The June 7 elections had two main agendas. The first was whether the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) would be able to form a government by itself, and the second was whether the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) would be able to surpass the 10 percent national election threshold. The AK Party was not able to form a government by itself despite claiming the most votes. The HDP, on the other hand, was able to pass the threshold and became the fourth party in Parliament.

The Nov. 1 elections, to which there remain less than 40 days, has only one point on the agenda. It is concerned with whether the AK Party will be able to form a government by itself or not. This is the matter lying at the heart of the elections race. What is interesting, however, is that despite the short time left before the elections, none of the parties have actively begun an election campaign. We can indicate three main reasons for this. The first is that this election is an early election and the decision for an early election was made only three months after the June 7 elections. This situation has created a motivational deficiency for parties' managements and organization. Considering that Turkey has been through four elections in the last 20 months, this tiredness and lack of motivation becomes understandable. The second is that, with the exception of the AK Party, none of the parties have been able to place a criterion of success before the electorate for the Nov. 1 elections. The success criterion the AK Party has brought before voters is that of forming the administration by itself. The HDP, which placed passing the threshold as a concrete aim, cannot place this same aim as a criterion of success in this election. In the same way, the Republican People's Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) also do not have an exciting, tangible election aim they can bring forward for their voters. In this sense, the June 7 election was one where CHP and MHP voters felt there was a possibility of forming a government. While these two parties might not be able to form a government by themselves, the idea was that the CHP and MHP would form a coalition against the AK Party, which was exciting. However, the period after June 7 showed an administrative scenario that excluded the AK Party to be impossible.

The third reason why political parties have not sped up their election campaigns despite the short period left before Nov. 1 is the ongoing terror activities throughout Turkey. The terror attacks that started again by the PKK in the aftermath of the June 7 elections, has changed the agenda of Turkish politics and thus of political parties as well. For this reason the most important point for the Nov. 1 elections is terror attacks, the fight against terrorism and security problems. In this way, the four parties in Parliament are attempting to establish political communication with society through their attitudes toward PKK attacks and terror incidents.

The AK Party is taking on the political responsibility of ongoing military operations and giving the message that these operations will continue until the PKK disarms for the sake of public order and the establishment of security and goes outside Turkey's borders. The AK Party says that the PKK has attempted to legitimize its acts of terror by using discrimination faced by Kurds, and that since 2005 AK Party governments have destroyed the PKK's base through the steps they have taken to combat discrimination within its program of democratization. The AK Party says that the PKK has re-armed because it sees its own existence as being under threat and that it is using the Gezi Park protests in Turkey, the Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 interventions and the civil war in Syria for its own advantage. The AK Party is calling for all national forces to unite against terrorism.

Against this, the CHP and MHP are holding the AK Party responsible for the rising terror and blaming the reconciliation process begun by the AK Party in 2013, which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he has "