On April 7, Turkey’s political parties announced their lists of candidates that will run in the June 7 general elections. The lists are important, for they signal what sort of a parliament Turkey will have for the next four years. The list of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is particularly crucial, for all polls indicate that the AKP will form the largest and dominant group in Turkey’s 550-seat National Assembly.
Before going into details, one must first note a key feature of Turkey’s political system and culture that may sound unusual to a Western reader. In the West, political candidates are often selected in a bottom-up process, where parties in each district elect their own deputies, and these deputies elect the higher officials. In Turkey, however, the system is often the reverse: The party leadership decides who will run for office in every single province.
