Event Summary
Turkey's constitutional process for selecting a new president went off the rails in late April, precipitating early general elections that will take place July 22. With a dramatic statement on April 27, Turkey's military was thrust back into domestic politics for the first time in a decade. The country's perennially fractured secular political opposition is unifying and has held impressive demonstrations in anticipation of a showdown with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, often described as "Islamic" in orientation by its opponents.
Event Information
When
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
3:30 PM to 5:00 PM
Where
Saul/Zilkha Rooms
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Map
On June 19, Brookings hosted a panel discussion with some of Turkey's leading political analysts on what may be the most important general election in Turkey in 20 years. Experts included: Asli Aydintasbas, Ankara bureau chief of Sabah Turkish daily newspaper and Cengiz Candar, columnist for Referans Turkish daily newspaper. Mark R. Parris, director of the Turkey 2007 Project and former ambassador to Turkey, moderated.
Transcript
MARK PARRIS: The failure by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party to elect Turkey's next president has plunged the country into uncharted waters constitutionally and it has dramatically raised the stakes in the general elections now scheduled to take place July 22nd.
The process of selecting a president has been suspended pending the outcome of those general elections. Given the interpretation by Turkey's Constitutional Court that served as the basis for aborting Abdullah Gül's presidency candidacy, it is not given as we meet today that whatever parliament emerges from the July 22nd elections will be any more able to elect a president than its predecessor. Attempts to ram through constitutional amendments that would have permitted a direct population election of a new president appear to have been pocket vetoed and will not be operative for purposes of the current election cycle. And what I suppose one could call a virtual intervention by Turkey's military the evening of April 27th has brought that institution dramatically back into the center of Turkish politics for the first time in a decade.
So with little more than a month before election day, there are a lot more questions than there are answers regarding Turkey's political future.
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Participants
Moderator
Visiting Fellow and Director, Turkey 2007, The Brookings Institution
Panelists
Asli Aydintasbas
Ankara Bureau Chief, Sabah
Cengiz Candar
Columnist, Referans