The Turkish Referendum

Turkey's referendum this past weekend has passed a number of constitutional reforms that either democratize the military-imposed constitution or impose a system which will institutionalize the ruling AKP Party, which those who argue the latter case portray as an Islamist Party disguised as a democratic one. I'm no Turkey scholar, but I lean toward the earlier translation.

I won't try to comment. There are too many people around who know the subject far better than I, so let me send you their way: first, in-house, MEI's own Gönül Tol, a pre-referendum piece found on our website but which first appeared on Foreign Policy's Mideast Channel last week. Read it where you will. The Middle East Channel also had a piece by Hatem Ete on "The Battle over Constitutional Reform in Turkey," also written before the vote.

Turkish interpretations in English here and here (both Hüriyyet) and here (Zaman).

Israelis generally don't like Erdogan very much, but Amos Liel in Ha'aretz says the referendum ranks him "second only to Ataturk" (heads are exploding in the Turkish military). The Jerusalem Post is less excessive but swallows hard and notes Erdogan won a major victory.