(Ha'aretz) Peter Preston - A nation of 68 million goes to the polls. Not a single MP from the previous coalition survives. The party of the departing prime minister, which received 22 percent last time round, nets 1 percent. Both the new party of government and the new opposition are new to parliament. Last summer, while the rest of Europe slept, this same nation (within a matter of weeks) abandoned the death penalty, lifted draconian curbs on its press, and reached out inclusively toward the separatist minority it had repressed for decades - the biggest victory for human rights in two decades. It is time to talk about Turkey and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
2002-11-15 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive