Turkey's charismatic leader can't seem to do anything wrong these days, marvels Gareth Jenkins This week's constitution referendum in Turkey gave a boost to what can be rightfully termed Erdoganism, increasing the likelihood that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will both run in and win the 2011 presidential elections. "Nobody can stand in the way of Erdogan now," columnist Mehmet Yilmaz wrote Monday in the mainstream Hurriyet newspaper. "What Turkey will see now is a series of steps that will turn him into Putin." The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) secured a comfortable victory in a referendum on Sunday approving a set of controversial amendments to the country's constitution, the essence of which was extending civilian control over the military, a powerful behind-the-scenes force in Turkey that has staged four coups in as many decades in the name of stability and secularism. After a bitterly contested campaign, 58 per cent of voters supported the 26 amendments, while 42 per cent voted against. The result comes as a relief to the AKP after some opinion polls in the days leading up to the referendum had suggested a much tighter race. Sources close to the party leadership had even predicted that, if the amendments were rejected, the government would have to call an early election, probably in November. The amendments were first brought before parliament in April this year but failed to get the two-thirds majority necessary for them to be enacted automatically. Under Turkish law, the president, former AKP foreign minister Abdullah Gul, can choose to put any constitutional amendments which have been passed by more than half but less than two-thirds of the members of parliament to a public referendum. In fact, most of the proposed changes enjoyed cross-party support. They included proposals to permit civil servants to join trade unions, the removal of obstacles to the introduction of positive gender discrimination, allowing serving military personnel to be tried in civilian courts and the creation of the office of an ombudsman. However, the AKP also included two proposals that would increase their political control over the higher echelons of the judicial system, including the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, which is responsible for appointments, promotions and disciplinary procedures involving members of the judiciary. Courts have been regarded as the second biggest holdout of the secularists together with the military. These two institutions, the military and the courts, see themselves as custodians of Turkey's staunch secularism inaugurated by Kemal Ataturk, and have repeatedly clashed with Erdogan. As recently as 2008, the country's top court almost banned his Justice and Development Party for anti- secularism, as it had several previous parties with religious affiliations. The opposition parties asked the government to separate out these two changes, which would have enabled the 24 uncontroversial amendments to be legislated by parliament and leave the two most controversial ones to be put to a referendum. The AKP refused. Similarly, when the amendments were put to a referendum, the AKP insisted on voters being asked to vote on them as a whole, rather than being able to choose which they supported and which they opposed. The Turkish judicial system has always been heavily politicised. Before the AKP came to power in 2002, leftists, Kurdish nationalists and Islamists frequently found themselves charged, and often imprisoned, on poorly substantiated charges, such as support for violent militant groups. In recent years, particularly since 2007, it has increasingly been the AKP's secularist opponents who have been charged and imprisoned on similar charges. In 2009, after newspapers belonging to the Dogan Media Group published details of a court verdict in Germany which found that close associates of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan embezzled over $50 million from an Islamic charity, the group was hit with $3 billion in fines for alleged non-payment of taxes. Opponents of the two controversial constitutional amendments argued that increasing government control over the judiciary would make such cases more frequent. However, during the referendum campaign the AKP maintained that the amendments were part of an attempt to dismantle undemocratic clauses in the current constitution, which was promulgated in 1982 during a period of military rule. Pro-government newspapers repeatedly noted that the referendum was being held on the 30th anniversary of the 12 September 1980 coup under which the junta responsible for Turkey's current constitution first came to power. In his campaign speeches, Erdogan even described opponents of the amendments as supporting military coups. But the AKP has made no attempt to amend arguably much more undemocratic clauses in the current constitution, such as the denial of a Kurdish identity and the 10 per cent threshold for representation in parliament, which forces members of smaller parties -- such as the pro- Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) -- to stand for election as individuals rather than members of a political party. The BDP responded by calling on Kurds to boycott Sunday's referendum. The call was largely successful. Although the nationwide turnout was an impressive 77 per cent, in the predominantly Kurdish provinces of Diyarbakir and Sirnak turnout fell to 33 per cent and 19 per cent respectively. In the province of Hakkari on Turkey's border with northern Iraq, the turnout was just 8 per cent. The success of the BDP, which is regarded by many of both its supporters and opponents as being close to the violent Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is an indication that, although the referendum has concentrated more power in the AKP's hands, the country as a whole is becoming increasingly divided. In addition to the deepening division between ethnic Turks and ethnic Kurds, the tensions between secularists and conservatives over the role of Islam in public life were exacerbated still further as a result of the often acrimonious referendum campaign. Even if the AKP does not use its increased control over the judiciary for its own political ends, the fear that it might is likely to raise social tensions still further over the months ahead. Constitutional amendment highlights : Turkey's constitution, originally written in 1924, amended in 1937 and rephrased in 1982 following a military coup, consists of 177 main articles. The ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) amendments targeted 26 articles and allow the following: - Legally appealing and contesting decisions issued by the highest military body in Turkey, the Supreme Military Council, is now possible. This allows soldiers discharged by the council to appeal. - Civilians will not be tried before military courts except during wartime. The composition of Turkey's Supreme Constitutional Court will be more democratic, allowing the president to appoint 14 judges and the parliament to appoint three. Previously the court consisted of 11 judges only who remained in office even after the retirement age of 65. Turkey's Supreme Legal Council will be formed based on democratic European standards. The council's members will increase from seven permanent and five temporary members to 32 members: 10 MPs and 22 members. The president has the right to appoint four of the council's members and the minister of justice (a permanent member) now has more authority within the council, allowing him to influence its role and thus influence the government. - The changes would end the practice of expelling members of parliament whose actions were cited by a court as grounds to ban a political party. - The proposed amendment requires the Justice Ministry to review prosecutors by judicial inspectors and internal auditors, who must be judges or prosecutors themselves. - Turkish citizens will have the right keep their personal information and data private and protected. This includes their name, date of birth, address, social status, telephone number, passport number, one's private past, photos, and fingerprints. - Persons charged with overthrowing the government will be tried before the public. This amendment in Article 15 allows for the trial of the group that conducted the 1980 coup d'état. - Workers and public servants have the right to strike and protest taxes and any government decision that affects their jobs and income. The 1995 government-appointed Economic and Social Council is now protected by the constitution, which will allow it to play a more dynamic role in protecting labour rights. - Freedom to travel will be restricted by a court order during the period of interrogation or when subject to illegal charges. - A human rights court will be affiliated with the Supreme Constitutional Court with the mandate of looking into human rights cases and appeals filed by Turkish citizens in the European Court of Human Rights against Turkey. - Workers can be members of more than one trade union, as opposed to restrictions in the previous constitution which limited membership to one only. - Public servants are now subject to a charter which includes the rights of senior and retired employees. - Turkish civil servants will only be charged by civil courts.
