HURRIYET- Columnist Sedat Ergin writes on early elections and their importance in determining the course Turkey will take over the next 10 years. A summary of his column is as follows:
Early elections, which are almost certain to be held on Nov. 3, carry a vital importance for Turkey’s future as they will shed a light on our route through the 2000s. The national will expressed through the ballot box is going to shape Turkey’s administration in the first half of this decade probably through 2006, and thus it will put its mark on the next decade in Turkey, at least. Unfortunately, Turkey cannot be said to have made a perfect start into the very first years of the new century. The economic crisis of February 2001 plunged the country into a series of prolonged economic and social hardships. Moreover, Turkey was unable to realize its expected takeoff in the 1990s after the Cold War drew to a close. Some 10 years ago ex-Iron Curtain countries such as Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia lagged far behind Turkey, but today they are just outside the gate of the European Union and their full membership is almost a done deal. Why did Turkey fall behind these countries, which only a decade ago were in an altogether different league than ours? There are two paths before Turkey. It will either choose not to waste its energy and resources and instead make a great leap forward in every aspect of life, in its systems of justice, politics and the economy, or else it will be doomed to be consigned as a Third World country and be torn apart. Thus, the early elections ahead are critical in the sense that Turkey will choose one of these two paths.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION