Turkey: Where Economics Will Meet Politics
January 11, 2017 | 21:51 GMT Print
Efforts by Turkey's ruling party to replace the country's parliamentary system with an executive presidency are quickly progressing. Earlier this week, Turkish Parliament began debating the constitutional amendments that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) presented in December. Late Jan. 10, it passed two of the 18 articles in the amendment package — one that deals with the courts and another that increases the size of the parliament from 550 members to 600 members. To pass the remaining articles through parliament, the AKP will need support from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Once they have passed in the legislature, the amendments will then have to be approved in a public referendum to be implemented. The AKP's goal is to pass the amendments through parliament by the end of January so they can be put to the public vote in April. But when Turkish voters head to the polls, politics will not be the only thing on their minds.
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