Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had plans to move his nation toward an authoritarian Islamist dictatorship, vastly enhancing the powers of the presidency, and needed an election to provide him the 400 votes in parliament necessary for constitutional changes.  Instead, the election held yesterday reduced his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) from 326 to 258, robbing it of a parliamentary majority.  AKP needs to find a coalition partner, or else new elections will have to be held. Here is the new makeup of the parliament, via The Right Scoop: The disastrous result for the would-be Islamist transformation of Turkey appears to have several roots.  For one thing, Turkey’s economy has been faltering, driving up unemployment.  Selcan Hacaoglu and Onur Ant of Bloomberg: Turkey’s slowing economy may have also played a role. After a decade of growth averaging 5 percent, the economy has lost momentum, with unemployment at its...(Read Full Post)