The upcoming parliamentary elections to take place in Turkey on June 7 might predetermine both the Armenian-Turkish relations and Turkey's development in general, believes Thomas de Waal, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment.
The expert believes that following the example of Russian president Vladimir Putin president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan wishes to turn Turkey into a presidential country and seize all the governance levers of power. Therefore, Erdogan needs to change the Constitution - this is possible only by keeping the parliamentary majority.
Waal assures that the only party to hinder Erdogan's actions is the Kurdish People's Democratic Party.
If the aforementioned party clears the 10%-threshold for the parliament things might move according to two scenarios: either the party becomes powerful opposition or it forms an alliance with the governing party and tries to make changes from within the Turkish government.
According to de Waal, the PDP has quite democratic approaches and is quite progressive in respect of relations with Armenia, freedom of speech and defence of minorities' rights.
According to the expert, the party demands that the Turkish government open the border with Armenia and recognize the 1915 crimes against the Armenian nation. De Waal believes there will hardly be any sweeping changes if the party becomes a parliament-member, however, the People's Democratic Party will contribute to the changes that Turkey is undergoing.
"There is a very powerful minority in the Turkish society. And this minority is willing to speak of the past, improve relations with ethnic minorities. This group will have a powerful representation at parliament", summed up de Waal.