A Turkish woman casts his ballot in Yayladagi, near the border with Syria. (Vadim Ghirda, associated press, and on June 12, 2011)Millions of Turkish voters headed to the polls Sunday for the parliamentary elections of criticism that will likely shape the Constitution of the country, his conflict with a restless Kurdish minority and its definition of citizenship.But judging from gigantic imminent fencing of roads and buildings throughout the country, the elections are really about if the first Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan should be crowned with Turkey leader for the next 12 years.
"Prepared for 2023," say billboards, referring to the year marks the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, as well as, coincidentally, how long the ambitious and presumptuous Erdogan can stay in power, if it succeeds to change to Turkey from a parliamentary to a presidential system."You will only see its image," said Asli Aydintasbas, a columnist for the Milliyet newspaper. "This omnipresence is a little scary."
In many ways, the outcome of the election on Sunday is default. Few doubt that Erdogan entrenched Islamist justice and development party, known by the acronym AKP, will come in first and form the next Government as it rides a wave of popular support for his relatively successful economic policy and attractive for the emerging middle class of pious of the country.
Liberal Republican people's Party will come in second and serve as a noisy opposition supported by the old guard of the country. The Kurdish party of democracy and peace will add to their seats in the southeast of the country and they begin to push for autonomy as the country struggles to end a 27-year armed insurrection.
The suspense is whether AKP manages to win a parliamentary majority, which would allow him to rewrite the Constitution much more easily and consolidate the State of Erdogan as leader of the nation.
Critics say the 57 year-old former Mayor of Istanbul, a charismatic politician and international figure, has shown an increasingly authoritarian streak, Brookings little criticism, press newspapers and stations of television to soften the coverage of him, and through constitutional changes of the Judiciary defended the last year to fill the courts with loyalists.
"We will be not be choosing the party that will come to power for the next four years," said Cuneyt Ulsever, a novelist and journalist says he was fired from his job in a newspaper because of his criticism of Erdogan. "We are going to vote for the change of regime".
Erdogan supporters are quick to warn that the pre-election rhetoric of Turkey tends towards the hyperbolic. "I am sure that on Monday, the leaders of the parties meet and shake hands and get down to work," said Murat Mercan, AKP legislator and Adviser to Erdogan's foreign policy.
It is likely that many of the constitutional changes will be help to enshrine the rights of minorities such as Armenians in the country, Greeks, Circassians, Arab, Alawite Muslims, Jews and especially the Kurds as equal citizens, put an end to a very restrictive definition of Turkishness that legalized chauvinism.
AKP supporters say that the country is returning to its roots as the cosmopolitan and multicultural society that tell us that it was before Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had established modern Turkey in 1923.
"The Republic was a parenthesis," said Etyen Mahcupyan, analyst of the Turkish economy and social studies Foundation, a group of reflection. "Now is close the parenthesis." "We are remembering what they were."
This type of "neo-Otomano" speech has captured the imagination of critics of the brand of Ataturk's secularism intellectual Turks, as well as some Western observers.
But critics in the country are concerned about the stifling of voices, burden that Erdogan sometimes encourages Allied businessmen to buy the television channels and then soften the coverage. Erdogan's strategy to obtain those critical additional seats to rewrite the Constitution has also concerned many of its critics.
Critics also accuse the Prime Minister of Muslim fanaticism Sunni against the Muslim minority of Alawite of planting and express concern about its appeal to calm voters talking about bring the death penalty.
Many suspect that they were allies of Erdogan behind a campaign of filtering videos showing officials in the small party national movement right to illicit sex.
If the nationalist party did not overcome the obstacle of voting the necessary 10% to enter Parliament, party of Erdogan would win as 50 seats in the body of 550 seats.
Erdogan supporters dismiss to much of the criticism against him as a little unrealistic and exaggerated. Legislator Mercan, granting that Erdogan has a habit of suing journalists critical of him, said that although the Prime Minister was too sensitive to criticism, was not evidence of dictatorship creeping.
"It is a personal decision, it is not an indicator of an authoritarian regime," he said. "Leaders of the opposition Sue journalists as well".
But even some stalwarts AKP have grown wary of some of the tactics of Erdogan, especially when it comes to the Alawites. "Private blush and say that it is correct," said a journalist in Istanbul, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. "But none of them dares to say that".
daragahi@LATimes.com
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