Erdogan Wins Vote to Extend Powers Over Secular Courts, Army
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images
Turkish Prime Minister and leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkish Prime Minister and leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photographer: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a referendum on constitutional changes that will strengthen his government’s powers over the courts and army, boosting his prospects of re-election next year.
The package was supported by 58 percent of voters to 42 percent against, with a 78 percent turnout in yesterday’s vote, state broadcaster TRT said citing official figures from the country’s election board. The margin was larger than foreseen by pre-vote surveys. Erdogan’s own polls predicted the measures would pass with 55 percent support.
The referendum was widely viewed as a preview of Erdogan’s chances of winning a third term in office at general elections to be held by July. The “yes” vote will bolster a government that has presided over record economic growth even as critics accuse it of seeking to undermine Turkey’s secular system. Generals and judges who see themselves as the last line of defense against encroaching Islamism, and have frequently clashed with the prime minister since his party came to power in 2002, will have their powers curtailed under the amendments.
The strong win “indicates the prospects of a third term look solid,” and shows that Erdogan’s “political machine” is “far superior to any of its competitors,” said Wolfango Piccoli, an analyst of political risk at the Eurasia Group in London.
Speaking to supporters in Istanbul, Erdogan welcomed the “yes” vote and said he will work on a complete overhaul of Turkey’s constitution, drafted in 1982 when the country was under military rule, after next year’s elections.
‘Democracy Strengthened’
“ Together we have raised the bar for democracy, justice and the rule of law,” he said. “Our citizens have shown their faith in Turkish democracy, and strengthened it.”
In the week before the referendum, investors sent the benchmark ISE-100 stock index to a historic high as they bet on a win that could help extend economic growth averaging about 5 percent a year. The ISE-100 has added 15 percent this year, the most among major European markets, while the MSCI Emerging Markets index rose 2.4 percent. The lira has gained 4.6 percent against the dollar in the past three months.
Turkish stocks and the lira may extend gains today as investors interpret the result as a vote of confidence in Erdogan’s government, said Ismail Erdem, Chief Executive Officer of asset management company Standard Unlu Portfoy Yonetimi AS in Istanbul. “This is something that the market wants,” he said. “Turkish markets will continue to outperform.”
Coup Anniversary
Opposition politicians campaigned against the measures, saying they undermine the separation of powers and would hand Erdogan too much power. The leader of the main opposition Republic People’s Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, was unable to vote in Istanbul after failing to register a change of address.
Voting day marked the 30th anniversary of a 1980 coup that brought Turkey three years of army rule. Generals imprisoned thousands of Kurds, Marxists and extreme nationalists in a bid to halt political killings that were destabilizing the country.
Before yesterday’s vote, analysts said nationalist and Kurdish voters held the key to an Erdogan victory.
The amendments won overwhelming support in largely Kurdish areas in east and southeast Turkey, with the “yes” vote exceeding 90 percent in Kurdish-majority provinces including Diyarbakir and Van, according to regional counts reported by NTV television. Many Kurdish voters defied a call to boycott the referendum from the Peace and Democracy Party, the region’s main political group, which argued that the amendments were drawn up without regard for the concerns of Turkey’s Kurdish minority, estimated to be 15 to 20 percent of the population.
Business Support
The country’s leading business group, Tusiad, said the vote reinforced the need to completely rewrite the 1982 constitution “The goal must be to prepare a 21st-century constitution that is a real social contract expressing our desire to live together freely,” the group said in a statement after the referendum.
The amendments bring Turkey’s military, already weakened by European Union-backed reforms and a series of investigations into alleged coup plots, further under civilian control, allowing members of the armed forces to be tried in civilian rather than military courts for crimes against the state. The 15th article of the constitution is abolished, allowing the architects of the 1980 coup, including its leader, General Kenan Evren, now in his nineties, to be put on trial.
Court Clashes
The amendments also restructure the judiciary, giving the government more control over appointments to the Supreme Board of Prosecutors and Judges and the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court, which has frequently clashed with Erdogan and struck down measures passed by his lawmakers, will be expanded to 17 members from 11, with 14 appointed by the president and the other three by parliament.
Critics including the opposition Republic People’s Party and Nationalist Action Party say the amendments allow Erdogan to enact what they say is his hidden Islamist agenda. Erdogan says they bring Turkey closer in line with democratic standards of the EU, which Turkey is in talks to join.
The EU’s commissioner for enlargement, Stefan Fule, said approval of the amendments was a “step in the right direction” toward meeting EU requirements. In a statement late yesterday he urged Erdogan’s government to enact “other much-needed reforms to address the remaining priorities in the area of fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression and freedom of religion,” and said that would be best achieved by a complete rewrite of the constitution.
Other amendments approved yesterday allow for “positive discrimination” in favor of women, children, the elderly and disabled, and expand the rights of workers to form and join unions.
To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Harvey in Ankara at bharvey11@bloomberg.net.
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