As the United States and the European Union continue to struggle with numerous challenges around the world, including the ongoing migrant crisis stemming from the Syrian Civil War and the Greek Debt crisis, a new challenge has escalated over the last week in Turkey, once a point of progress. It is in Turkey where fear is growing that the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan is becoming more autocratic in his rule after the Parliamentary elections on Sunday November 1st. Once a strong Cold War ally, Turkey is becoming a major headache for the West.

“The view that the June 7th elections were a no to the executive Presidency has been collapsed” Mustafa Sentop, a senior member of the Justice and Development party (also known as the AK party) said on Monday following the election results. In order for a party to gain a majority in the Turkish Parliament, it needs to win 276 seats out of the 550 seats.

“The national will manifested itself on November 1 in favor of stability” President Erdogan said Monday in what was a completely different tone in his reaction from when Turkey last held a Parliamentary election back in June where the President’s party won 258 seats which is 18 seats shy of the 276 seat majority.

In the last Parliamentary election in June, the breakdown had the AK party winning 258 seats, the Nationalist Movement Party with 80 seats, the People’s Democratic Party with 80 seats and the Republican People’s Party with 132 seats.

“I believe the results, which do not give the opportunity to any party to form a single party government, will be assessed healthily and realistically by every party” President Erdogan said back in June. In the elections held on Sunday, the AK Party won back its majority while the CHP came in second with 25.0%, the MHP in third with 16.3% and the HDP in fourth 13.1 %.

“The numbers are not enough at the moment, but I think these elections show a desire for the presidential system to be instilled” Mr. Sentop continued in his statement referring to the attempts of the AK party to give the Turkish presidency more power. “It could be seen as a green or a yellow light to the presidency.”

The push for the expanded power of the presidency is not the only concern for Turkey as numerous journalists have been arrested in the post- election aftermath and have been accused of numerous infractions including “attempting to overthrow the government”.

In the most recent arrests of journalists, two editors at an opposition magazine known as the Nokta were jailed immediately following the election. The editors were accused by the government of pushing for “the start of civil war in Turkey”, and have not been released.

“The recent sense of instability in Turkey coupled with Erdogan’s strong man who can protect you strategy seems to have worked; this is a victory for both Erdogan and for the PKK”, Soner Cagaplay, who is the head of the Turkish research program in Washington D.C. The instability refers to a terrorist attack which happened on Saturday October 10th at a peace rally in Ankara killing 97 people.

“Let’s be as one, be brothers and all be Turkey together”, President Erdogan continued in his statement.

Ultimately it is hard to see Turkey as being “brothers and being Turkey Together” as the President attempts to consolidate his powers and arrests anyone who holds a differing opinion than his own. The President should adhere to real democratic principles where people have the right to voice their opinion even if it happens to be different than the government. Either that, or the situation in Turkey, and the region, is likely to deteriorate.