This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchett with Malcolm Home Line Conference of

President's Major American Jewish Organizations. Turkey undersavir pressure because of the

failed economy over these last years in the Black Sea Basin, a war to the North, and

then an earthquake that right now over an area of 12 to 15 million people may have a

death count above 50,000, well above 50,000. We welcome Sinan Chidi, a senior fellow at

the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, an associate professor of National Security

Studies at the Marine Corps University. Sinan, a very good evening to you. Thank you for

this. The grief is obvious in Turkey, and the last time we talked, the question was,

would Mr. Erdogan go ahead with the elections that were scheduled in May of 2023 or would

they be postponed for 2024? My reading of the story is that he has now agreed to the May

14th vote. Did this surprise observers? Did it in any fashion surprise the opposing

parties? Good evening to you. Good evening, John, and thanks for having me back. Yes,

it did not come as a huge surprise, although there was much speculation about Erdogan possibly

wanted to suspend the elections given the extent of the earthquake disaster, mainly because

he may have feared that holding the elections close to or on time would negatively impact

him simply because people are looking for accountability and are angry with the government.

And so far, and it will be confirmed tomorrow, although Erdogan has already stated it,

he will actually just hold the elections on May 14th simply because there is no good

way out for him. If he tries to delay them beyond the legally allowed dates, which is June

18th, that opens up a constitutional crisis as president. He is not actually allowed to delay

the elections. So he doesn't want to go down that route simply because it is a problem

for him and it would just result in a political chaos and legal wrangling. He also doesn't

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