June 19, 2015 Issue

Diyarbakir, Turkey—For years it seemed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was unstoppable, but on June 7 his Islamist party, known by the Turkish acronym, AKP, lost its 15-year majority in the parliament. Driving the change were supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, including these celebrants. The party came in fourth place, with 12.5 percent of the vote, and it was buttressed by non-Kurdish liberal Turks, who rallied around environmental causes and gay rights, among other issues. Erdogan had hoped to win a supermajority, which would have allowed him to force through a constitutional change giving him even more power.