EU welcomes Erdogan election win

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EU welcomes Erdogan election win
The EU has welcomed Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's election victory, and urged him to relaunch reforms which could lead to membership of the bloc.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said a new Turkish government would need to make "concrete progress" on freedom of expression and religion.

Mr Erdogan has pledged to "work with determination" towards EU membership.

He won a second five-year term in office after his AK Party increased its share of the vote to 46% on Sunday.

The election was called after opposition parties in parliament blocked the AKP's nominee for the post of president, causing political deadlock.

But despite his electoral victory, Mr Erdogan will lack the two-thirds majority in parliament needed to be able force through his candidate.

'Major challenges ahead'

On Monday, the EU officials congratulated Mr Erdogan on his party's victory, describing it as a mandate for the reforms it wants Turkey to complete during its membership talks.

However, the bloc's enlargement commissioner said the new Turkish government faced "major challenges ahead".


ESTIMATED SEATS


"It is essential that the new government will relaunch the legal and economic reforms with full determination and concrete results," Mr Rehn said.

"We need to see concrete progress on such fundamental freedoms as the freedom of expression, the freedom of religion."

The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, also welcomed the victory, saying the vote came "at an important moment for the people of Turkey".

The UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, said it was very important for Europe to "reach out" to the new government.

"A stable and secure political situation in Turkey is massively in our interest and we will certainly want to be taking forward our links with this very important country," he added.

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said everyone was interested in having a "modern, dynamic, successful Turkey as a partner".

"We expect this government that has a good track record over the past years to continue with even more ambition," she said.

Majority reduced

Correspondents have warned, however, that Mr Erdogan's mandate for reform may be limited by the workings of the Turkish electoral system.

Although the AKP has been returned to power with a larger share of the vote - 12 percentage points more than in 2002 - its share of the seats has dropped to 340 out of the 550 in parliament.

The main secularist opposition group, the Republican People's Party, also increased its share of the vote, but its number of seats fell by more than 60 to 112.

The two main parties have fewer seats because the right-wing Nationalist Action Party (MHP) passed the 10% threshold to enter parliament, unlike in 2002.

This time, the MHP won 71 seats with 14% of the vote.

No other parties passed the threshold, although 28 independent candidates, including more than 20 members of the Kurdish Democratic Society Party, won seats.

It is the first time in more than a decade that a Kurdish party is represented in parliament.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6912221.stm

Published: 2007/07/23 17:35:03 GMT

© BBC MMVII

 

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Two faces of modern Turkey
Ahead of Sunday's general election, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford travels to Kayseri and Izmir to report on how the country's secular system and its democracy are being tested by a shift in power towards religious-minded Turks.

At five o'clock most mornings, the elite of Kayseri are already up and working out. In the hills that surround the city they take a brisk two-hour hike to start the day.
"We always start very early," one man puffs. Striding alongside him are the city's mayor, its business leaders and its police chief. "That's the Anatolian people. They have lots of energy," he says.

Kayseri is a clean-living city, and it is also devout. In Turkey today it is pious places like this that are on the rise.

On the outskirts of the neat and tidy town, Ahmet Hasyuncu runs a successful yarn business. He's also head of an industrial estate that has doubled in size in four years and now houses more than 700 companies, most of them home-grown.

At its centre is a vast mosque. Each factory here has at least one prayer room for its workers.

"Kayseri is known as a conservative city, but it's entrepreneurial too," Mr Hasyuncu says, surrounded by swirling reels of white cotton on his factory floor.

"Our businessmen are reformist - open to change - and we keep our religion out of our work."

Most of Ahmet's trade is with the West.


Once a backwater, central Turkey - or Anatolia - seized advantage of the economic liberalisation of the 1980s to develop into a driving force of the national economy. Local businesses have become known as the "Anatolian Tigers".

The region has always been religious. But now people like Mr Hasyuncu are prospering they are creating a new, conservative middle class and becoming more prominent.

'Worrying' symbol

In strictly secular Turkey, that makes some people nervous.

"Are we really a threat to the system?" asks Mr Hasyuncu, laughing at the suggestion. "Secular Turks are trying to label us as something we're not. It's like they're seeing nightmares."

If there is a symbol of all that worries secular Turks, it is the Islamic headscarf and in conservative Kayseri covered women are a common sight.


HAVE YOUR SAY
The only promise of opposition parties seems to be staunchly secular politics
Ipek Ruacan, Ankara, Turkey


In one room of a smartly refurbished centre run by the city council, three girls study Islamic art, their flat-nibbed pens scratching across the paper. They say they cover their heads as an expression of their personal faith. But away from here, less religious Turks are convinced the headscarf represents an Islamic political agenda.
"We face this kind of attitude very often and it makes us very uncomfortable," Emine says. "I don't think my scarf is a threat to anyone. But what can we do? It would take a miracle to change things here."

At the last election, 54% of voters here helped elect the AK party into office. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is a local.

Kayseri promotes itself as proof that you can be a devout Muslim and still be secular and modern.


But the fact that religious conservatives have political power now worries some people elsewhere in the country.
That worry is felt in Izmir on the west coast, where in the summer locals pack the nightclubs and the bars. Women wear miniskirts and low-cut tops here without a second thought. And there's alcohol.

Modern lifestyle

But Izmir people call themselves modern Muslims too and for them, it is secularism that is sacred - as introduced by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He banished religion from politics when he founded the republic.

"We need to protect our modern lifestyle. We don't want very religious or conservative people to govern us," says club manager Ali Korur, as loud music pumps out across the bay from his 24-hour beach club.

Mr Korur believes the secular system guarantees his freedom. The most popular political party here in his town is the Republican opposition CHP.

"We need a leader that takes us to the West not to the East," he explains.

Back in town, Hanri Benazus sorts through photographs of the leader who first turned Turkey to face the West.

"Ataturk really was a great man. Everything that is contemporary in Turkey is down to him," he says, pointing out pictures of Ataturk in a smart suit and hat, or skimpy swimming shorts.


"Some people worry his revolution is in danger, but I think people who are used to modern life will never return to the age of ignorance."
But that fear is real for some.

When the AK party tried to put a devout man in the presidency, thousands took to the streets in protest carrying enormous national flags. One of the largest demonstrations was here in Izmir.

The government was forced to back down for now. But some suggest the crisis over the presidential election exposed a deeper division here.

"There may be two Turkeys in terms of lifestyle," concedes Professor Tanju Tosun of Izmir's Ege university.

"But step by step we are absorbing democratic values and learning to live together."

It is a delicate balancing act.

The two Turkeys have lived side by side for eight decades. But now power is swinging towards more religious-minded Turks, the country's secular system - and its democracy - are being tested.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6906010.stm

Published: 2007/07/19 10:00:59 GMT

© BBC MMVII