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Past Event

A Center on the United States and Europe Event

Turkey’s New Constitutional Crisis: A Judicial Coup d’Etat?

Turkey, Elections, Europe


Event Summary

Nine months after its landslide election victory, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is once again in the midst of a major political struggle with the country’s secular establishment. In March, Turkey's chief prosecutor petitioned the country’s constitutional court for the closure of the AKP on the grounds of “anti-secular” activities. The chief prosecutor also demanded a ban on political activity for five years of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Abdullah Gul and other senior party figures. The legal fight could last for up to a year and is likely to have a negative impact on already difficult membership negotiations with the European Union. Some commentators have called the case a “judicial coup d’etat” against a democratically elected and widely popular government.

Event Information

When

Thursday, April 17, 2008
3:30 PM to 5:00 PM

Where

Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC
Map

Event Materials

Contact: Brookings Office of Communications

E-mail: events@brookings.edu

Phone: 202.797.6105

On April 17, the Center on the United States on Europe (CUSE) at Brookings hosted a panel discussion to examine the legal and political dynamics behind the case against the AKP. Speakers included Mustafa Akyol, editor and columnist with the Turkish Daily News; Levent Koker, professor of law at Gazi University in Ankara, Turkey; and Mumtaz Soysal, former foreign minister of Turkey. Brookings Nonresident Fellow and Director of the Turkey Project Omer Taspinar provided introductory remarks and moderated the discussion. After the program, the panelists took audience questions.
 

Transcript

OMER TASPINAR:   Our goal is essentially to reflect the debate in Turkey as it is, as objective as it can be without really taking sides by trying to reflect basically a mirror image of what is taking place. And for those of you who have been following Turkey I guess it’s not surprising to tell you that the country’s going through once again, polarizing times, difficult times. And we are here with three very distinguished commentators, experts of Turkish constitutional law, Turkish politics and we would like to discuss essentially the political, social, and legal dynamics behind the case against the AK Party government which is now in the constitutional court, but this will give us an opportunity to talk also about the general political dynamics in the country.

Participants

Introduction and Moderator

Ömer Taşpınar

Nonresident Fellow, Foreign Policy

Panelists

Mustafa Akyol

Editor and Columnist, Turkish Daily News

Levent Koker

Professor of Law, Gazi University (Ankara, Turkey)

Mumtaz Soysal

Former Foreign Minister of Turkey


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