's AKP wins critical Turkey vote

Turkey's long-dominant Justice and Development Party (AKP) scored a stunning electoral comeback on today, regaining its parliamentary majority in a poll seen as crucial for the future of the troubled country.
The party founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won over 49 per cent of the vote to secure 315 seats in the 550-member parliament with nearly all votes counted, easily enough to form a government on its own.
"Today is a day of victory," a beaming Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a crowd of supporters in his hometown. "The victory belongs to the people."
The outcome was a shock to many as opinion polls had predicted a replay of the June election when the AKP won only 40 per cent of the vote and lost its majority for the first time in 13 years.

It is however a huge personal victory for 61-year-old Erdogan, Turkey's divisive strongman who may now be able to secure enough support for his controversial ambitions to expand his role into a powerful US-style executive presidency.
Turks voted in large numbers, with the country deeply polarised in the face of renewed Kurdish violence and a wave of bloody jihadist attacks along with mounting concerns about democracy and the faltering economy.

And underscoring one of the key challenges ahead for a new AKP administration, police fired tear gas and water cannon on protesting Kurdish militants who set fire to tyres and pallets in the main Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

"Sense of instability in Turkey, coupled with Erdogan's 'strong man who can protect you' strategy has worked," Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said on Twitter.
During the election campaign, Erdogan declared that only he and his loyal Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu could guarantee security, criss-crossing the country with the message: "It's me or chaos."
A report by the Brookings Institution think-tank had warned that whatever the outcome, "the challenges facing Turkey are growing by the day".
It highlighted the Kurdish crisis, the parlous state of the economy and the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

The political landscape has changed dramatically in Turkey since June, with the country even more divided along ethnic and sectarian lines.
Many Turks are fearful of a return to all-out war with outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels after fresh violence shattered a 2013 truce in July, just a month after a pro-Kurdish party won seats for the first time and denied Erdogan's AKP a majority.