WI they declared it illegal? Erdogan would have to resign, but since the AKP has such a huge majority, the opposition couldn't form a government. Perhaps the "e-mail coup" comes into play as well...
If the AKP had been outlawed, a new party would have been formed and the current leadership would have had to do their best to control it from behind the scenes until they were permitted to run for office again.
In the meantime, the rickety coalition of secularist parties would busily despoil the nation and get nothing done, while clamping down on Islam, the Kurds, and democracy in general, which would fuel an AKP comeback. Meanwhile, the President, who is constitutionally "above party", would remain in office and would be likely to resist the government in every way possible.
I think that is what prevented the Court from banning the party, not its dedication to democracy.
I'm surrounded by Kemalist Turks to whom every woman in a headscarf is a 9-11. I'm so sick and f#$%ing tired of hearing their crap, which sounds exactly like the paranoid delusion of GOP Teabaggers.
Anyway, the irony is that the Kemalists take a purely Ottoman approach, that is top-down politics - "you'll do it our way and like it because you're illiterate peasants and we're the fucking elite!", whereas the AKP has built it's support from the grassroots. If the secularists want to win votes, they are going to have to start to represent the people an not their own narrow interests.
WI they declared it illegal? Erdogan would have to resign, but since the AKP has such a huge majority, the opposition couldn't form a government. Perhaps the "e-mail coup" comes into play as well...
Hash, wouldn't the AKP would be the Republicans, since they're allegedly the social conservatives? I don't know Erdogan's economic platform, though by the EU talks I suspect he's a free-trader. Abdul, correct me if I'm wrong.
So the AKP are basically a far more awesome form of the Democrats, while the Kemalists and secularists are the GOP in a Democratic Tent?
Abdul: If the new PM decided to impeach the President (or however that works in Turkey) and install a pliant figurehead, how would that work? The military's loyalties (or at least the brass) are quite clearly with the secularists.
Any danger of a military Islamic-coup if this were to happen later?While the army was usually dominated by fascist Kemalist tendancies, I have it on good sources that Islamists have penetrated the lower ranks of the army, and even some higher ones including generals. The results of a coup attempt are not going to be pretty. I think the best indicator of this is that the army didn't attempt one. If you look at the resurging popularity of Islam and the fact that there are now Kurdish language TV stations, you can see that the situation today is much different from 1960 or 1980
Any danger of a military Islamic-coup if this were to happen later?
I worry about the USAF myself, lots of evangelicals (for its service) and trusted with Nuke delivery.
Any danger of a military Islamic-coup if this were to happen later?
I worry about the USAF myself, lots of evangelicals (for its service) and trusted with Nuke delivery.