A new era in politics has started. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave a positive response to Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli's proposal for snap elections and announced the election date, saying: "We have to remove the election from the country's agenda as soon as possible. As a result of consultations with Bahçeli, we decided to hold elections on Sunday, June 24, 2018."

For those who closely monitor backstage politics, the point reached and Bahçeli's call for snap elections was not surprising, but expected. As I wrote before, even if political players from the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and MHP in Ankara said there would not be snap elections, public opinion was expecting a snap election, which was also bought by the markets.

This decision had reasons stemming from both domestic and foreign policy focal points, as well as from setting an earlier date for local elections. What made Bahçeli's proposal shocking was that he came into play at a time when some said there would no longer be elections and wanted snap elections.

Bahçeli drew attention to internal and external sieges against Turkey, saying that Turkey had to spoil these games. He added: "Under current circumstances where there are efforts to suffocate Turkey with system-related debates, it is becoming hard to achieve stability and balance for Nov. 3, 2019." Erdoğan agreed with these concerns: "Both cross-border operations that we have maintained in Syria and historically important incidents in Syria and Iraq in our region have made it necessary for Turkey to overcome uncertainties as soon as possible."

Obviously, the past 24 hours in which decisions were made were very exciting. Of course, the statement Bahçeli made the day before did not come out of the blue. It is known that the decision had a preliminary preparation and was discussed by the party administration. This proposal was surprising, but not shocking for the vast majority of the AK Party, which has been preparing for elections for a long time. Therefore, immediately after Bahçeli's statement, the AK Party initiated intense work. On that night, Erdoğan quickly received opinions from a number of people from the party administration to his advisors and even political experts. The clear question was if it was true that elections were moved to an earlier date.

The answers overwhelmingly pointed to scheduling early elections. Then, it was set for June 24, 2018. It is a good date as Aug. 26 and Nov. 4 were not preferred as the former would be during a holiday and the latter would extend the process. The snap election had to be done as early as possible and should not lead to speculation. It was so and the election season opened. At this point, what the opposition, especially the Republican People's Party (CHP), will do will be talked about more.

Even though the CHP has thrown its hat into the ring, it has obviously been caught unprepared for the elections, as it has not determined a candidate for president and local elections will not be held beforehand. The CHP has been shocked by this as it was busy with political engineering instead of politics. In fact, former CHP Chairman Deniz Baykal had warned the CHP the day after the April 16 constitutional referendum, clearly advising CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu: "Either declare your presidential candidacy as the chairman or let the candidate lead the CHP."

This mood also applies to other opposition parties. The İYİ Party (Good Party), Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and Felicity Party (SP), have also been abandoned due to expediency. It is not clear whether they will form an alliance or will run individually.

This is the current political picture. Turkey is heading toward a vital election on June 24. What makes this election vital is that it is between those who produce politics with local and national stances and those who pin hopes on global powers and do political engineering.