This is great news for Turkey! I wish we had the same situation in Pakistan, instead our beyghairat Generals stayed in power, even after the OBL raid.
I see great things happening in Turkey. Of course the NY Times won’t see Erdogans rise to power the same way, but he is a revolutionary Turkish leader whose Neo-Ottoman policies have created the rise of a Democratic and Economic Turkiye!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/world/asia/31turkey.html?ref=world
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Turkish Prime Minister Climbs a Higher Perch in Wake of Resignations
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By ANTHONY SHADID
ISTANBUL — Fifty years ago, when a populist prime minister tangled with the Turkish military, he ended up on the gallows, the mandate of three election victories little consolation. This time around, the rivalry climaxed with most of Turkey’s military command resigning simultaneously, its leader complaining of powerlessness and bad press.
As Turks grappled Saturday with the shock of the resignations — and an extraordinary moment in modern Turkey’s history — officials scrambled to project a facade of business as usual, even as their critics warned of a creeping authoritarianism engineered by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has governed since 2003.
But in broader ways, the resignations on Friday delivered Mr. Erdogan a perch to reshape a military bound by civilian control, pursue a foreign policy emboldened by the decisive victory of his conservative and populist party in elections in June and pursue constitutional changes that could transform politics here.
The struggle that has posed the most serious danger to Mr. Erdogan — a powerful military willing to act above the law — in many ways appears to have come to an end.
“The days of Turkey’s military calling the shots are over,” said Cengiz Candar, a prominent columnist. “There’s a new equation in the politics of the country, and anyone depending on the military to score points on a political issue has to forget about it.”
In a move that officials acknowledged took them by surprise, Turkey’s top commander, Gen. Isik Kosaner, together with the leaders of the navy, army and air force, asked to retire Friday to protest the arrests of dozens of generals as suspects in long-running conspiracy investigations that Mr. Erdogan’s critics contend are politically motivated.
“Four-star earthquake,” declared a headline in Sabah, a pro-government newspaper. But Mr. Erdogan quickly promoted Gen. Necdet Ozel, the commander of the military police, as the projected replacement for General Kosaner. And while the prime minister said nothing publicly, perhaps in an attempt to stay above the fray, other government officials played down the idea of a vacuum or a future confrontation, in what appeared an effort to assure the country’s population of 73 million that a coup was not in the offing.