TURKEY, June 13, 2011 — Victory in the general election has given Turkey”s ruling AK Party a strong mandate to pursue its reform agenda, but it will need to seek consensus to push through a planned new constitution.
Based on a preliminary count, Prime Minster Tayyip Erdogan”s party scored some 50 percent of the vote, and was set to win around 327 seats in the 550-member parliament, less than the 330 needed to send a new constitution to a referendum.
The AK Party must find support from outside the AK Party to rewrite the constitution, replacing a charter drafted after a 1980 coup and criticised for limiting individual rights. Erdogan says a new charter will strengthen democracy and pluralism.
He may have to compromise to win over opposition members of parliament given accusations that the reform will enable Erdogan to consolidate his power as it is an open secret that he favours moving Turkey to a more presidential system of government. People suspect he wants to become president after his third and final term as prime minister.
The strong showing by Kurdish independent candidates – 35 appear to have won seats – will give them a potent voice in parliament and pile pressure on Erdogan to address their grievances. Despite recent cultural and linguistic reforms, Kurdish politicians have become increasingly bold in their calls for autonomy and civil disobedience. The government”s goal is to end a separatist conflict which has killed more than 40,000 people in 27 years but for now there is no end in sight to the violence.
Turkey”s negotiations to join the European Union, begun in 2005, are at a virtual standstill. With an election out of the way, Erdogan might consider taking a risk to break through the impasse, by meeting a demand to open Turkish ports and airports to traffic from EU-member Cyprus. Turkey wants the EU to end a blockade of Turkish Cypriots in the north of the divided island as part of a joint action to help move toward reunification.
Photograph: Thanassis Stavrakis/AP
