BISHOP SAYS TURKEY’S POLL RESULTS SHOULD BE GOOD FOR CATHOLICS
By Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service
July 24 2007

ROME (CNS) — An overwhelming victory for Turkey’s ruling
Islamic-oriented party should be a "positive thing" for the nation’s
Catholics, said Bishop Luigi Padovese, apostolic administrator of
Anatolia, Turkey.

"The relationships the prime minister has built up with Europe over
the past years are such that it is difficult to imagine (there would
be any) fundamentalist involvement" in shaping future Turkish policies,
Bishop Padovese told the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero July 24.

Bishop Padovese said he thought "Catholics might also demand" some
of the reforms many moderate Muslims are asking for, such as greater
freedom of expression.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party
secured more than 46 percent of the votes at the end of general
elections July 22. The win gave the center-right, conservative party
an absolute majority in the new parliament, with 341 of the 550
legislative seats.

"Erdogan will continue his platform of reforms," Bishop Padovese said.

Turkey’s Constitution establishes strict controls over public
expressions of religious belief and policies, which include restricting
Muslim women from wearing head scarves and a general decree against
private religious colleges.

Bishop Padovese said if secularism in the past helped foster the
development of democracy in Turkey and "did not allow real religious
pluralism, now it is desirable that (such pluralism) be put into
effect."

He said the prevailing opinion of most Catholics and the Orthodox
and Armenian patriarchs "is support for Erdogan. He has moved toward
reforms and he offers, in this aspect, guarantees," the bishop said.

The prime minister called the victory a "triumph of democracy" and
promised the party would "press ahead with reforms and economic
development" as well as membership in the European Union, the
Rome-based news agency AsiaNews reported July 23.

Erdogan said the party would strive for national unity and respect
for "democracy and (the) secular nature" of Turkey’s government,
reported AsiaNews.