TURKEY’S DEMOCRACY has been looking shaky in the past several years, as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has steadily accumulated power and wielded it against opponents in the media, military and courts. So there are multiple reasons to applaud the elections held last weekend in which Mr. Erdogan and his mildly Islamist Justice and Development (AK) Party won a third term in office. The vote was free and fair, a quality not to be taken for granted in a majority Muslim country where the military long dominated political affairs. And though the AK party was well rewarded for its stewardship of a booming economy, capturing nearly 50 percent of the vote, it lost parliamentary seats to secular liberal and nationalist opponents.
This is particularly important because Mr. Erdogan, whose personal ambitions both within and outside of Turkey have been steadily growing, is planning a rewrite of Turkey’s constitution. Most Turks agree that a revision is necessary: The current version was drawn up by a military government in 1982 and, though revised several times, contains several illiberal provisions — including a definition of citizenship that is prejudicial to Turkey’s large Kurdish and other ethnic minorities.
But Mr. Erdogan’s plans go beyond correcting such imperfections. He would like to shift power from parliament to the presidency — an office he apparently aspires to occupy. Billboards of the leader during the campaign proclaimed “Goal 2023,” a year that will mark the 100th anniversary of the Turkish republic; Mr. Erdogan evidently foresees remaining in power until then.
The prime minister’s supporters say that the new Turkish presidency will be comparable to that of France or the United States. But another possible model is Russia. Like Vladimir Putin, Mr. Erdogan has used dubious tax audits and criminal cases to dispose of critical journalists, nearly 60 of whom are now in prison. He expanded the Supreme Court and is filling it as well as lower courts with judges loyal to his party. In foreign policy he has drifted away from Turkey’s Western orientation, opposing sanctions against Iran and courting confrontation with Israel.
It is consequently fortunate that Mr. Erdogan failed to obtain a large enough majority in parliament to rewrite the constitution without the support of opposition parties and a subsequent referendum. The largest opposition group, the secular and liberal Republican People’s Party, increased its share of the vote by five percentage points, to a total of 26, thanks to the support of middle-class Turks worried about the erosion of secularism and civil rights. As Mr. Erdogan himself graciously acknowledged after the results came in, voters “gave us a message to build the new constitution through consensus and negotiation.” He pledged that “we will discuss the new constitution with opposition parties, civil society groups and academics. We will seek the broadest consensus.” If he follows through on that pledge, Turkey can correct the excesses of Mr. Erdogan’s rule and consolidate a position as a model of Muslim democracy.
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