Turkey referendum approves military must submit to civilian control
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Ankara, Sept 13, IRNA -- Turkish voters approved a sweeping package of constitutional reforms which submit Turkey's powerful military to civilian control.
They handed a major victory to the Islamist government of Prime Minister Recep Tyyip Erdogan. His Justice and Development Party has sought to make Turkey a player in regional diplomacy as a European bridge to other Muslim countries.
The governing Justice and Development Party, which proposed the changes, portrayed the constitutional overhaul as an effort to strengthen Turkey’s democracy while helping clear its path toward membership in the European Union.
The amendments, the government says, represented a long-overdue attempt to revamp a Constitution ratified after a military coup whose 30th anniversary was on Sunday.
Analysts said the vote would bolster the government’s prospects of winning re-election next spring.
The package includes popular and relatively uncontroversial measures that would strengthen the rights of women, children, workers and civil servants.
It would also make the military answerable to civilian courts, lifting immunity from prosecution for the leaders of the bloody 1980 coup.
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