OSCE raps Turkey vote over violence, 'media crackdown'

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has slammed Turkey’s November 1 parliamentary vote, saying a media crackdown, violence and other security concerns have marred the election.

The OSCE made the remarks in a damning report released a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the election and regained its parliamentary majority which it had lost in a June election.

"While Turkish citizens could choose between genuine and strong political alternatives in this highly polarized election, the rapidly diminishing choice of media outlets, and restrictions on freedom of expression in general, impacted the process and remain serious concerns," Ignacio Sanchez Amor, special coordinator and leader of the OSCE observer mission, said in the report.

The comments come amid the Turkish government’s crackdown on opposition media critical of Erdogan or government policies.

Riot police raided the Ankara and Istanbul offices of two opposition TV stations late in October in the run-up to the poll.

Amor further pointed to the physical attacks on party members, and growing security concerns, particularly in the southeastern part of the country as other elements that “imposed restrictions on the ability to campaign.”

Since the June election, two fatal bomb blasts have rocked Turkey, including one in the capital Ankara on October 10, which killed more than 100 people attending a peace rally. The Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has been blamed, while government opponents believe that the administration’s security and intelligence failure led to the fatal blasts. Political parties suspended their campaigning after the attack.

The other bombing was carried out in the Kurdish town of Suruc, near the border with Syria, in July.

Meanwhile, Andreas Gross, head of a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE), said that the campaign for the election “was characterized by unfairness and, to a serious degree, fear.”

The Sunday election was also held at a time when a military operation has been underway against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group in southeast Turkey and in northern Iraq.

Observers argue that the ability of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to campaign was hampered by the offensive in the Kurdish-dominated southeast.

"For an election process to be truly democratic, candidates need to feel that they can campaign and voters need to feel that they can cast their ballots in a safe and secure environment," said Margareta Cederfelt, head of the OSCE parliamentary assembly delegation.

HDP managed to become the first pro-Kurdish movement in parliament and received enough seats to block an AKP majority in the June vote. The party has been however accused of siding with the PKK, which has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.

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