Turkey’s adoption of a package of constitutional amendments in last weekend’s referendum amounted to a victory for the millions of conservative Muslim Turks who yearn to play a central role in the politics of the country. The vote was also a triumph for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), an offspring of previously banned parties having roots in Islam. In the referendum, held on the anniversary of the Sept 12, 1980, military coup, a comfortable 58 per cent of voters supported the 26 proposed amendments, 42 per cent opposed.
Designed to meet European Union demands for legal reform, the amendments strengthened rights to equality for women and minorities, collective bargaining for labour, and child protection. The military was placed under the jurisdiction of civil courts and officers involved in the 1980 coup lost immunity from prosecution. The most controversial articles deal with the appointment of senior judges and imposing civilian control over the military.
The AKP is determined to exert influence over appointments to the constitutional court and other key legal bodies because they have been used by the militantly secular elite to repeatedly ban parties and politicians with a religious background.
Reining in the military
Most Turks favour reining in the military, which assumed the role of the country’s guarantor, and holding officers accountable for carrying out coups. The first was in 1960 when the army arrested the members of the ruling party, put them on trial, and hanged the prime minister. In 1971 the army compelled the conservative government to resign and declared martial law.
In 1980, the generals, led by Kenen Evren, who became president, took over and imposed a new constitution. In 1997, the army conducted a ‘white coup’ by forcing the resignation of a coalition led by the parent of the AKP. On this occasion the generals allowed secular politicians to form a government.
As soon as the result of the referendum was announced, parties for and against the amendments as well as boycotters and human rights organisations lodged criminal complaints against the leaders of the 1980 coup. This demonstrated that the aggressively secular politico-military elite, which has governed Turkey since the 1920s no longer dominates the scene. Political power has been gradually assumed by the majority of Turks during the eight year rule of the AKP.
It appears that the AKP is tuned into what the mass of Turkish voters want. The AKP has ushered in economic reforms, presided over a period of domestic stability at a time West Asia has been in turmoil, advanced Turkey’s bid to join the EU, and projected Turkish influence on the international scene.
Consequently, the AKP has won two national elections and secured the approval of its policies in two referenda. If Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan guides his party to victory in the 2011 parliamentary election, he will become the longest serving and most influential Turkish leader since Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state. This is more than likely because secular and nationalist opposition parties that called for a ‘no’ vote in the referendum are in disarray.
Civil constitution
Once the AKP secures a fresh mandate, it plans to draft an entirely new ‘civil constitution’ to replace the 1980 ‘military constitution.’ In this new constitution, the AKP is expected to address the concerns of the country’s 20 per cent Kurdish minority, its demands for recognition as a separate ethnic and cultural community and for a measure of self-rule in eastern Anatolia.
Analysts also suggest the AKP may press Turkish Cypriots to accept Greek Cypriot requirements for a deal for reunification of the island — divided since Turkey occupied the north in 1974 — in a bicommunal, bizonal federation. This would remove the Kurdish and Cyprus problems from the list of obstacles preventing Turkey’s EU accession.
It is ironic that the AKP, rooted in religious politics, has become the engine of transformation of Turkey from a country where self-appointed generals have had the final say in governance to one where democratically elected civilian politicians reign for constitutionally defined periods.
Islamo-sceptic or Islamophobe western politicians and analysts never expected that the impetus for Turkey’s democratisation would come from the AKP. But democracy was the party’s only option if it was to challenge the secular politico-military elite that ruled the country for 82 years.