The new Turkish Parliament

Wolfgang Günter Lerch traces Turkey's development since the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. According to Lerch, the country has completed two phases of development. A third phase began in 2001 with the foundation of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), and in his view could become the era of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "He represents the group that emerged with Turgat Özal: an elite with a religious background but in the process of modernisation. We have taken to referring to them as 'black Turks' to distinguish them from the traditional Kemalist elite, the 'white Turks'. If the AKP's success story continues and Erdogan moves cleverly over the next few years, avoiding challenging or offending the other camp, he may gradually manage to have genuine secularisation take the place of today's government-prescribed, often artificial-looking one. This would reconcile Turkey with itself."

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