Economic, security challenges await Turkey's new gov't

A series of economic and security challenges are facing Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) after it won Sunday's election in a surprise landslide.

"One of the most important issues the new government will have to tackle is battling with the threat of terrorism that claimed hundreds of lives since July," Mehmet Seyfettin Erol, professor of international relations at Ankara-based Gazi University, told Xinhua.

He pointed out that security concerns would inevitably influence the economy, especially with a negative impact on investors' and consumers' confidence.

"It has to be an overall and comprehensive approach by the incoming government in a way that will address all these challenges at the same time," he added.

The interim-government, mostly staffed by AKP members, already signaled that their priorities would be on security, and economic reforms.

"Our effective fight against the terror will go on with the same determination," Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan vowed on Tuesday.

He said the cross-border air campaign against hideouts of outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq on Tuesday is a testament to that fact.

"We saw it today that it (battling with terror) has nothing to do with election," he noted.

The settlement process that the Turkish government launched in 2012 with the PKK to end three decades of conflict was suspended when the PKK failed to disarm itself and started attacking on Turkish security forces in July.

Fresh clashes since then have claimed the lives of more than 150 members of Turkish security services.

After the election, the government said it may resume the process but the violent elements that have a potential to derail the process must first be dealt with.

Akdogan underlined that the elements that had poisoned the process before must be taken out before the settlement talks put back on its tracks.

In addition to a surge in terror by the PKK, Islamic State (IS) militants have also been targeting Turkish interests. The two suicide bombings in recent months, which mostly targeted Kurdish groups in the Turkish capital and in the southeast of the country, killed 136 people.

The government has intensified the cracking down on IS cells in recent months.

ECONOMIC WOES

The pressing economic challenges are another major front the new government in Turkey has to battle.

The political risk has been lowered with the AKP's winning of a clear majority in the elections, but concerns over tumbling Turkish lira against the U.S. dollar, the slowed growth, and the soaring unemployment and inflation still linger on.

The chronic current account deficit is stubbornly still high, suggesting the need for structural reforms to address the underlying fundamentals that cause it.

The names who will be placed on the economic management team in the new government will be a road marker on how investors will see Turkey for coming years.

Veteran economists who have managed Turkish economy for so long, such as former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan and former Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, may be replaced by less-known people, mostly loyalists to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Seyfetting Gursel, an economist, said the AKP government has an ambition to adopt policies that will boost high economic growth.

The growth is expected to grow 2.9 percent in 2015, well below the government's four percent target.

"Will there be a new economic strategy implemented by a new economic team close to the president," he asked, adding that the other choice is to have Babacan to remain at the top of the economic management team, pursuing the balanced but rather low-growth strategy.

"We will learn the answer soon," he remarked.

In the meantime, the Turkish lira has lost almost one-third of its value compared to the U.S. dollar this year alone.

Turkey's unemployment rate was recorded at 9.8 percent in July, with the number of people looking for work reaching almost three million, according to the recent government data.

CONSTITUTION MAKING

Another issue that resurfaced after the AKP's victory in election is whether or not a new constitution that will give Erdogan an executive presidency will be drafted.

On Monday, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu asked Turkey's political parties to come together and agree on a new constitution.

"I'm calling on all parties entering parliament to form a new civilian national constitution," he said in a victory speech in Ankara.

On Tuesday, AKP spokesman Omer Celik echoes the same message by calling on opposition parties to work together to replace Turkey's military-era drafted constitution.

"New constitution is number one political pledge by the AKP. It is still valid today," he said.

However, the opposition is wary that a new constitution drive by the AKP is nothing but an affront to change Turkey's parliamentary system with a presidential one.

The general secretary of the main opposition Republican Peoples' Party (CHP), Gursel Tekin, said on Tuesday that the party is open to the idea of drafting a brand new constitution.

"But if they want to add an executive presidency to that process, I tell them to not even come near to our door," he added.

Ayhan Bilgen, spokesperson for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), also said the AKP is not sincere on a new constitution.

Erdogan has long been pushing for an executive presidency in Turkey, but his effort has so far received a lackluster support from the public.

The AKP has not enough seats to make constitutional amendments alone. Endit