"Unpacking Turkey’s “Court-Packing” Referendum
Aslı Ü. Bali
November 5, 2010
The news reports and commentary on Turkey in the middle months of 2010 have sounded alarmist themes. Analysts have warned that Turkish foreign policy is undergoing a reorientation away from the West, ominously foreshadowed by deteriorating relations with Israel. Commentators worry about creeping Islamization in domestic and foreign policy, a concern captured by pictures of headscarved women accompanying articles about Turkey’s eastward turn. Elsewhere, descriptions of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasingly assertive policies toward the Middle East are paired with allegations of a more authoritarian style of government by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Turkey’s September 12 referendum -- resulting in the passage of a package of constitutional amendments with support from 58 percent of voters -- offers the most recent occasion to revisit this increasingly critical portrait of Turkey in Washington and beyond."
More:Middle East Report Online: Unpacking Turkey’s “Court-Packing” Referendum by Aslı Ü. Bali