Turkey’s President Proposes Anti-Gay Amendment to Retain Power
metroweekly.comTurkish Minute.“Let us see what position he will take here,” Erdoğan told reporters, referring to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the head of the country’s largest left-wing opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP).Erdoğan proposed the amendment in an attempt to counter the CHP’s decision to introduce an amendment to the constitution to enshrine into law a woman’s right to wear a headscarf.
By introducing a larger amendment that attacks the LGBTQ community, the Turkish president is hoping not only to rally social conservatives to his side, but to force the left-wing CHP to either come out in favor of his proposed amendment or reveal their pro-LGBTQ sympathies and risk losing the votes of devout Muslims.Erdoğan’s political machinations come at a time when his Islamist-backed ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is trailing narrowly behind the opposition bloc in polls ahead of next year’s elections, according to a recent survey from the Piar polling company.
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