Photos Capture Turkey's Crucial Election And Its Fallout

Turkey's ruling AK Party won handily in the nation's elections on Sunday, setting the nation on the course to return to single-party rule. The vote was Turkey's second of 2015, after a previous election in June unexpectedly booted the AKP from its long-held parliamentary majority.

In the months that followed June's result, the country entered a period of political tension and violence. The government launched an air strike campaign against Kurdish PKK militants after years of cease-fire, and a suspected Islamic State bombing killed 97 people in the worst terror attack in Turkey's history.

The vote on Sunday took place amid tight security and was largely peaceful, save for protests in the southern Kurdish area of Diyarbakir, where dozens of demonstrators angry at the result clashed with police. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AK Party have been longtime antagonists to pro-Kurdish groups.

The Islamist AKP's return to dominance is a boon to Erdogan, who was sidelined after the June vote and called the snap elections after his party failed to form a coalition government. Opponents of Erdogan have criticized his increasingly authoritarian tendencies and media crackdowns, with journalists telling Reuters before the election that they feared what a boost to Erdogan's power could mean for media freedom.  

The WorldPost presents a selection of photos from across Turkey on the day of the election, showing both the celebrations and tribulations caused by the vote.