France, Strasbourg / Тrend corr A. Maharramli / Turkey is a democratic country where political parties openly state their positions and the electors have the right to free voting. Electors took an active part in the parliamentary elections of 22 July, a scientist of France's Artois University, an expert on Turkey, Jean-Claude Verez, stated in interview to Trend.
Commenting on the recent parliamentary elections in Turkey he noted that the victory of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) had been expected.
The expert believes that the victory of the JDP demonstrates Turkey's economic successes. On the other hand, the parliamentary elections showed that the opposition Cumhuriyyet Halk Partisi - National Republic Party (CHP) is not an alternative to the JDP.
"CHP has to make drastic changes not only in its inter-party activities and political course, but also to develop projects on work with the public. At the same time the party has to establish unions in order to come to power again," Verez noted.
The victory in the parliamentary elections will enable the JDP to elect the President, according to the expert. Otherwise, juridical, constitutional obstacles will have to be found. "The army and the opposition will face difficulties in putting legitimate obstacles in the way of the election of the president by the JDP. Although the JDP did not win 2/3 of the places in the Parliament (2/3 of seats in the Parliament enables a party to make changes in the Constitution and to appoint the President), the party has lots of votes in the Parliament what will help it in electing its candidate," Verez added.
Speaking on the tasks Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing, the expert noted that the leader of the governing party should re-convince his voters who do not agree to enter the European Union.
At the same time fulfilment of the obligations to the EU cannot be postponed. "The key directions in the activities of the JDP's administration for the next years regard achievement of breakthroughs in the project on EU membership, settlement of the Iraqi conflict, expansion of opportunities of impact upon the issue on Kurdistan, continuation of economic policy restricting unemployment, and the red ink. Besides, the policy of the JDP should target fortifying the country's competitiveness against China in the textile industry and South Korea in the vehicle sector," Verez said.
Trough support of the International Monitory Fund (IMF), the Turkish Government could overcome the economic crisis of 2001, for this purpose the Government pursued the policy commenced by K. Darvish. Despite this, the issues concerning the reforms in the social insurance system and agriculture, as well as in education, have not yet been resolved.
Verez touched upon the new Turkish policy regarding the EU. The expert considers that Turkey will not adopt the draft of 'Privileged Partner' proposed by the EU. According to Verez, Turkey is right in demanding the membership project, for the country has implemented numerous reforms in recent years. "Certainly, there are a lot of things to do in this direction. However, Turkey is not accountable to countries which sometimes want to see Turkey as a member of EU and sometimes feel danger due to problems in their own countries," the expert noted.
Verez considers the impact of the Parliament on Turkey's foreign policy to be very sensible, particularly concerning Iraq.
The third political force represented in the new Parliament, well-known as staunchly nationalistic - Milliyyetci Herekat Partisi - the Nationalistic Democratic Party (MHP), has bad relations with the Kurdish Demokrat Toplum Partisi - Democratic Unified Party (DTP) as it believes that the DTP is related with the PKK.
"The Iraq issue is disturbing not only in Turkey. Recently the Foreign Minister of Great Britain stated that cooperation with Iraq is necessary to backing political stability in Turkey, as well as throughout the region," Verez added.