fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Constitutional Reform in Turkey

The U.S. and EU are expressing gratification at Turkey’s democratizing measures, but their effect will be to eliminate key checks on what Erdogan and AKP can do with a legislative majority. ~J.E. Dyer Via Scoblete There is something a little odd in referring to the ability to stage a military coup without legal consequences as […]

The U.S. and EU are expressing gratification at Turkey’s democratizing measures, but their effect will be to eliminate key checks on what Erdogan and AKP can do with a legislative majority. ~J.E. Dyer

Via Scoblete

There is something a little odd in referring to the ability to stage a military coup without legal consequences as a “check” on someone else’s potential abuse of power. I am one of the last to idolize the form of democratic or constitutional government as if that were enough (I wrote some positive posts about the overthrow of Thaksin when it happened and afterwards), but on the whole it is good to not have the military be effectively outside the rule of law and have that exemption written into the constitution. One of the important reforms approved by the Turkish referendum was the elimination of military immunity from prosecution in civilian courts. For any other country with a history of military interventions in politics, we would be applauding this move to bring the military under the rule of law, but because it is Turkey and some of us trust Turkish authoritarians more than they trust Turkish democrats this is a cause for worry. Democratists are a funny bunch: they are eager to install democracy where it has never existed, pretend allied states are successful democracies when they aren’t, and get worried when democratic government actually appears and grows somewhere without their help.

The tradition of Turkish secularism has always been one imposed from above and in its most extreme form it is one that has been maintained by elite institutions against the will of the majority. We don’t usually regard the President’s ability to appoint federal judges as a particularly great danger, but somehow allowing the elected government to select most of the Turkish constitutional court is a threat.

It seems as if it was just yesterday when everyone was absolutely sure that Turkey had rejected the West and abandoned their ideas about joining the EU. Of course, that was because the Turkish government was acting as it if were the government of a sovereign and independent country, and a lot of people here were under the impression that Turkey was an American dependency. On the one hand, this referendum formally brings Turkey a lot more in line with European legal norms. Europe may not want Turkey, but the Turkish majority is still trying to meet Europe’s requirements. If this is what neo-Ottomanism in action looks like, it seems that the alarmists were wrong again.

The strange thing about Turkish politics is that the Kemalists that some Westerners keep idealizing and rooting for made up most of the opposition to the referendum (in part because their opponents support it), which means that many Westerners are actively cheering for the forces that have been less interested in integrating with Europe and the rest of the world in practice. For the last decade, the AKP has been the party of trade, business and investment, and the CHP remains obsessed to a surprising degree with old socialist models. Naturally, then, the AKP is the one that many Americans find troubling.

The referendum succeeded partly for domestic political reasons unrelated to constitutional reform or Europe, and some of it was simply an expression of support for the AKP. Then again, support for the AKP continues to be as high as it is because the AKP has largely delivered on its promises of economic reform and political modernization. The referendum is part of that modernization process, and it is something that Americans, to the extent that we have any business commenting on it at all, should be pleased to see.

Advertisement

Comments

The American Conservative Memberships
Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here