ISTANBUL // A fight over wide-ranging constitutional changes pushed through parliament by the religiously conservative government could mean early elections and a new attempt to close down the ruling party.
Abdullah Gul, Turkey's president, and his aides are considering a package of almost 30 constitutional amendments passed by parliament last week with the majority of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.
The package includes a plan to reform the justice system, an initiative that AKP critics say is an unconstitutional power grab. Despite the criticism, it is widely expected that the president will sign the reform package and open the way for a referendum on the amendments to be held in July.
Murat Belge, a leader of Turkey's democracy movement, wrote in the independent Taraf newspaper: "Every day, we get closer to an atmosphere of 'let's see who is stronger'."
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, was reported to have told AKP deputies before the vote in parliament: "We will either write history or become history." Although the package includes some amendments that could have found overwhelming support in the chamber, the biggest opposition party boycotted the vote in protest against the AKP's plans for judicial reform.
Critics say the AKP and its followers are a threat to the modern state founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. Tansel Colasan, a former prosecutor in Turkey's highest administrative court and a known government critic, said the AKP's plans were an effort to "get even with 87 years of republic", according to Turkish media reports yesterday. If the amendments became law, "Ataturk's republic will end", she said.
Though it has a decisive majority in parliament, the AKP has seen several key initiatives stopped by the judiciary. In 2008, the constitutional court annulled a bill aimed at ending the ban on Islamic headscarves at universities. This year, the AKP was irked by the decision of the HSYK, a panel of the judiciary known for its anti-government stance, to fire a prosecutor who was investigating an alleged coup attempt against the government. Now the AKP says the constitutional court and the HSYK need to be reformed. Critics say the government wants to control the judiciary.
The constitutional court in Ankara will play a central role in the struggle. The court is likely to be asked by the opposition to annul the reform package, and it may also be presented with a new demand to close down the AKP.
By insisting on the judicial reform despite warnings from the opposition and members of the judiciary, the AKP has sealed its fate, some critics say.
"It will certainly be banned," Ms Colasan said about the ruling party. The constitutional court came close to closing down the AKP two years ago, and the prosecutor general is said to be keen to have another go.
This is why the end of two weeks of heated parliamentary debates about the reform bill is not seen as the end of the affair. "The real struggle is starting now," wrote Murat Yetkin, a columnist for the Radikal newspaper. Yetkin said that even though the AKP was ruling out early elections before the next parliamentary poll scheduled for next year, things could change rapidly if the constitutional court stops the AKP's amendment package. "Do not rule out early elections," he wrote.
Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People's Party, or CHP, which is the political home of the traditional elites, has said it will ask the constitutional court to throw out the package as soon as the president signs it and preparations for the referendum begin. That verdict may come within weeks.
The debate about what the court may do has already started. The law says the constitutional court must only look at possible formal flaws when checking constitutional amendments passed by parliament. If the court stops the referendum, a court speaking in the name of the nation would deny the nation a chance to speak, Nazli Ilicak, a columnist and former parliamentary deputy, wrote in the pro-government Sabah newspaper yesterday, summing up the kind of message she thinks would be sent by such a verdict. " 'Just leave the nation aside for a moment; it is not smart enough anyway. Leave it to me to pass judgment in the name of the nation'," she wrote.
@Email:tseibert@thenational.ae
Schedule for Asia Cup
Sept 15: Bangladesh v Sri Lanka (Dubai)
Sept 16: Pakistan v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 17: Sri Lanka v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 18: India v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 19: India v Pakistan (Dubai)
Sept 20: Bangladesh v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi) Super Four
Sept 21: Group A Winner v Group B Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 21: Group B Winner v Group A Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 23: Group A Winner v Group A Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 23: Group B Winner v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 25: Group A Winner v Group B Winner (Dubai)
Sept 26: Group A Runner-up v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 28: Final (Dubai)
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Match info
Manchester United 1 (Van de Beek 80') Crystal Palace 3 (Townsend 7', Zaha pen 74' & 85')
Man of the match Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace)
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The British in India: Three Centuries of Ambition and Experience
by David Gilmour
Allen Lane
I Feel Pretty
Dir: Abby Kohn/Mark Silverstein
Starring: Amy Schumer, Michelle Williams, Emily Ratajkowski, Rory Scovel
The%20specs
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ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- Margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars
- Energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- Infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes
- Many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
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Company%20Profile
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Dubai World Cup draw
1. Gunnevera
2. Capezzano
3. North America
4. Audible
5. Seeking The Soul
6. Pavel
7. Gronkowski
8. Axelrod
9. New Trails
10. Yoshida
11. K T Brave
12. Thunder Snow
13. Dolkong
Inside%20Out%202
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'Top Gun: Maverick'
Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
FA Cup semi-finals
Saturday: Manchester United v Tottenham Hotspur, 8.15pm (UAE)
Sunday: Chelsea v Southampton, 6pm (UAE)
Matches on Bein Sports
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 268hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 380Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: CVT auto
Fuel consumption: 9.5L/100km
On sale: now
Price: from Dh195,000
MATCH INFO
Uefa Nations League
League A, Group 4
Spain v England, 10.45pm (UAE)
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
GRAN%20TURISMO
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Straightforward ways to reduce sugar in your family's diet
- Ban fruit juice and sodas
- Eat a hearty breakfast that contains fats and wholegrains, such as peanut butter on multigrain toast or full-fat plain yoghurt with whole fruit and nuts, to avoid the need for a 10am snack
- Give young children plain yoghurt with whole fruits mashed into it
- Reduce the number of cakes, biscuits and sweets. Reserve them for a treat
- Don’t eat dessert every day
- Make your own smoothies. Always use the whole fruit to maintain the benefit of its fibre content and don’t add any sweeteners
- Always go for natural whole foods over processed, packaged foods. Ask yourself would your grandmother have eaten it?
- Read food labels if you really do feel the need to buy processed food
- Eat everything in moderation
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Dunbar
Edward St Aubyn
Hogarth