Word: erdogan
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...opponents consider to be political capriciousness. The government abandoned a much-needed overhaul of the country's constitution - a problematic document drafted by generals after the 1980 military coup - on which a broad coalition of academics and NGOs had been working. Instead, led by fiery Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, MPs pushed through just a single constitutional amendment: one that would lift the ban on headscarves in universities...
...prosecutor Abdurrahman Sarikaya reacted to the headscarf amendment by filing an indictment asking the court to ban the AKP and 71 of its politicians, including Erdogan, for anti-secularism. Erdogan has since conceded he may have made mistakes. "We need to restore social peace again. What is important is to live together under this sky in unity," he said in a Hurriyet interview on Saturday...
...forces and the AKP, which was first elected to govern in 2002, have always been uneasy. But an extra measure of animosity has existed since April of last year, when the party sought to install one of its members, Abdullah Gul, as Turkey's President. The military objected, but Erdogan called early elections and appointed him anyway. The AKP then passed a constitutional amendment to lift a ban on head scarves in universities. Since many secularists view head scarves as a political symbol of an Islamic lifestyle, that amendment - struck down by the high court last month - became...
...Turks like Tuncay Ozkan, a 42-year-old TV executive prominent among the new generation of ardent secularist activists, Erdogan is a "fear king," whose party is "using God when it suits them" to amass power and wealth. "The AKP is like the Pied Piper," says Ozkan, who is in the process of launching a pro-secularist political party and TV station. "Everyone knows what they are really about...
...that those seeking high-level positions have Muslim credentials. Many Turks report an increase in mahalle (neighborhood) pressure to adhere to conservative norms. Newspaper ads are being Photoshopped to lengthen sleeves and skirts. Rowers on a university team were recently beaten up by unidentified assailants for wearing shorts. Meanwhile, Erdogan has called on women to have at least three children, and his cabinet includes just one woman. Under the AKP, the share of women in the workforce has dropped, from...