The trouble with Ottomania

Leaning to the east, Turkey must still look west

For a country that for many years has been on the periphery of Europe, Turkey will play a bigger role than usual in 2011. One reason is that it will be Europe’s fastest-growing sizeable economy for the second year running (growth in 2010 was close to 6%). Indeed, it is likely to be outpaced in the world only by China, India and some smaller emerging markets.

This economic success will propel the mildly Islamist Justice and Development (AK) party, led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to yet another election win in the summer of 2011, after those of 2002 and 2007, although its majority is likely to shrink once more. The AK government handsomely won a referendum on constitutional changes in September 2010. That left the main opposition parties, which advocated a “no” vote, in disarray.

As a reinvigorated prime minister, Mr Erdogan will set about rewriting Turkey’s constitution, still in essence the one imposed by the army after a coup in 1980. Not surprisingly, it gives the army special privileges and constrains Turkey’s political parties—for instance, by making it easy for the courts to ban a party and by setting a 10% threshold before a party wins parliamentary seats.

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http://www.economist.com/node/17493321

The economist dergisi 2011 yılını değerlendirdiği yazısında Türkiye'ye ve Dış Politikasındaki son gelişmelere yer verdi.