As this column was being written, vote counting was still under way, though the final outcome is understood to be more or less the same. The AK Party won the local elections with slightly less than 40 percent of the vote. This represents around an 8 percent loss for the ruling party compared with the 2007 national elections and about a 2.5 percent loss compared with the 2004 local elections (41.6 percent). Those comparisons show that the AK Party is in decline.
Still, voters have given the ruling party a mandate to make a fresh start, refocus on constitutional reforms that have long been neglected and concentrate on economic recovery.
Signing a new deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), something which the government has delayed until after the elections, stands as the number one priority as the dust settles after the elections held last Sunday.
Prime Minister Erdoğan said in his first remarks after the unofficial election results that his party got the message and that they will continue learning their lessons in accordance with the results. He signaled a Cabinet revision as one means of learning the lessons.
Turkey enjoyed relative stability in the years 2003 and 2004, when the ruling party made major military and civil reforms. But the reform period came to an end as of 2005, when the country entered a destabilizing period. This should have been the lesson that the political authority learned, restarting democratic reforms that had been neglected for a long time.
We should also not forget that suspected coup plotters, some of whom are in jail -- meaning they are neutralized to a certain extent -- are still active and can resort to illegal activities to paralyze the already fragile political environment in an attempt to abuse the minor losses of the ruling party in the local elections.
The AK Party should also be on alert against that danger.
A busy agenda of critical foreign policy issues, some of which have been postponed until after the elections as they require courageous steps, has also been waiting to be tackled and addressed. Among them is the possibility that Turkey may open its borders with neighboring Armenia in an attempt to thwart the adoption of a resolution by the US Congress recognizing the events of 1915 under Ottoman Turkish rule as the Armenian genocide. Turkey acknowledges the killings of Armenians but fiercely denies that it was an act of genocide.
Further steps toward the recognition of Kurdish rights as a means of lessening the influence of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), mainly in the Kurdish-dominated Southeast, are another critical area that awaits government attention.
Both the Kurdish and PKK issues have external dimensions as their unresolved status plays a significant role in narrowing Turkey's room for maneuver in the continuation of its proactive foreign policy.
The PKK is based in the remote Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq, which it uses as a staging ground for attacks inside Turkey.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani recently urged the PKK to lay down its arms as an important step towards a solution of the problem but the PKK leadership turned down this offer.
Talabani's call comes at a time when expectations have been on the rise in Turkey that a general amnesty may be announced for the PKK, which will mean Ankara giving a green light to the PKK leadership, most of whom are based in northern Iraq, being extradited to third countries.
But Prime Minister Erdoğan ruled out a general amnesty for the PKK on the eve of the local elections in an interview with the NTV news channel.
It is possible that without calling it a general amnesty, the government may come up with new ideas to curb PKK violence now that the local elections are over. But a slight drop in his party's votes may discourage Erdoğan from taking bold steps on the Kurdish issue before preparing the public for courageous steps, such as a general amnesty for the PKK.
As the public support of European Union membership has seen a 21 percent rise, the government should grab this opportunity to push for reforms.
The DAP polling agency revealed on March 29 that 75 percent of Turks -- three in every four -- supported Turkey's EU membership, i.e., for democratic reforms. ( Taraf, March 29).
The results of this poll alone tell us that the AK Party has no excuse in making a fresh start on serious reforms halted in 2005 and in accelerating accession talks with the EU.
