Turkey votes 'yes' to amending military-era constitution

Globe and Mail | AP ^ | 9/12/10 | Christopher Torchia

[LibWhacker]

Street clashes mar voting at polling stations in areas with large Kurdish populations, as Kurdish party urges boycott

Turks approved sweeping changes to their military-era constitution Sunday — a referendum hailed by the government as a leap toward full democracy in line with its troubled bid to join the European Union.

With 99 per cent of the vote counted, 58 per cent had cast ballots in favor of the constitutional amendments, state-run TRT television said. About 42 per cent voted “no,” heeding opposition claims that the reforms would shackle the independence of the courts.

The referendum on 26 amendments to a constitution that was crafted after a 1980 military coup has become a battleground between the Islamic-oriented government and traditional power elites that believe Turkey's secular principles are under threat. The outcome will set the stage for elections next year in a strategically located NATO ally whose regional clout has surged in recent years.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

If they change the pro-military constitution, it means Turkey becomes more Islamic...and more Islamic Terrorism. The military has kept the Islamic nutjobs from running roughshod

[mainsail that]

Don’t like this, but I hope I’m proven wrong

[4buttons]

slippery slope; you won’t be.

[GeronL]

Shariah Turkey.

What’s the gravy?

[Armaggedon]

Turkey is becoming more Sharia compliant. Radical Islam is taking over. Turkey is no longer a friend of America. Obama will be pleased.

[Rappini]

I still can’t get over the fact that Turkey wouldn’t let the 4th ID cross into Iraq when we went to War.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

reforms would shackle the independence of the courts. . . The [reforms that] would give parliament more say in appointing judges masks an attempt to control the courts, which have sparred with Mr. Erdogan's [Islamist AK Party].

The ruling AK Party already jails military, journalists, educators, and anyone who opposes them. The courts have freed some of the victims of the Islamist (politcal Islam, Sharia Law advocates) AK Party.

The ruling [AK] party, whose reforms have won backing from the EU, says the hard-line emphasis on secularism and nationalism must be updated to incorporate democratic change, including religious freedoms. [It's about democracy and religious freedom, sound familiar?] [The AKP] lost a battle in 2008 when the Constitutional Court struck down a government-backed amendment lifting a ban on the wearing of Muslim headscarves in universities. [My comments]

"Democracy" and "religious" "freedom" for the Islamists (political Islam and Sharia Law advocates) but little or none for us.

So why aren't tens of millions of Muslims in Turkey "Islamophobes"?

Soon citizens of Turkey (99.9% Muslim) protesting against Islamism (political Islam & Sharia law) will be a crime, kinda like it's becoming here?

Read and see more

Pray for the U.S. of A. we have our own version of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP.

The photos are from demonstrations of three years ago protesting the ruling AK Party's Islamist leanings and reminding the AKP that they promised the voters that they would respect Turkey's heritage of secularism.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Don't ignore Fethullah Gülen. He lives right here in the U.S. and is a favorite of "all the right people" such as the dopes who want a Hamosque on ground zero. (Hey! I just realized Hamosque is a two-fer pun, Ham mosque and sounds like Hamas.)

Fethullah Gülen has been key in destroying Turkey's 90-year heritage of secular government. What is he doing to us? with the help of our billionaires.

Is Walmart Wealth Funding Radical Islamic Schools in the USA?

ISLAMIC SOLDIERS INVADE SAYLORSBURG PA

Just two of the many FR posts and tens of thousands of other links about this guy Fethullah Gülen.

[livius]

Installing sharia. Soon coming to a location near you.

I read a very perceptive comment today that Obama’s telling the military to call that nutcase Gainesville “pastor” and then apparently talking to him personally was the formal installation of sharia here. One point of installing sharia requires that Islam be protected by the secular authority, and no criticism be allowed. So I’d say maybe it’s coming faster than we think.

[mainsail that]

That doesn’t bother me at all: From THEIR perspective, Iraq didn’t do anything bad to them (in fact Saddam even let them attack Kurdish separatists) and they have to live after we leave that area.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks LibWhacker.

Street clashes mar voting at polling stations in areas with large Kurdish populations, as Kurdish party urges boycott

Free Kurdistan.

• Vote of confidence for all of Erdogan's policies
  (Islamists win in Turkey; WH "Hails Result")
• Reforms dividing Turkey?
• Turks Hit PKK With Chemical Weapons
• Report: Turkey used chemical weapons to kill Kurdish rebels
• Did Turkey Bomb Kurds With Chemical Weapons in 2009?
• Turkey was 'bent on provoking Israel' in the Gaza flotilla incident
• Turkey Building 10 Meter High Wall inside Jerusalem
• Cold Turkey: Commission shows Flotilla crew fired first at Israeli soldiers
• Turkey backs gasoline sales to Iran despite sanctions
• Turkey To Give Hizbullah Weapons

some nutty ka-ka:

• Turkey, with help from Germany, to become 'submarine manufacturer'
• [Exclusive] Turkey could join Korea's fighter plan
• Report: Turkey could host advanced U.S. radar to confront Iran missile threat
• U.S. Withdraws from Turkey Military Drill

some irony:

• Mystery Over Russian General Found Dead on Turkish Beach
• Russia, Turkey named 'most dangerous' web countries

some of the usual:

• Turkey: Nationalists Protest Orthodox Liturgy on the Assumption [media spin]
• the endangered Orthodox patriarchate of Constantinople [Catholic / Orthodox Caucus]
• First Mass in 88 years celebrated at Turkish monastery
• Bishop Chrysostom of Smyrna was lynched by Muslims today in 1922

[SunkenCiv]

...a referendum hailed by the government as a leap toward full democracy in line with its troubled bid to join the European Union.

Erdogan and his fellow Islamofascists used that moribund bid as a smokescreen -- while pushing for burkahs as a sign of "religious tolerance" in the EU. Sarkozy and Co in France -- that's in France, people -- say this:

• French Senate passes ban of full Muslim veils
• French Senate passes ban of full Muslim veils

Meanwhile, Dutch political corruption has prevented a party devoted to self-defense against Islamofascism in the Netherlands from taking power.

[SunkenCiv]

I’m saving those for research purposes.