The right-wing Justice and Development Party (AKP) is back in power, having easily won a clear majority of members of parliament (MPs) in yesterday’s Turkish elections. While President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s party did not reach the necessary number of MPs to change the constitution and push through his desired presidential system, the AKP, their talking heads, and their media (just recently expanded through the seizure of more opposition media outlets) will put the issue back on the agenda. Indeed, they have already begun: one of Erdoğan’s senior advisors, Yiğit Bulut, said in his statement celebrating the AKP’s electoral victory, “Welcome, presidential system!”

However: this was not a normal election as much of the Western media seems to be pretending it was, accepting the results and only pointing out some minor Election Day incidents as a side note. The Turkish liberal media is not much different, buckling before the restored power of the forces of reaction before the official results came in.

So what’s a more accurate picture of yesterday’s election and the Turkish political landscape more broadly? And after the electoral defeat of Erdoğan and the AKP and the great triumph of the leftist pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the June 7 elections, how was the AKP able to turn defeat into victory?