Kemalists launch an attack against the AKP

Last week, Turkey's state prosecutors saught to close-down the ruling moderate Islamist AKP party and ban its officials, including the prime minister and president, from politics. Greek Columnist Stavros Lygeros defends the government from this latest attack. "Erdogan's government boasts a number of accomplishments: It boosted economic development and helped the working class. It raised the EU banner and has used it in order to push through a string of reforms and to politically neutralize the military establishment. Add to these the moderate stance it has shown, and the AKP has succeeded in convincing a large part of the middle class and the business world that not only is it no threat to the secular state, but that it can play a crucial role in the state's modernization and Europeanization. ... Turkey is in a much better place today than it was in 2002. All the Kemalists have left are accusations that Erdogan is trying to undermine the secular state."

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