Turkish PM promises to make Turkey one of the top 10 economies

[Bengal_Tiger]

Turkish PM pledges new constitution in election manifesto

By REUTERS
04/16/2011 20:20





ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan promised to draft a new constitution and make Turkey one of the world's 10 largest economies by 2023 as he launched a party manifesto on Saturday ahead of June elections.

Opinion polls show Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) comfortably securing a third consecutive term of single-party rule in the vote, on the back of a decade of economic success and political stability.

Unveiling what he called the AKP's manifesto for 2023, Erdogan offered few concrete proposals but said he would slash unemployment, build homes for the poor and push on with economic reforms that have transformed the Muslim country from an economic basket-case to a stable, fast growing economy.

Erdogan has said he wants a strong mandate that will allow him to introduce a new constitution to replace the one drafted after a 1980 coup. On Saturday he repeated that pledge.

http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=216879

[Bengal_Tiger]

Turkey has been expanding rapidly in all spheres under the AKP, conservative government of Erdogan.

- Economically: The AKP has continued the free-market policies of its precursor, the centre-right ANAVATAN party of Turgut Ozal in the 1980s and the economy is totally unrecognizable from pre-AKP days.

Turkey is heading towards becoming a "first world country in 10 years" (to quote one University of London student I spoke to).

- Politically: Turkey has crushed Kemalist fanatics who had been oppressing Muslim, Kurds, Christians and anyone who didn't agree with their fascist ideology for decades. Many army officers involved in terrorism have been put behind bars, something unthinable before with the army seeing themselves as untouchable.

- International relations: Turkey is far stronger than before and is in the second tier of world powers, below the big major powers but as influential as Japan or India.