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Erdoan was responding to a column in the German newspaperBild titled Atatrk Would Have Said No,' published in German and Turkish over the weekend. Turkish citizens living in Germany are eligible to vote in the April 16 referendum.
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On what ground have they said such a thing? Do they have the ability to read the memories of Atatrk? What does it have to do with Atatrk? Erdoan toldHaberTrk and Bloomberg,according to the Turkish newspaperHurriyet.Now, I would say, on the contrary, that if Atatrk were to rise again, he would say yes to the regulation we have prepared because he, himself, lived with such [a system].
Erdoan claimed thatAtatrk did what we want to do because he could not even get along with smet nn who was his fellow worker.nn succeededAtatrk as the second president of the Turkish republic in 1938. Didnt Mustafa Kemal rule by himself? We do not want to rule like that, but he was at odds with nn.
The presidents Justice and Development Party (AKP) are arguing that Turkey must evolve its parliamentary system into a presidential one in order to modernize the country. Critics allege that creating a presidential system without ensuring necessary checks on the executive from the legislative and judiciary will expandErdoans power beyond what is safe for the maintenance of a democracy. AKP leaders contend, instead, that the current system does not allow forErdoan to properly act in the face of multiple terrorist threats and a declining economy.
The current constitution gives a lot of powers to the president, but without any accountability and any responsibility, and no judicial supervision, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlutavuolu argued in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News last week. The power will go to the people, not anybody else.
Prime Minister Binali Yldrm, whose position in a new presidential system is uncertain, has vociferously attacked those who oppose the transition, likening them to those who organized a coup attempt against Erdoan in July 2016. Those who want to replace the national will; who have planned the July 15, 2016 coup will be expired, they are taking their place in the garbage of history, he said this week.
The Turkish government insists that those who organized the failed coup were supporters of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. Gulen presides over a religious movement known as Hizmet which many have likened to a cult and rules a network of charter schools throughout the United States. Ankara identifies Hizmet as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and accuses it of organizing violent acts to overthrowErdoan.
Early reports in July 2016 identified the coup organizers not as Gulenists, however, but as Kemalists Atatrk secularist military leaders who objected tothe AKPs growing Islamicization of Turkey. Following the founding of the Republic of Turkey,Atatrk banned the instruction of Islamic doctrine in schools, banned thehijab and other Islamic clothing and standardized the Turkish language using Roman letters.Atatrk envisioned a strictly secular government, though theArmenian National Institute identifies him as the consummator of the Armenian Genocide and a major organizer of the ethnic cleansing of Armenian Christians out of Anatolia.
During his tenure,Erdoan has overturned a number of Kemalist policies, including allowing hijab in the militaryand in schools, reintroducing the pre-Atatrk Ottoman language in schools, andcracking down on alcohol consumption. Under the current president, a record number of Turks have visited Atatrks tomb in Istanbul, as academics decried moral authoritarianism and protesters warned that the AKP was stepping on everything Ataturk stands for.
Under the current presidency, the Kemalist social assemblies known as Halkevleri (Peoples Houses) have also faced growing violence. In January, aHalkevleri assembly at a shopping mall came to blows as a mob attacked the secularists, beating them while chanting there is nogod but Allah. TheHalkevleri had unfurled a banner reading Turkey is secular and will remain secular at the mall. During the attack, the secularists chanted We are soldiers ofMustafa Kemal.
TheRepublican Peoples Party (CHP), the party founded by Atatrk, supports a no vote in next months referendum.
The 20 most developed countries, apart from the U.S., are governed by parliamentary systems. The 20 countries at the bottom of the list are governed by presidential systems,Kemal Kldarolu, the lead of the CHP, said last week during a press event in Ordu.The only Muslim country that has a developed democracy is Turkey. None of the other Islamic countries have a republic. Now we are turning round and destroying the republic. Why?
If you say that a leader of a political party should appoint judges and prosecutors, then you should vote yes. But if you do not want politics to interfere with the judiciary, then you should vote no, he argued, adding that the yes vote would demolish the democratic system in Turkey and harm civilization.
Read more from the original source:
Erdogan: Atatrk Would Say 'Yes' to Expanded Presidential Power in Turkey - Breitbart News