NEW YORK - The New York Times, one of the leading dailies in the United States, has commented that Turkey narrowly averted an incalculable disaster last week after the Constitutional Court turned back a state prosecutor's request to dissolve the governing Justice and Development (AK) Party.
An editorial published in the daily's Sunday edition said, "the court ruling is a victory for Turkey, for democracy and for the politics of moderation in the volatile Near and Middle East. That makes it a victory for the United States as well."
"Had it gone the other way, Turkey's chances of joining the European Union would have been demolished and the clearly expressed will of Turkish voters outrageously thwarted. Worst of all, an alarming message would have been sent to religious-minded voters throughout the Muslim world that scrupulous adherence to the ground rules of democratic politics was no guarantee of equal political rights and representation," it commented.
The New York Times wrote that the margin by which those multiple catastrophes were averted could scarcely had been narrower.
"Those aspects of the ruling provided some consolation to Turkey's powerful military-secular establishment. But they are hardly consistent with democracy as it is practiced in the United States and the European Union. Nonetheless, Turkey's ruling party would be wise to move slowly and carefully in its efforts to expand the civil rights of the religiously observant, and make greater efforts to cultivate understanding and support from its wary secular opponents," it wrote.
The daily noted that Turkey had progressed a very long way after the latest coup in 1997, and added, "since then, the lure of European Union membership, shifts in the Turkish electorate and the generally responsible behavior of the AK Party in power have brought a healthy change in attitudes, as seen in the votes of the five justices who blocked the ban. Continued restraint by the ruling party can help widen democracy's still perilously thin safety margin."
(UK-AÖ)
(GEN)