The 2010 Turkish referendum was a poisonous pill coated with chocolate, as dangerous changes in the judicial system were wrapped with innocuous amendments. The referendum lends momentum to Erdogan's attempt to entrench his leadership while moving Turkey away from Ataturk's vision of secularism and modernization. After all, Erdogan famously quipped that democracy is like a street car. When you come to your stop, you get off.
The U.S. cannot quibble with the innocuous majority of the referendum's 26 articles, which include collective bargaining for civil servants, equal rights for women, and a right to petition local authorities. However, several of the articles have radical implications.
For example, four of the amendments increase the number of Supreme Court judges and place their selection in the hands of the parliamentary majority — currently, the AKP. Another article would expand the membership of the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors from 12 to 22, with the government and president playing a greater role in their appointments. As a result, the Prime Minister brought his long-time foe, the judiciary, under his party's political control. Viewed together with AKP attacks against the opposition media, this development endangers the future of democracy in Turkey—something the U.S. should not condone.
Ariel Cohen points out the referendum outcome also emasculates the military, as soldiers discharged by the military courts were granted the right to contest those decisions in a civilian court. Furthermore, soldiers deemed responsible for crimes against state security or the country's constitutional principles will be tried from now on in civilian courts. The government has given itself the right to bring to trial any soldier, severely limiting the military's traditional autonomy, its historic role as a guardian of secularism, and its tribunals' jurisdiction. This blow comes after the government-machinated Ergenekon conspiracy to instill fear among Turkish officers. Far from increasing civilian control of the military, which the U.S. can support, this change is yet another step to deny the army the constitutional role bequeathed by Ataturk.
Cohen notes that by concentrating power in the hands of the AKP's top leadership — Prime Minister Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul — the AKP has damaged the innate balance of Turkish democracy. Turkey is now on a trajectory to become a one-party, Islamist state. Indeed, as prime minister, Erdogan has taken other steps to limit secularism: He instituted affirmative action to allow madrassah graduates to enter universities and get government jobs, placed AKP loyalists throughout the police ranks, systematically leaked embarrassing information obtained through illegal wiretaps to Islamist media, attempted to criminalize adultery for women, and facilitated extremist Salafi religious education, which had previously been banned.
Basil Venitis wonders how on Earth could Turkey apply for membership to EU when it occupies a piece of EU, North Cyprus, for 36 years now! What a nerve! Large, poor, terrorist, genocidal, and mysterious, Turkey, the leading nation of the Global Caliphate, is viewed with a certain amount of skepticism by many within the European Union. Turkey has a greater land mass than France, a population as large as Germany and is as poor as Romania. Yet it is the third point, the idea of Turkey being different or alien, that sticks. The unspoken sentiment is that Turkey is just not like the rest of the European club.
Venitis notes that no one has been upfront with terrorist Turkey, the leading nation of the Global Caliphate, that its accession to Fourth Reich would weaken the bloc as a union of shared values, it would make Fourth Reich even less efficient, it would dilute Fourth Reich and transform it into a weird confederation. Instead, despite Turcoterrorism, it is business as usual when it comes to the accession negotiations. Soon, it will no longer be possible to say No without triggering bitter disappointment.
PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Global Caliph, was imprisoned in 1998 after famously reading in public a poem, much beloved of militant Muslims, containing the following passage: The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers. Since coming to power, Erdogan has greatly improved his country's relations with Syria and picked a loud quarrel with Israeli President Shimon Peres, disrupting what had been a rather close alliance between the Jewish state and Turkey. He has also been developing a new friendship with the Iranian regime next door, just as the rigged re-election of President Ahmadinejad has disgusted all who had hoped for freedom in that Islamic Republic.
The U.S. cannot quibble with the innocuous majority of the referendum's 26 articles, which include collective bargaining for civil servants, equal rights for women, and a right to petition local authorities. However, several of the articles have radical implications.
For example, four of the amendments increase the number of Supreme Court judges and place their selection in the hands of the parliamentary majority — currently, the AKP. Another article would expand the membership of the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors from 12 to 22, with the government and president playing a greater role in their appointments. As a result, the Prime Minister brought his long-time foe, the judiciary, under his party's political control. Viewed together with AKP attacks against the opposition media, this development endangers the future of democracy in Turkey—something the U.S. should not condone.
Ariel Cohen points out the referendum outcome also emasculates the military, as soldiers discharged by the military courts were granted the right to contest those decisions in a civilian court. Furthermore, soldiers deemed responsible for crimes against state security or the country's constitutional principles will be tried from now on in civilian courts. The government has given itself the right to bring to trial any soldier, severely limiting the military's traditional autonomy, its historic role as a guardian of secularism, and its tribunals' jurisdiction. This blow comes after the government-machinated Ergenekon conspiracy to instill fear among Turkish officers. Far from increasing civilian control of the military, which the U.S. can support, this change is yet another step to deny the army the constitutional role bequeathed by Ataturk.
Cohen notes that by concentrating power in the hands of the AKP's top leadership — Prime Minister Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul — the AKP has damaged the innate balance of Turkish democracy. Turkey is now on a trajectory to become a one-party, Islamist state. Indeed, as prime minister, Erdogan has taken other steps to limit secularism: He instituted affirmative action to allow madrassah graduates to enter universities and get government jobs, placed AKP loyalists throughout the police ranks, systematically leaked embarrassing information obtained through illegal wiretaps to Islamist media, attempted to criminalize adultery for women, and facilitated extremist Salafi religious education, which had previously been banned.
Basil Venitis wonders how on Earth could Turkey apply for membership to EU when it occupies a piece of EU, North Cyprus, for 36 years now! What a nerve! Large, poor, terrorist, genocidal, and mysterious, Turkey, the leading nation of the Global Caliphate, is viewed with a certain amount of skepticism by many within the European Union. Turkey has a greater land mass than France, a population as large as Germany and is as poor as Romania. Yet it is the third point, the idea of Turkey being different or alien, that sticks. The unspoken sentiment is that Turkey is just not like the rest of the European club.
Venitis notes that no one has been upfront with terrorist Turkey, the leading nation of the Global Caliphate, that its accession to Fourth Reich would weaken the bloc as a union of shared values, it would make Fourth Reich even less efficient, it would dilute Fourth Reich and transform it into a weird confederation. Instead, despite Turcoterrorism, it is business as usual when it comes to the accession negotiations. Soon, it will no longer be possible to say No without triggering bitter disappointment.
PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Global Caliph, was imprisoned in 1998 after famously reading in public a poem, much beloved of militant Muslims, containing the following passage: The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers. Since coming to power, Erdogan has greatly improved his country's relations with Syria and picked a loud quarrel with Israeli President Shimon Peres, disrupting what had been a rather close alliance between the Jewish state and Turkey. He has also been developing a new friendship with the Iranian regime next door, just as the rigged re-election of President Ahmadinejad has disgusted all who had hoped for freedom in that Islamic Republic.
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