Erdogan Eyes Snap Election, Blue Homeland Bill Rattles Greece
Turkey's opposition CHP warned that President Erdogan may call a snap election to escape term limits, framing the court-ordered reinstatement of Kemal Kilicdaroglu as part of the strategy, as prosecutors pursue a 2,430-year sentence for jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. Abroad, Ankara pressed its 'Blue Homeland' maritime doctrine, prompting Greece to weigh new Aegean marine parks and wider territorial waters. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan proposed drone cooperation with Japan, called a US-Iran deal 'closer than ever,' and tied normalizing trade with Israel to an end to the killing in Gaza.
Turkey's main opposition warned that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is maneuvering toward a snap election to escape constitutional term limits. The Republican People's Party (CHP) told Euractiv that a May 21 court ruling -- which annulled its 2023 congress and reinstated former leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu over Ozgur Ozel -- was part of a strategy to cripple the opposition before an early vote. Under the constitution Erdogan cannot seek a third term without changing it or calling an election, which needs 360 of 600 MPs and therefore opposition votes; "It is a huge signal that Erdogan is going for a snap election," senior CHP figures said. The pressure has been intense -- prosecutors are seeking a cumulative 2,430-year sentence for jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu -- while a weakening economy, with an April central-government deficit of TRY 338.7 billion (about 6.3 billion euro), limits Erdogan's room for pre-election spending.
Abroad, Ankara pressed an assertive maritime agenda that rattled Athens. Turkey's draft "Blue Homeland" bill, unveiled in early May, would let Erdogan declare "bodies of water with special status" across the Aegean, the eastern Mediterranean and around Cyprus, and Greece is reportedly weighing new marine parks in the Aegean and an expansion of its territorial waters south of Crete in response. Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis warned Athens would "absolutely utilize legal tools of response if Ankara takes this matter to new extremes," reviving a dispute that brought the two NATO members close to war in the 1990s.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, fresh from meetings in Britain and Germany, used a Nikkei Asia interview to position Turkey across several fronts. He said Ankara wanted to cooperate with Japan on drones and counter-drone technology, judged a US-Iran agreement "closer than ever" -- with the de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz now a higher priority than the nuclear file -- and said Turkey could resume normal trade with Israel only if it stopped killing Palestinians and allowed humanitarian access to Gaza.
At home, Parliament returned from its Eid al-Adha recess to take up a land-use bill covering water-structure safety, carbon-sink forests and penalties for unauthorized construction, alongside measures on alcohol sponsorship, the national police and the Turkish Red Crescent.