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ANKARA: 2008 to be a reform year

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  • ANKARA: 2008 to be a reform year

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    Jan 2 2008


    2008 to be a reform year

    by Fatma Disli

    Much has been said about the year 2007. While some said it was a
    brilliant and thrilling year, others said it was disappointing and
    full of nightmares. But it is over now, and we have a newly born year
    in front of us. There are various expectations from the new year, but
    there is almost a consensus that this year needs to see the
    expeditious implementation of reforms that were delayed due to the
    political turmoil that haunted the country last year. There are also
    expectations that the government will shed some light on a number of
    attacks that were committed against non-Muslim citizens in 2007 that
    damaged Turkey's image in the international arena.
    Zaman's Mümtaz'er Türköne predicts that 2008 will be dominated by
    major reforms in all fields, which he thinks will be facilitated by
    the drafting of a new constitution. `Radical reforms are a must for
    the year 2008. Most importantly, the society is expecting these
    reforms. There is a government in power that received the vote of one
    out of every two voters. The presidency is ready to pave the way for
    reforms. We have many reasons to boost our expectations for the year
    2008,' says Türköne. `Humans live as long as they harbor hope. Our
    hopes are raised by the settled stable environment in the country.
    Turkey now needs to make the major reforms it has delayed for years,
    and it needs to rid of obsolete institutions,' he adds.

    Radikal's Hasan Celal Güzel expects a newly written constitution to
    be the most significant development of the new year. He believes that
    the adoption of a democratic and pro-freedom constitution will be the
    start of a new period in Turkey. In the foreign policy area, he
    suggests that Turkey should launch a new action plan. He advises that
    it should further develop its recently improved relations with the US
    and Central Asia. In general, he urges engaging in intense relations
    with all of Turkey's neighbors as well as the Middle Eastern
    countries. He also strongly recommends speeding up reforms to
    accelerate the EU accession process. `2008 should be a year of
    reforms. The reforms that were blocked by the outgoing president
    should be completed this year,' he contends. For Turkey's fight
    against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists, Güzel
    notes that the cross-border operations that were launched in late
    2007 should also continue in 2008 along with social and economic
    measures for the country's southeastern region aimed at rooting out
    the social base of the PKK.

    Referans' Cengiz Çandar hopes that the government will crack down on
    the organizations and gangs who target non-Muslims in Turkey in 2008,
    recalling the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and
    the murders of three Christians at a publishing house in Malatya last
    year, which still remain unexplained. `I call on all the newspapers
    in Turkey to spare space for this issue on their front pages every
    day and wage a democratic campaign. I call on all the nongovernmental
    and business organizations to keep this issue hot on their agenda in
    an attempt to get concrete results. No matter what you do, you cannot
    save the honor and dignity of being a Muslim and Turk as long as you
    don't stand up for the rights of our non-Muslim citizens and expose
    the perpetrators of the crimes committed against them,' he says.
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