Turkey’s new parliamentarians sworn in

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Turkish parliament on Friday held a swearing-in ceremony for 600 lawmakers elected in last month’s vote.

On May 14, Turkey held the most anticipated elections in its modern history. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) emerged victorious despite an ongoing economic crisis that saw the lira lose value and the aftermath of February’s devastating earthquake that killed over 50,000 people.

The parliament is made up of members of 17 political parties who ran in the election as part of three alliances, the People’s Alliance, the Nation Alliance, and Labour and the Freedom Alliance.

AKP maintained its majority, despite losing seats compared to the 2018 election. The pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), which entered the parliament as the Green Left Party, also lost seats, but preserved its status as the third-largest party in the parliament.

Nationalist parties gained seats. Both the pro-government Nationalist People Movement (MHP) and the opposition’s IYI Party took around 10 percent of the votes each, racking up a total of 50 seats for MHP and 44 for IYI.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who won the second round of the presidential election, will be sworn in for a third term on Saturday in front of the new parliament. The ceremony will be attended by officials from over 20 countries, including the President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani.

Head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg will also attend and will meet with Erdogan and senior Turkish officials. He will likely push for Ankara’s acceptance of Sweden’s accession to the military alliance. 

After he is sworn in, Erdogan will announce his cabinet and hold the first cabinet meeting. The new cabinet will be sworn in on Sunday.