FAZ: Will Erdogan lose the elections?

Turkey is also in the pre-election phase. Within the next ten months, presidential and parliamentary elections must be held, but there are many controversial procedural and constitutional issues, as Rainer Herrmann, a columnist for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The risk for the Turkish president is that the AKP party may lose the absolute majority of 52.6%, which it has with the crutches of the nationalist MIR movement. “Due to the economic crisis and the reduction of purchasing power over 1/ 4 during the last two years, this percentage seems to be unapproachable”, the columnist estimates. But there is a primary question. Can Erdogan run for another term?

Opposition and electoral law

“Article 101 of the Constitution stipulates that the term of office of the President lasts five years and that a person may be elected President of the Republic no more than twice,” the newspaper recalls. “Erdogan has already been elected president twice by the people, first in August 2014 and then in June 2018. Now he would be running for a third time. The opposition has not faced it yet, because it does not want to be accused of using legal means to defeat Erdoğan, since he cannot achieve this goal politically. In case the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) as the sole and final authority accepts Erdoğan’s candidacy, there would be no chance to challenge it anyway. But then, as opposition parties make clear, the shadow of disputed legitimacy would hang over his next term.The AKP party justifies a third candidacy, which Erdogan has yet to officially announce, with the fact that the Constitution was changed in 2017 and the transition to a presidential system was completed. The lawyers argue that the new Constitution was not passed in 2017 and only articles have been changed. The disputed article 1 01 remained unchanged”.

The German journalist also refers to the date of the elections, which should be held no later than June 24, 2023. “There are many indications that Erdogan or the parliament will not hold the elections before mid-April. Because on April 15, 2023 the new electoral law will come into force which reduces the chances of the opposition. The old electoral law allowed several parties to form a coalition and then share the seats among themselves. Under the new electoral law, each party must stand separately and therefore it is subject to the 7% threshold it needs to get to send MPs to Parliament. In this case many voters would not be able to be represented in Parliament because four of the six opposition parties that have formed a coalition get less than 7% Despite major programmatic differences in some areas, they are united by the common goal of ending the Erdogan era .”.

German chemical warfare agents for Putin?

Another revelation of the investigative team of journalists from Süddeutsche Zeitung and public television networks NDR and WDR caused a sensation in recent days. It concerns a small company in the city of Stande, Riol Chemie, “Import and Export of Reagents, Chemicals, Pharmaceutical Substances, Laboratory Equipment and Technological Facilities”, as registered in the commercial register, with only 20 employees but an annual turnover of 1.5 million . euro. Riol Chemie caught the eye of German customs last year during a routine check. A shipment of laboratory equipment allegedly destined for Lithuania and stored at a company in Bremehaver was addressed to someone in Russia. Following this, customs officials seized the goods and began an investigation. But let’s read the impressive details from the columns of the Munich newspaper:

“According to the customs authority and the competent prosecutor’s office, it is alleged that between November 2019 and March 2021, the directors of the company exported small quantities of highly toxic substances and special laboratory supplies to Russia, on more than 30 occasions without the necessary authorization. Some of the chemicals, researchers believe, could be used as raw materials for the manufacture of chemical and biological warfare agents.In addition, the company is said to have repeatedly delivered to Russia protective equipment, which is required, among other things, for the production of biological and of chemical weapons and therefore its export is also restricted”. But there is also an element that makes the case shocking and it concerns the neurotoxin Novichok.

“Among the substances sent to Russia, there was also one used, among other things, for the production of the Novichok neurotoxin,” the German columnist points out. “Novichok was used by the Russian intelligence services to assassinate former double agent Sergei Skripal in England in 2018. Two years later, Russian deputy Alexei Navalny was also probably poisoned with it. Because the Riol company is associated with the manufacture of this particular poison, the company was already on the US sanctions list as of March 2021”.

Irini Anastasopoulou

SOURCE: Deutsche Welle