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Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan leaves the stage after delivering a speech at the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters in Istanbul, on April 16, 2017, after the results of a nationwide referendum that will determine Turkey's future destiny. Erdogan on April 16, 2017 hailed Turkey for making a "historic decision" as he claimed victory in the referendum on a new constitution expanding his powers. The "Yes" campaign to give Turkish President expanded powers won with 51.3 percent of the vote a tightly-contested referendum although the "No" camp had closed the gap, according to initial results. But Turkey's two main opposition parties said they would challenge the results. / AFP PHOTO / Bulent Kilic
Turkey voted narrowly Sunday in favour of sweeping and controversial constitutional reforms that will grant greater powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
AKP takes over
The Islamic-rooted AKP scores its first electoral victory on November 3, 2002 after years of political instability and an unprecedented financial crisis. The victory sets off alarm bells in the secular establishment.
Its leader Erdogan becomes prime minister in March 2003.
From 2002 to 2004, Ankara adopts a broad range of democratic reforms, including allowing Kurdish-language broadcasts on public television and abolishing the death penalty. In October 2005, it begins accession talks with the European Union. However, the EU process has since stalled.
In August 2007, lawmakers elect foreign minister Abdullah Gul as president, the first time an Islamic-rooted candidate is named to the country’s highest office.
His victory is seen as one for the AKP over lay factions backed by the army, and the new government progressively brings the army to heel. But it causes shudders in the secular establishment as Gul’s wife wears the Islamic headscarf.
In 2011, Turkey sides with majority Sunni rebels in neighbouring Syria who launched a revolt against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Ankara has since taken in some 2.9 million Syrian refugees.
On May 31, 2013, security forces crack down on demonstrators who staged a rally against government plans to redevelop a park near Istanbul’s Taksim square. The protest quickly grows into nationwide demonstrations against Erdogan but peter out after a month.
Erdogan is elected president on August 10, 2014 with 52 percent of a vote held for the first time by universal suffrage. Ever since, he has argued that the position requires reinforced powers.
In July 2015, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) breaks a unilateral ceasefire with the Turkish army and fighting resumes in an insurgency that has left tens of thousands dead in more than three decades.
Repeated attacks attributed to Kurdish militants or the Islamic State (IS) group have kept Turkey on edge ever since.
The bloodiest attack in the country’s history comes in October 2015 when 103 people are killed in twin suicide bombings blamed on IS that targets a pro-Kurdish peace rally in Ankara.
On July 15, 2016, a renegade army faction launches a failed coup against Erdogan which leaves 249 people dead, not including the plotters. Erdogan blames the putsch on exiled US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a one-time ally turned archfoe.
Since then more than 113,000 people are fired, suspended from their jobs, or detained. The government imposes control over the army whose political influence ebbs.
Erdogan meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in August 2016 to cement relations with one of the main backers of Assad’s regime in Syria. The meeting also helps restore trust after Turkey shot down a Russian jet over the Syrian-Turkish border in late 2015.
Two weeks later, Turkey launches a major military operation in northern Syria, driving Islamic State group fighters from several cities.
Another key target for Turkey is Kurdish militia groups which Ankara considers allies of PKK separatists.
In March 2017, several European countries cancel rallies by Turkish ministers and bar its politicians from campaigning in favour of a ‘Yes’ in the referendum. A vitriolic war of words ensues, with Erdogan repeatedly accusing Germany and the Netherlands in particular of behaving like “Nazis”.
Turkish voters narrowly approve in an April 16 referendum constitutional changes that will expand Erdogan’s powers, and possibly enable him to stay in office until 2029.
Erdogan hails the result as a “historic decision”, saying: “With the people, we have realised the most important reform in our history.”
But the opposition questions the legitimacy of the vote, with the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) vowing to challenge the outcome.
The new presidential system would come into force after presidential and parliamentary elections in November 2019.
© Agence France-Presse
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