“Erdogan will be endowed with unlimited power two years later, in 2019, if there are no substantial sudden changes in Turkey and in Erdogan’s private life. Nevertheless, Erdogan will become the first president legally endowed with plenary powers”, said Turkologist Ruben Melkonyan during the interview with Aravot.am.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk also had unlimited powers, however, according to the Turkologist, they were not fixed by the law, but were stipulated by him, “In case of Erdogan, these two are merged, as his personal charismatic features, as well as the new constitution, endow him with powers special to a monarch and a sultan, which, of course, will become a reason for the growth of tyranny and dictatorship, and for the creation of more antidemocratic system”. In response to the question whether Turkish people do not realize that a president endowed with unlimited power may treat his people the way he wishes, Ruben Melkonyan explained by bringing several reasons: “First, Islamic fanaticism, sometimes the “blind” trust in Erdogan. In other words, he also presents himself as a religious leader, protector of the interests of believers, and he tries to present this fact in a more dominant way. Whatever Erdogan will do with his unlimited powers is not the fact that is primary, but the fact, that their religious leader will endow them with more religious freedom, which is the main focus of propaganda”.
As a second point, Mr. Melkonyan noted, that the fact that the society was under the monarchical regime of the Ottoman Empire as well, was speculated, and Erdogan and his party were advocating that the Ottoman Empire was the ideal society and they need to restore it. Those who voted “No”, are anxious, according to the Turkologist, because Kemal’s Turkey was on completely different basis, it was secular, and also the foundations and principles of secularism were maintained: “According to the new Constitution all these will not exist in Turkey”. The other part of voters, as Mr. Melkonyan notes, is concerned with the growth of dictatorship. Kurdish people who will confront with the impossibility to protect their rights more frequently under another Constitution: “Summing all this up we notice the religious, social, and secular basis of the split of society”.
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Anush MATEVOSYAN
