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Identify this Famous Turk... Click for enlargement! To Jim and Peri's Commercial-free CD for Turkish Learning -- now with triple ebook bonus! Also available in Downloadable Broadband Edition Essential Suffixes Printed Book

The Early Turkish National Election of 2007 Bang, bang! AKP shot down for strong-arm tactics They'll rise again, but how far... Look at me now, people! Remember when you said that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wasn't fit to be Dog Catcher? Click for enlargement! Thanks to: Political Cartoonist L. Atif Hürriyet Gazetesi 9 April 2007 Presidential Politics, Protests, Predictions (and Internet Censorship) With all the commotion surrounding the recent failed attempt by the AKP ruling-majority to force its religious-right Presidential Candidate (Abdullah Gül -- along with his tesettürlü wife, Hayrünnissa) on the Nation without general consensus, almost no one noticed as that same AKP majority quietly passed an Internet Censorship Bill the other day. Well heck, who could blame us for not noticing the Censorship Bill's passage...our attention was riveted on the monumental olaylar (events) that ran the Presidential Selection of Gül (PM Erdoğan's crony) right off the tracks, into a stagnant pool at the bottom of a dump-ditch by the roadside. It was downright inspiring. Olay 1 -- Massive Pro-secular Protest Marches... The first was in Ankara where 300,000 secularists gathered in Tandoğan Meydana on 14 April to protest the AKP's Presidential strong-arm tactics. That gathering (which PM Erdoğan at first dismissed as an 'unruly mob') was followed by another in Cağlayan, Istanbul (29 April) with 1,000,000 protesters in attendance. And, the one in Izmir on 13 May surpassed the Istanbul march -- by another 400,000 staunch secularists. Izmir Bay filled up with boating supporters like a parking-lot at rush hour... Olay 2 -- Military Warning Against Unsecular and Undemocratic Behavior... Just before midnight April 29, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Yaşar Büyükanıt issued a stern public warning, letting everyone know where the Military stood concerning the AKP's Presidential shenanigans. Not surprisingly, his statement met with criticism among 'the usual suspects' in and outside the country, but a poll of the populace taken a week later by CNN, disclosed that more than 70% of Turks supported the Military's timely warning. Olay 3 -- Deniz Baykal's Constitutional 'technicality' gambit... On April 27, the AKP tried to force the Presidential Selection of candidate Gül by Parliamentary Decree -- without regard to opposition concerns about the Turkish Constitution's 'Rule of 367'. In response, opposition leader Baykal, as good as his promise, appealed immediately to the 11 person Constitutional Court to nullify the entire Presidential voting process. And, by God, the Court did just that on May 1st -- by an 'in your face' majority of nine to two! In other words, the AKP got unexpectedly walloped... And, in a whirlwind of activity, the party withdrew Gül from the parliamentary Presidential Selection process, agreed to early national elections for the entire Parliament and, in a move that raised some eyebrows, passed a Bill to amend the Turkish Constitution to allow Presidential election by the national electorate (instead of 'selection' by the Parliament). [Ed. The AKP's Bill met with a swift Veto from Turkish President Sezer, killing the 'direct election' idea...for now.] But will the AKP stay walloped? What's to stop a repeat of the AKP National Election win of 2002? Early predictions of two local polling agency's are so far apart as to be almost useless in helping to make an intelligent guess. [Editor's Update - 20 July 2007: And now the reality of Election Day 2007, just two days hence, looms large...] Next: The 2007 Turkish National Election -- What the 'Astonishing' Pre-Election Polls Predicted Related: Final Results Charts for the 2007 National Elections What the Turkish National Election Results of 2007 may fortell About the 2007 Pre-Election Polls The Next Turkish President Must Not Be.... When Worlds Collide -- Kemalist Democracy and the AKP 2/2 Threats to Turkey's Well-Being - Terrorism and Religious Excess Murder in The Court Turkish 'Religious Attitudes' and Politics Turkish Political Parties -- Right, Left, Center? Caught Between 2 Bad Choices -- The Turkish Presidential Selection, 2007 Countdown To A Turkish Secularist's Nightmare, Presidential Selection Day 2007 Turkish National Election Polls 2002 Turkish National Election Results 2002 No 'Girl Power' -- Local elections 2004 (see yerel seçimler) International Study with an Outhouse Smell 'Troubles in Turkish Paradise' Language-Guide LPT's Geopolitical pages... Unrelated fun: Traditional Turkish Humor 1 We say softball, you say rounders... Turkish Terms Of Endearment Turkish Personal Names Politically Incorrect Turkish Humor Why Off-Color Turkish is important too Gossipy Turkish Who's Who The World's Worst Sport The 'cold and delicious' ice cream of Kahramanmaraş Post your comment...»

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