Essay - Economic Instability and Ethnic & Religious Unrest in Turkey Introduction...

economic instability and ethnic & religious unrest in Turkey

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Despite its glorious past and the individual strengths of ***** different peoples who have been brought together in the modern nation of Turkey, the country is currently faced with a number ***** problems. Among ***** most important and daunting challenges currently facing the country are growing ***** strife, religious d*****cord that - in the wake of ***** events ***** last September seem all the more terrible ***** ***** substantial economic structural weaknesses. This paper focuses on ***** last of these three problems - while recognizing that ***** instability and ethnic and religious unrest are of course in fact intimately related to each other. In particular, this paper examines recent ec*****omic conditions in Turkey, how the particular nature of ***** economic conditions has ***** about a number ***** measures ***** attempt to reform the ********** economic structure. The statistical description and evaluation of the country given in this paper should allow the reader to underst***** the background against which current and recent economic reforms ***** been deemed necessary and have been implemented.

***** Historical and Political Background

Before beginning to look specifically at the nature ***** the *****'s current ***** *****, it will be useful to provide the briefest sketch of its ***** cultural ***** political structures. Ironically, many of Turkey's current political and even cultural problems - which feed into and in ***** cases worsen its economic problems - a ***** *****ctually the result of genuine constitutional reforms made two generations ago.

While we in the West like to think that constitutional reform that results in a more *****ly representational government must be a good th*****g, in ***** in the case of Turkey such reform had unintended but still deeply troubling consequences. The constitutional reforms ***** *****nt ***** effect in 1961 produced a system ***** electoral policy and governance that made it difficult (and in actual practice nearly impossible) for any one pol*****ical party to gain the majority needed to enact effective legislation. With little real possibility of the government's being able ***** take decisive action on the many important issues ***** the country, people have *****ten resorted to direct, violent "re*****m" in the streets (Ibrahim, 2001, p. 38). This continuous ********** civil unrest ***** made it increasingly difficult for the ***** to maintain a st***** economic program and has made it unattractive to *****eign investment. The inability of the government ***** create a stable economic situation ***** led in turn to ***** civil *****, ***** has in turn led ***** a poorer s*****ing by ***** country's economy, le*****ding to more unrest - in an ********** downward moving spiral (www.latimes.com).

We can see ***** the country's political and social problems worsened dramatically in the late 1970s (even as its ***** also continued to weaken ***** to become more subject to ***** dangerous fluctuations) ***** extremists on both ***** left and the right end of the political spectrum increasingly turned to violence - including political assassinations - as the only way