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Tuesday, September 14, 2010     GET REAL

Turkey referendum called watershed victory
for Islamic agenda

ANKARA — Turkey's decision to change its secular constitution is being marked as a milestone in the nation's path toward Islam.

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Analysts said Prime Minister Recep Erdogan won a victory in a Sept. 12 referendum to revise the constitution. They said the proposed constitutional amendments would expand the influence of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party and its Islamic agenda as well as reduce the influence of the secular military.

"It's a very significant long-term development," Daniel Pipes, a leading U.S. analyst on Islam, said.


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In an address to an international counter-insurgency conference in Israel on Sept. 13, Pipes said the Turkish referendum marked a major step toward the transformation of the NATO member into an Islamic state. He said this would harm Turkish relations with the West.

"This will have significant repercussions for counter-terrorism," Pipes, a former State Department official, said. "This is a strategic event."

About 58 percent of Turks approved 26 amendments to the constitution, which was drafted following the military coup in 1980. One amendment would allow Erdogan's party a major say in the appointment of judges.

"This is a dark moment in history," Turkish opposition leader Devlet Bahceli said.

The analysts said the referendum would galvanize Erdogan ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for 2011. They said Erdogan would intensify his pro-Islamic foreign policy, including reconciliation with neighboring Iran and Syria.

"Nobody can stand in the way of Erdogan now," Turkish analyst Mehmet Yilmaz said. "What Turkey will see now is a series of steps that will turn him into [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."



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