I obviously don't understand Turkish politics...

Last week, there was a historic vote by the Turkish High Court, to decide a pending case against the ruling AK Party. The decision was, basically, a 'yea' or 'nay' vote to close down the party for being a threat to Turkey's secular constitution, or some such business. I could list the charges, but I don't want to bother. Sometimes, the absurd realities here are so numerous as to bore me.

For our purposes, the important details are, there are 11 judges, one abstained, four voted 'nay', and six voted 'yea'.

So, the party was shut down...

But NO! Apparently, having the majority of votes doesn't matter, and the party was not actually closed.

The article was in Turkish, and surely, the word "unanimous" was buried somewhere there, in reference to the necessary number of votes to pass. Least wise, there was some kind of explanation and I missed it. I think I had half-finished the article, when I realized there wasn't a closure happening and started over from the beginning. This is the problem when one reads a newspaper in a foreign language: details find the massive gaps in one's fluency.

Imagine reading:

During the baseball game between the Cardinals and the Cubs, as W*@^@! caught a &%^$ !@#$ from %$!@, a @#$! @#$%& %$!@ crashed into &%^$ @#$! @#$%& &%^$ and injuring left &%^$, DeRosa. The game @#$%& %$!@, ending @^@! 4-3 %& &%^ sixth %%$#.

Which would translate as:

During the baseball game between the Cardinals and the Cubs, as Ward caught a fly ball from Pujols, a meteorite crashed into left field, leaving a massive crater and injuring left-fielder, Mark DeRosa. The game was called, ending with a score of 4-3 in the sixth inning.


Sadly, all I walk away with is the score...