At the weekend, Turkey had a referendum. The population of the nation voted to amend the constitution, a constitution that had been re-written in 1980. On Monday (September 13) Turkey’s president Abdullah Gul told reporters that:
"All the articles in the constitutional amendment package are about bringing Turkey's standards to the European level under Turkey's European Union membership process”.
The decision of the people (57.88 percent voted for amendments while 42.12 percent voted against) was seen by America and the European Union as a step forward towards democracy. Obama phoned Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, to congratulate him.
Stefan Fuele, European Commissioner in charge of enlargement (of the sprawling chaotic leviathan that is the European Union) stated:
"As we consistently said in the past months, these reforms are a step in the right direction as they address a number of long-standing priorities in Turkey's efforts towards fully complying with the accession criteria”.
The current constitution was not brought about democratically. It was introduced in 1980 while the country was under the control of a military coup. The military in Turkey has always been staunchly pro-secular, seeing its role as upholding the secular ideals that brought Turkey into being as a Republic on October 29, 1923.
The man who led Turkey to secularism was Kemal Mostafa (1881 – 1938). On November 29, 1934, when Turkey introduced laws commanding that surnames be introduced, Kemal Mostafa adopted the name by which he is now most commonly known: Atatürk.
The army has mounted several coups when a government has come to power which has Islamist views. Yet for 8 years, Turkey has been governed by a democratically-elected Islamist government.
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