Turkey To Resolve Constitutional Crisis By Holding June Elections

Prime Minister Erdogan has opted to resolve Turkey's contstitutional crisis by calling for new elections to be held June 24. The background to this crisis is here, here and here. The crisis, nominally about legal requirements to elect a President, actually turns on the fundamental issue of what the nature of the Turkish state should be. Should Turkey retain its identity as a wholly secular state, or should secularism be discarded in favor of political Islam? This from Reuters, reporting PM Erdogan's decision to resolve the issue democratically:

. . . The AK Party has proposed bringing forward the parliamentary election to June 24 from November 4. Erdogan is expected to win a second term after five years of strong economic growth since his party came to power in 2002.

The AK Party will also propose that in future the president be elected by popular vote, not by parliament, Erdogan said.

Deniz Baykal, leader of the secularist main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said it was too late for this parliament, elected in 2002, to overhaul the constitution.

"This is about a fundamental power struggle. Erdogan is saying 'ok, you're using everything in order to stop me, then I am going to the public and I will ask them (what they want)'," said Mehmet Ali Birand, a leading Turkish commentator.

A threat by the army, which regards itself as the guardian of Turkey's secular system, to intervene in the presidential poll, an opposition boycott of the first round vote in parliament and an anti-government rally of up to one million people on Sunday sharply increased tension in Turkey.

The decision to bring forward the election brought relief to financial markets which had suffered their biggest fall in a year over the previous two days on fears of instability.

The European Commission welcomed the planned early election. Italy said recent events in Turkey showed caution was justified over its admittance to the 27-nation European Union.

Turkey, constitutionally secular and its 74 million people predominantly Muslim, began EU membership talks in 2005. . .

Read the entire article here. The AKP Party is clearly quite popular becasue it has very successfully managed a reform of the economy and a period of rapid economic growth during its years in power. That said, this election will almost certainly turn far less on the economy and far more on the issue of retaining a strictly secular government.

(H/T Dinah Lord)

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Most Brits Support EU Disengagement

I cannot understand why Tony Blair is trying to tie Britain ever tighter into the grip of the EU. And, apparently, most Brits agree. This today from the Comment Section of the Telegraph (UK):

. . . A new EU treaty is being drafted by the German presidency. It will almost certainly be a "slimmed-down" version of the 2004 Constitutional Treaty that was rejected by the French and Dutch electorates.

The changes Angela Merkel incorporates will probably be the minimum she considers necessary to pacify the member states that baulked at the original treaty. One of the changes will be the symbolic dropping of the title "Constitution".

Tony Blair, mindful of the British electorate's rising euroscepticism and impatience with the EU's petty regulations and waste, has shamelessly leapt on this redrafting to deny us the previously promised referendum. He has airily declared that the new version will only be a "mini treaty" intended to make the EU "work better" and devoid of any constitutional significance. He is being either disingenuous or dishonest.

Of course, the British people should have the opportunity to express their views on the next EU treaty. But, more fundamentally, they should be given the opportunity to express their views on what Britain's relationship with the EU should be.

Global Vision, our campaign group, recently commissioned ICM to conduct some polls on this key issue. People were given a choice of three options. The first was to stay within the EU and participate in further integration. The second was to have a looser relationship with the EU based on trade and cooperation, whilst opting out of political and economic union. And the third was to withdraw from the EU altogether.

Twenty-seven per cent wanted to stay in, whilst 36 per cent chose the looser relationship option and 29 per cent wished to leave altogether. The residual 8 per cent were in various states of uncertainty. Overall, therefore, two thirds of all respondents wanted radical change - with the "looser relationship" based on free trade the option of choice.

People were also asked if there should be a referendum on the looser relationship option. An overwhelming majority, 69 per cent, said yes.

It is clear from these results that the wish to fundamentally change Britain's relationship with the EU is the majority view. It is not an "extremist" view. Moreover, most people believe there should be a referendum on a looser relationship with the EU. It is time this majority view was given a voice.

We recently set up Global Vision to represent the British people's moderate and sensible views. We don't believe that Britain should turn its back on Europe. But we do believe that it should negotiate a new relationship based on trade and cooperation, while opting out of the EU's political and economic union.

We fully understand why Britain joined the EEC in 1973. Britain was seen as an economic "basket case". Membership of the EEC Customs Union, which included the then dynamic economies of Germany, France and Italy, looked very -attractive.

Since 1973 the world has changed. Britain's economy has outperformed those of the other major European countries in recent years while China and India are now major global economies. Britain, as a major trading nation, must be free and flexible to take every advantage of this changing landscape in order to prosper fully.

Membership of the EU's political and economic union now holds Britain back. The EU's regulations damage business competitiveness, its protectionist policies restrict trade and Britain's increasing net budget contributions could be far better employed domestically by cutting taxes or improving public services.

Britain can have a wonderful future, but it must be freed from the EU's political and regulatory shackles. The British people, of course, already fully understand this.

Amen. Read the entire article here.

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Blair's EU Fixation & A Dirty Deal in the Works

This today from the Times (UK) on Tony Blair's backdoor machinations to bind Britain ever tighter into the EU:

Tony Blair was accused yesterday of preparing to introduce a scaled-down European constitution by the "back door" before he quits as Prime Minister this summer.

The Conservatives and the UK Independence Party reacted angrily after Downing Street confirmed Mr Blair did not believe a referendum would be needed on a new European treaty expected to be agreed during his final days in office.

After the European constitution was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands, EU leaders are looking at ways of introducing many key changes by amending existing treaties.

Mr Blair told journalists on Thursday that a treaty amending the existing legal base would not have the characteristics of the constitution which aimed to re-establish the Union with the trappings of statehood, such as a flag and anthem.

A Brussels summit on June 21 will be Mr Blair's last appearance on the European stage and will tie the hands of his successor on key EU constitution issues.

Read the entire article here. This is madness. Outside of being a moderately successful economic bloc, and outside of keeping European countries from killing each other in open warfare over the past half century, it is very difficult to think of any single thing that the EU has done successfully. EU immigration policy and open borders policies are disasters. The EU Charter on Human Rights has caused significant problems in dealing with Muslim radicals and, if I recall correctly, some elements of it were adopted by Labour in in lieu of the UK actually holding a referendum to establish a formal Bill of Rights on the basis of its anglo-saxon mores (who needs the Magna Carta, anyway?)

The EU certainly has not created out of Europe a group of allies willing to help one another in a pinch. This was more then amply demonstrated by the EU's deplorable and cowardly refusal to help Britain during the recent Iranian UK-hostage taking incident. One would think, for the UK at least, that last one would have put the nail in the coffin of greater EU integration.

And it was not that long ago that France's Chirac sought hegemony over Europe using the EU as its vehicle. And given that Chirac also declared anglo saxon mores and its capitalist system as antithetical to France and all of Europe, it would certainly seem that Britain, and indeed every European country, should be very skeptical about ceding any sovereign power to the EU. Thus I am in absolute amazement over the latest machinations of Tony Blair, now seeking to do precisely that, and without submitting the question to the people of Britain for a vote

If you wish to follow all of this - and its like watching an accident on the highway, you almost have to look - the site EU Referendum consistently has excellent posts on it as well as all things UK.

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The Muslim World's Youngest Democracy

No, it is not Iraq -- even though Iraq has officially only been a democracy for less then a year. The newest democracy is Mauritania, a country on the northeast of Africa about three times the size of New Mexico. According to the CIA factbook,Mauritania is populated by some 3.2 million people, all Muslim.

This is from Sandmonkey at the Middle East Journal:

It's hard not to get excited over what's going on in Muritania. I mean, a country that was ruled by a despot for 21 years gets a military coup, that gets done by a group of military officers who chose not to rule the people but hold fair and democratic elections, where not a single one of them or anyone backed by them gets to run, and where they will resign from power and the military after the new government is in place, and this is the middle-east? And they did this totally by themselves, without foreign intervention or pressure? How could you not love that?

Power in Mauritania has never changed hands at the ballot box, although past votes have been held by dictators amid opposition cries of fraud. The last president, Maaoya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya,took power in a 1984 coup and held it until a popular military junta led by Col. Ely Ould Mohamed Vall toppled him in August 2005.

Vall has been praised for ending the nation's history of totalitarian rule, making good on promises to ensure a free press and establish an independent judiciary. In June, he oversaw a successful referendum that enshrined basic constitutional liberties and limited future presidents to two five-year terms. Municipal and legislative elections took place in November.

"We have big hopes for democracy," said Ahmed Ould Daddah, a leading candidate in Sunday's race and a longtime opposition figure who ran twice against Taya in past ballots and spent four years under house arrest. "People are afraid of a return to the old ways. They are paranoid about this."

What great news.

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