The stunning victory of the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey does not pose a threat to Turkish Jewry, Turkish-Jewish columnist and blogger Karel Valansi told The Algemeiner on Thursday.
Advertisement
Turkey may hold a referendum on changing the constitution to create an executive presidential system and discussions on the issue will accelerate in the period ahead, President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said on Wednesday.
He pointed out that security concerns would inevitably influence the economy, especially with a negative impact on investors’ and consumers’ confidence. In last June’s polls the AKP had faced first setback of its 13-year rule, when it could not win enough seats to form government on its own and also failed to find a coalition partner.
The government has refused to resurrect peace talks, with Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan saying Tuesday conditions were not yet ripe. A military campaign was launched against the militant Kurdish Workers’ Party, the PKK, but in the process more than 250 civilians, including 30 children, lost their lives. Erdogan and the PKK underwent peace negotiations earlier this year before talks collapsed in July. Turkish air force has been targeting the PKK, which is fighting the IS in the neighbouring Syria and Iraq. More than 40 000 people, mainly Kurdish militants, have died in the prolonged conflict.
The government has intensified the cracking down on IS cells in recent months.
Arad Nir is the Foreign Affairs Editor of Channel 2 News and an expert on Turkish politics and Israel-Turkey relations.
The chronic current account deficit is stubbornly still high, suggesting the need for structural reforms to address the underlying fundamentals that cause it.
Technically, the AKP is no longer Mr. Erdogan’s party, as the presidency is supposed to be politically neutral, but it is no secret that he is counting on a strong AKP to concentrate power in his presidency now that he can no longer be prime minister.
The growth is expected to grow 2.9 percent in 2015, well below the government’s four percent target.
“We will learn the answer soon”, he remarked.
Emboldened by its surprise election victory, the AKP has since gone on the offensive against both the Kurdish rebels and opponents of Erdogan, including critical media.
Demirtaş added: “Turkey needs a new Constitution”.
Erdogan said the results had shown that the Turkish “national will favoured stability”.
“New constitution is number one political pledge by the AKP. It is still valid today”, he said. The HDP became the country’s third largest party, the Right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) won only 41 seats compared with 80 in June while the Left-wing Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) won 134 seats, up from 132. “All [governance] models can be debated including a presidential one”.
Mr Erdogan also vowed there would be no let-up in the military campaign against Kurdish rebels, one of the key security challenges for his new administration after a wave of tit-for-tat violence left a truce in tatters. If sweeping amendments to the constitution that were proposed in 2014 were to pass, they would strip a few of the executive power from the parliament while increasing the power of the presidency.
Advertisement
Winning almost half of the vote, AKP is now in power with a single-party majority for the fourth time since 2002.
