[Rudaw] This is the first of a two-part series on the potential impact of the Ottoman Turkish local-election results on the geopolitics of the region.
The Istanbul electoral board offices' decision to declare the Ottoman Turkish opposition party candidate the winner of the mayoral race may seem like an event of relatively minor importance for a region that generates a disproportionately large amount of international news. But for those who monitor broad political trends of the Middle East and North Africa region, the April 17 scenes of cheering supporters of the secularist CHP's Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul's Caglayan district receiving the mandate hold the symbolic significance of a political earthquake.
Maybe, just maybe, the high noon of political Islam, or Islamism, has passed. |