Asli Aydintasbas
9/17/2010

Aydintasbas says Turkey needs a new definition of citizenship that does not exclude the Kurds, a new electoral law that breaks the hegemony of party leaders and lowers the 10% threshold for a party to be represented in parliament, and a new commitment to freedom of speech. These remain the glaring deficits in today’s Turkish democracy. Secular Turks can try to retain the status quo, but that will not win elections. Erdogan, Turkey’s strongman, with a mixed record of reform and repression, also needs to do some thinking. He is a divisive figure, loved and hated passionately at the same time. He won the vote on constitutional reform on Sunday, but in a country so polarized the majority will not translate into easy legitimacy.

Aydintasbas is a columnist at the Turkish daily Milliyet.

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