TURKEY VOTE SHOCKER

ANKARA, Turkey – Voters dealt a stunning rebuke to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday and stalled the Arab nation's march toward Islamist rule, stripping the powerful leader's AKP party of its parliamentary majority and ending 13 years of one-party rule.

The Democratically-elected Erdogan, through posts as prime minister and presidents, has held office since 2003, and had in recent years begun an alarming crackdown on the media, dissidents and ethnic minorities in what observers feared was an effort to move the NATO nation and U.S. ally toward theocratic rule. In addition to announcing plans to expand the powers of his office, Erdogan had come under intense criticism for building am 1,000-room presidential palace which was rumored to have gold-plated toilet seats.

Erdogan's party was left Monday with few options to form a new government, after it was stripped of its parliamentary majority and opposition parties ruled out joining it in a coalition pact. The AKP won about 41 percent of the votes in Sunday's election and was projected to take 258 seats -- 18 below the minimum required to rule alone. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, an Erdogan ally andfellow AKP member, was scheduled to convene his cabinet and party executives Monday to discuss the party's options as its 13-year single party rule came to an end.

The result also puts Erdogan's hopes of passing constitutional changes that would have boosted his powers on hold. He is likely to see his pre-eminent position in Turkish politics erode without the ability to steer the government through his party.

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