Word: erdogan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Heading the all-male cast in this drama is the solitary, hawkish and staunchly secularist chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, who has become an Islamist hate target for his 162-page indictment accusing the AKP of seeking to overthrow secularism. Arrayed against him is Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a tall, moody former football player who grew up a hard-line Islamist and was once jailed for reciting a poem deemed to incite religious hatred. His ally, President Abdullah Gul, a moderate, must now balance his party loyalties against the requirement that he be neutral. And lurking in the wings...
...court. In past rulings, the court has banned several other political parties on similar grounds of violating the Turkish constitution. But this is different: the AKP enjoys more popular support than any of its predecessors, and it has formed the first single-party government in decades. The AKP under Erdogan has also distanced itself from traditional Islamist rhetoric, particularly in the impious fervor with which it has embraced liberal capitalism: foreign capital inflows and economic growth have been at a record high...
...month to submit its initial defense, and court proceedings could take up to six months. Meanwhile Erdogan has taken to the war path, reciting Quranic verse in heavily emotional public speeches, with repeated references to "us" and "them." That polarization could ultimately be the most dangerous aspect of this debacle. Responding to calls by international organizations to take a step back, he bristled, and essentially said never. "The AKP say they want democracy and the European Union, but they don't have much to show for this," says Hakan Altinay, director of Istanbul's Open Society Institute. "In the next...
...considering passing a constitutional amendment that could render the case moot, making it harder to ban parties and reducing the penalty for the charges applied. But the court could argue that such a change, enacted while the case is pending, is not admissible. In that event, Erdogan - who faces a five-year ban from politics should the AKP lose - could call early elections, or even urge his supporters to take to the streets. "The man is a fighter," said one leading businessman. "He won't give up. If necessary, he'll take it to the bitter...
...there is a lesson to be drawn from this for the AKP, it is that Turkey's political balance is delicate and to enact change requires coalition-builders, not bulldozers - even with 47% of the vote. Erdogan might learn to rein in his famous temper and accomodate critics. For instance, he abandoned a much-needed reform to overhaul the constitution, a leftover from a 1980 military coup, in favor of a one-off amendment to lift the ban on headscarves in universities. "If Erdogan stuck to his original steps, like joining Europe and integrating with the global economy, he wouldn...