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posted by janrinok on Thursday January 19 2017, @05:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the making-it-all-look-nice dept.

Turkey's ruling party is passing constitutional reforms to consolidate power:

Turkey's parliament approved the first seven articles in a second round of voting overnight on a constitutional bill that will extend President Tayyip Erdogan's powers, keeping the reform on course for a spring referendum.

The two largest opposition parties in parliament say the 18-article bill, which could enable Erdogan to rule until 2029, will fuel authoritarianism in the NATO member and European Union candidate country. The ruling AK Party, backed by the nationalist MHP, says it will bring the strong executive leadership needed to prevent a return to the fragile coalition governments of the past.

The seven articles approved overnight include increasing the number of MPs to 600 from 550, lowering the minimum age to be a lawmaker to 18 from 25, and holding parliamentary and presidential elections together every five years.

Also at CNN, Time, Al Jazeera, and The Guardian. You might also be interested in this take from the Daily Sabah.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday January 19 2017, @06:39PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday January 19 2017, @06:39PM (#456149)

    > why NATO needs to be dissolved now that the reason for it to exist has not itself existed for a generation

    NATO has long been a very useful way to set the standards for the weapons other countries will have to buy to be able to fight alongside the US.
    Sure, Greek manufacturers could come up with a better bullet casing, but we need so many that we sadly have to keep the US standard to sustain production.
    The US mil-industrial complex does NOT want the end of NATO.

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