THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary - June 26, 2018 - Topic 2
Erdoğan’s day: On
Turkey polls
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s re-election as President
of Turkey comes as no surprise. With this, his authoritarian grip will be
further consolidated; in the new term, he will acquire the
sweeping executive powers given to the presidency
through last year’s referendum. With Mr. Erdoğan’s Justice and Development
Party (AKP) and its allies also winning the parliamentary election, his control
over the government is untrammelled. The elections were held in a state of
emergency, imposed in July 2016 following a coup attempt.
One presidential
candidate, Selahattin Demirtaş of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party
(HDP), contested from prison. The outcome, which was expected, is a big setback
to the secularist Republican People’s Party, the main Opposition. Its
candidate, Muharrem İnce, who ended up with 30.7% of the vote compared to Mr.
Erdoğan’s 52.6%, had promised to bring back a system of checks and balances
over presidential power by strengthening civil liberties and restoring a constitutional
democratic order. Mr. İnce had attempted a new compact between Turkey’s secular
vote bank and religious conservatives, in an attempt to overcome the distrust
between the statist-secularists and Islamic parties that has polarised Turkish
politics since the days of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The rise of the neo-Islamist
AKP and the consolidation of Mr. Erdoğan’s power drew from the backlash against
the statist-secularists and the economic growth in the first decade of AKP
rule.
A faltering economy, characterised by plunging
foreign direct investment, high inflation and a depreciating lira, had given
the Opposition some hope of taking the fight to Mr. Erdoğan. But the
President’s polarising personality and his party’s wide organisational reach,
coupled with the perception that he was the right person to revive economic
growth, helped him retain power. His electoral victory will embolden his regime
to continue its authoritarian policies against critics, a greater worry now in
the face of his newly acquired powers. His victory is likely to see Turkey continuing with its
belligerent role in the West Asian neighbourhood. For minorities such as the
Kurds, the silver lining is the fact that Mr. Demirtaş’s liberal-democratic HDP
managed to win more than 10% of the vote to secure entry into Parliament. In contrast
to Mr. Erdoğan’s triumphalism as the results trickled in, Mr. İnce was graceful
in defeat and promised to work as an Opposition force for a more democratic
Turkey. A stable, democratic and pluralist Turkey is essential in a
neighbourhood that continues to be blighted by ethnically driven civil wars. As
things stand, Mr. Erdoğan’s victory signals another hyper-nationalist,
authoritarian turn.
Vocabulary
Grip: take
and keep a firm hold of; grasp tightly.
Example: His
knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel
Synonyms: grasp, clutch, hold, clasp, take
hold of, clench, grab, seize
Consolidate: combine
a number of things into a single more effective or coherent whole.
Example: All
manufacturing activities have been consolidated in new premises
Synonyms: combine, unite, merge, integrate, amalgamate, fuse, synthesize
Referendum: a
general vote by the electorate on a single political question that has been
referred to them for a direct decision.
Example: He
could also claim a legitimacy built on a succession of victories in
irreproachably clean popular votes in referendums and multi-party elections.
Synonyms: popular
vote, vote, public vote, plebiscite, ballot, poll
Untrammeled: not
deprived of freedom of action or expression; not restricted or hampered.
Example: A
mind untrammeled by convention
Conservative: a
person who is averse to change and holds to traditional values and attitudes,
typically in relation to politics.
Example: They
saw fascists as more patriotic and determined than traditional conservatives .
Synonyms: right-winger, reactionary, rightist, diehard, Republican, Tory
Backlash: a
strong and adverse reaction by a large number of people, especially to a social
or political development.
Example: A
public backlash against racism
Synonyms: adverse
response, counterblast, comeback, repercussion
Perception: the
ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.
Example: The
normal limits to human perception
Belligerent: hostile
and aggressive.
Example: A
bull-necked, belligerent old man
Synonyms: hostile, aggressive, threatening, antagonistic, warlike, warmongering
Essential: absolutely
necessary; extremely important.
Example: It
is essential to keep up-to-date records
Synonyms: crucial, necessary, key, vital, indispensable, important
