Turkish Leader's PM Hopes Revived

World | December 27, 2002, Friday // 00:00

The Turkish parliament has passed amendments to the country's constitution that would allow the leader of the governing party, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to sit in parliament. The amendments have already been vetoed once by the Turkish President, Ahmet Necdet Sezer. Mr Erdogan was barred from parliament because of a conviction for inciting religious hatred. The ball is back in the president's court. President Sezer vetoed the amendments last week because they were, he said, subjective and personal - that is to say they were aimed entirely at getting Mr Erdogan into parliament. The constitution bars from parliament those who have been convicted of what are called ideological crimes - in Mr Erdogan's case, a conviction for inciting religious hatred by quoting a well-known poem in a speech he made. When his party came to power in late November, it set about changing the constitution so that Mr Erdogan could stand.

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