Elections

Streets of İzmir were deserted this morning. No traffic. Stores closed. No one in cafes or restaurants having breakfast.

It's election day and polls opened at 8 a.m. and people have the chance to vote until 6 p.m.

Media stopped their reporting on Friday at 6 p.m. There is a ban on publishing results until 9 p.m. tonight and if anyone does so before, they will be reprimended.

The weekend edition of the TDN was election free. No reporting about any political party as not to sway anyone's vote.

It is now 7 p.m. as I write this. Polls have closed and the AKP is not only winning but sweeping. These are very early results. We won't know for another two hours what Turkey will look like and official results won't be published until July 27th.

The newspaper is putting out another edition tomorrow. I am working late tonight. I am in the office right now. No one is here other than the editor.

I wrote two articles and I'm starting on the third one now.

İzmir has been really good to me - creatively very good. I have three more articles to write from this city. My articles will be published long after I am gone from Turkey.

And now we wait...