President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is firmly in control of the new Turkish parliament following May’s elections – Photo: Reuters/Umit Bektas

The new Turkish parliament will meet today for its first session.

Parliamentary elections took place on May 14—alongside the presidential elections—to elect all 600 members of the Grand National Assembly. 322 seats will be filled by members of Erdogan’s alliance, including 265 seats from his Justice and Development (AK) Party, 121 seats will be filled by women, and a number of newcomers from the Islamist New Welfare Party (YRP) and the Free Cause Party (Hüda-Par).

Once the Supreme Election Council (YSK) swears in the new parliamentarians in Ankara, the election body will also confirm incumbent leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s presidential victory following last Sunday’s run-off election. Erdoğan will assemble a new Cabinet once Parliament seats are designated.

Erdoğan remaining in power for another five years has notable implications for Turkey’s relationship with NATO and the West. The U.S. will keep relying on Turkey as a NATO ally against Russia, even though Erdoğan is expected to work towards becoming a regional power independent of the West and will likely strengthen ties with Russia. Russia has been developing Turkey’s nuclear energy infrastructure and providing Turkey direct access to the Russian retail market through agricultural exports. The U.S. may concede to sell F-16 jets to Turkey in order to boost relations.