ANKARA – TURKS vote on Sunday in a constitutional referendum seen widely as a test of support for a government that has pushed liberal reforms but is accused by some secularist critics of promoting Islamist ambitions.
Opinion polls show the vote on the package, including reforms to the judiciary, too close to call, reflecting stark divisions in the country ahead of 2011 elections.
Prime minister Tayyip Erdogan says the changes to a charter drafted in the 1980s after a military coup are needed to strengthen democracy and bring Turkey closer to European norms.
The secularist opposition sees them as an attempt to take control of courts by an AK party that over eight years has enjoyed a huge parliamentary majority and established a strong power base.
The reform package includes 26 articles. Most are seen as progressive and uncontroversial, including one that would make the military more answerable to civilian courts.
But proposed changes to the make-up of the Constitutional Court, and the High Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HYSK), a state body charged with appointing magistrates, have raised concerns over the independence of the judiciary.
The European Commission has backed Ankara’s attempt to reorganise the judiciary, but accused the government of stifling public debate over the reforms.
The criticism stemmed from press reports that Mr Erdogan had warned a Turkish business group of the risks of “elimination” over its failure to express support for the reforms, commission spokeswoman Angela Filote told a news briefing in Brussels.
Mr Erdogan’s pro-business AK party has roots in political Islam but denies having any aims to roll back the republic’s traditional secularism, and sees itself as akin to Europe’s conservative Christian Democrat parties.
Since winning power in 2002, the AK has overseen a period of record economic growth and relative stability in a country with a history of financial mismanagement and political upheaval.
In 2007, the party won a record 47 per cent of the vote, but next year’s vote is seen as its toughest test yet.
Analysts say the referendum is the latest battleground between the AK, backed by a rising middle class of observant Muslims, and a secular elite which has traditionally held power since Kemal Ataturk founded modern Turkey in 1923.
With the military’s once formidable power clipped by EU-driven reforms, high courts have become the last redoubt of a conservative establishment suspicious of the AK Party.
A Nato member that occupies a vital geo-strategic position between Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East, Turkey under the AK party has rejigged its foreign policy, deepening ties with Iran, Syria and Iraq, while cooling its traditional alliance with Israel.
The vote is taking place on the 30th anniversary of military coup that led to a period of brutal repression. – (Reuters)