Turkey after the local elections: What’s next?

With
Evren Balta, Özyeğin University
Zafer Yilmaz, Humboldt University Berlin

Moderation: Dawid Bartelt, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Istanbul

The local elections in Turkey due to take place on March 31 will finish the last regular election cycle in the country until 2028.

The outcome of these local elections is hard to predict. The parliamentary and presidential elections in May 2023 shattered the opposition's hopes of a change in politics and - in the next step - also the electoral alliances that had brought the opposition electoral success in the last local elections in 2019. The stakes are high, especially in Istanbul, where the main opposition Party CHP seeks to retain the metropolitan mayorship against AKP efforts to retake it with a symbolic victory in Turkey’s largest city – and the home turf for Erdoğan’s political career.

We invite you to join our next Breakfast Briefing on Thursday, 18 April 2024 at 8:30 a.m. to discuss the election results: How important are the local elections under present circumstances? What significance do the results have for both the governing elites, the political opposition and civil society? Which impact will the results have on Erdoğan’s politics?
 

*The Breakfast Briefing by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung aims to offer a confidential exchange among experts and decision-makers on current political developments in Turkey. The event will take place in English and under Chatham House Rule. Participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed. As a matter of confidentiality, photographs, video or audio recordings as well as all kinds of activities on social media are not allowed. Participant lists are not to be circulated to third parties by external individuals for reasons of data protection and confidentiality.

Please register until 15 April, 2024 via the registration form (green button at the top right) or in case of technical difficulties via e-mail to Ewa Peteja, peteja@boell.de.