Politics in Turkish: voters, parties and government

The idea

Learn these nouns with their usual partners: oy kullanmak means to cast a vote, bir adaya oy vermek to vote for a candidate, and ittifak kurmak to form an alliance. Siyaset names politics as an activity; politika can also mean a policy, as in ekonomi politikası. Read the whole phrase before choosing a meaning.

Examples

• Seçmenler bugün oy kullanıyor.Voters are casting their votes today.
• Muhalefet bu öneriyi eleştiriyor.The opposition is criticising this proposal.
• Hükümet yeni bir program açıkladı.The government announced a new programme.
• Bu haberde devlet ile hükümet aynı anlamda kullanılmıyor.In this news report, state and government are not used with the same meaning.
• İki siyasi parti seçimden önce ittifak kurdu.Two political parties formed an alliance before the election.
• Adaylar ekonomi politikası hakkında tartışırken seçmenler somut öneriler bekliyordu.While the candidates were debating economic policy, voters were waiting for concrete proposals.
• Anket sonuçları değişse de seçim sonucu henüz belli değil.Although the poll results have changed, the election result is not yet clear.
• Mecliste bütçe görüşülürken muhalefet eğitim harcamalarının artırılmasını istedi.While the budget was being discussed in parliament, the opposition called for education spending to be increased.

Watch out

Do not treat devlet and hükümet as interchangeable translations of government. Devlet refers to the state as a political organisation; hükümet refers to the governing team. Likewise, an anket measures responses to questions: it is not the seçim sonucu itself.

Try it yourself

1. Choose the missing word: they went to the ballot box and cast their ___.

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   oy

   oy: the people go to the ballot box, so the missing noun is a vote. Anket would refer to a survey, which is not what they are casting.

2. Which word denotes the governing team in this text?

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   hükümet

   hükümet: the clue explicitly refers to the team in office, rather than the entire political organisation of the state.

3. Choose the word for a person competing to be elected.

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   aday

   aday: this person is seeking election. İttifak names a grouping that actors form, not a person competing for office.

4. Name a study in which a research company asks voters questions.

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   anket

   anket: the company gathers answers to questions. Those responses form a poll; they do not establish the outcome of an election.

Use it today

Write a four-sentence fictional news summary using a party, a candidate and a poll. Say who proposes something and who criticises it. Keep poll findings separate from the election result.