Word: turkish
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Even without the ominous prospect of military meddling, the stakes are high indeed. The threat of further political turmoil is already spooking investors, with Turkish shares tumbling 8% on Monday alone. A political impasse threatens to slow or reverse democratic reforms that were under way to meet European Union norms, and could further complicate Turkey's strained relations with Europe. Some E.U. membership negotiations are already on hold, and they are not likely to resume if the government cannot agree on who's in charge. Senior E.U. official Olli Rehn has said Turkey's handling of the crisis will...
...Turkish democracy has always been a complicated and fragile phenomenon. On the one hand, the country's secular traditions date back to founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who mandated in 1923 a strict divide between mosque and state. (He banned the fez, and modeled his constitution on the Swiss Civil Code.) The secular middle class that grew out of that tradition, filling the ranks of the bureaucracy and profiting from its largesse, has dominated Turkey's political and economic landscape for most of the last century. The Turkish army has served as a guarantor of this successful arrangement. The self-appointed...
...battle has moved to the presidency. In Turkey, the President possesses little legislative or executive power, other than wielding a veto. But the office carries huge symbolic importance, especially for the Turkish military, since one of the President's titles-albeit a ceremonial one-is commander-in-chief. The incumbent President, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, is a staunch secularist who was only too willing to wield his veto power to quash legislation and appointments he deemed too Islamist. As the ruling party, the AKP had a constitutional right to appoint one of its own to replace Sezer, and Erdogan came close...
...perceived Islamist threat and force a coalition of some sort. Both outcomes are possible. But if the AKP returns to office more powerful than before, the army may feel compelled to act again, this time by taking to the streets. Either way, the campaign is likely to further polarize Turkish society and jeopardize its remarkable economic boom...
...wants to encourage home ownership by deducting mortgage payments; Sego stresses the backlog in social housing. Sarko proposes a legal right to childcare; Sego says the idea of going to court to get a spot in a daycare center is absurd since courts are already overworked. Sarko resolutely opposes Turkish membership in the European Union; Sego says that France doesn't yet have to decide - and neither does she. Sarko wants to keep the basic institutions of France as they are; Sego wants to launch a 6th Republic with a stronger parliament...