Print this articleEmail this article ON SEPTEMBER 12, Turks will vote on a set of constitutional amendments proposed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been in power for eight years. Since the vote falls on the 30th anniversary of the 1980 military coup, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is portraying the referendum as an opportunity to reject the military regime's legacy.

Turkey's constitution has been amended repeatedly since the coup.

But its anti-democratic core remains intact - and, unfortunately, the current proposals do not dramatically alter that.

Most of the previous amendments relied on agreements between governing and opposition parties, and were not put to a popular vote. This time, the AKP acted on its own and was barely able to garner from its own ranks the requisite majority for a referendum.

Far from being an occasion for popular condemnation of the coup on its anniversary, the referendum is a mark of the AKP's failure to gain widespread support for its project.

With another general election due next year, civil-society groups preferred that priority be given to lowering the 10% electoral threshold for parties to enter parliament, thus broadening political participation. The new parliament would then work on constitutional reform.

That, however, was out of the question: the AKP benefited from the rules put in place for the 2002 and 2007 general elections, in both cases converting pluralities of the popular vote into large parliamentary majorities.

In 2007, the AKP government briefly seemed interested in a new constitution, having weathered threats of a military coup just before the elections.

A distinguished group of academics was assigned to produce a draft. But, before any public debate could occur, the AKP decided to amend only two articles of the constitution, in order to allow female university students to wear headscarves on campus.

The amendment won parliamentary approval, but was subsequently rejected by the Constitutional Court. Moreover, in a case brought to the Constitutional Court, the AKP's support for the amendment was used as evidence that the party was violating Turkey's secular constitution.

In the end, the party was found guilty and subjected to a fine. From the AKP's point of view, the Constitutional Court - and the judiciary in general - had replaced the military as the last bastion of Turkey's secularist establishment.

With the campaign dragging on for months, the referendum has thoroughly polarized Turkish politics. Win or lose, that is unlikely to change.

Haldun Gulalp is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Global Studies at Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul.

Project Syndicate