Word: erdogan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Voters in Turkey delivered incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a resounding victory in elections Sunday, crushing the secularist opposition that sought to topple Erdogan - whose Islamist roots, they fear, pose a threat to the country's secular order...
...Against that backdrop, the rise of Erdogan's AKP did not at first seem a serious threat. Its landslide victory in 2002 caught many by surprise, but even that victory was chalked up to a protest vote against the incompetence of established political parties, notably the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP). But unlike previous parties with Islamist roots, the AKP has so far steered clear of the kind of overt Islamist doctrine that got its predecessors in trouble. Instead, it has built a record based on reforming Turkish democratic and economic institutions to fit E.U. standards. The ostensible...
...Secularists are now rising to meet that challenge. The almost visceral response they have to the AKP focuses less on what the party has done than on who its leaders are. Even staunch opponents of the government concede that Erdogan has done some things right. A buoyant economy growing at a 7% clip, lower inflation and joblessness, and the opening of E.U. membership talks after 40 years of waiting would be a credit to any government. Instead, critics stress the alleged long-term Islamist agenda of the party's leaders. The current e-mail and blogging campaign by the young...
...Both leaders were members of the Welfare Party that was banned in 1997 for undermining Turkey's secular regime. Erdogan was imprisoned a few months later for reading, while mayor of Istanbul, a poem that likened minarets to bayonets. "Democracy is like a street car," Erdogan is alleged to have said in one mailing. "You only ride it to get to your destination." The Kemalists' blogs remind skeptics of the Islamic notion of takiye, according to which it is permissible for devout Muslims to dissimulate in order to achieve their goal. The fact that the party has not yet pursued...
...public buildings.) She protested the law, picketing the university gates for two years, but eventually gave up. She headed to the U.S. to study instead, but returned after 9/11. She now works for a private foundation that operates Muslim orphanages around the world. For her, the religious values of Erdogan and Gul are reassuring: "We feel more comfortable with them." How such sentiments will play out at the polls remains unclear. Public opinion surveys put support for the AKP at 35-42% vs. 18-25% for the CHP and 15-25% for the MHP, an overtly nationalist party that...