Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Monday announced long-anticipated reforms seen as designed to salvage a fragile peace process with Kurdish insurgents, including changes to the electoral system and increasing language rights, Reuters reports.
Erdogan said parliament would debate whether to reduce the threshold for a political party to enter parliament to 5% of the national vote from teh current 10%, or even eliminate the barrier completely and introduce a "narrowing" of the current constituency system.
Erdogan said the so-called "democratization package" would also allow for education in languages other than Turkish at non-state schools, another long-held demand by Kurdish politicians.
"Today our country, our nation, is experiencing an historic moment. It is passing through a very important stage. We are taking important steps to make Turkey even greater," Reuters quotes Erdogan.
Erdogan also proposed reforms to restrictions on the Islamic head scarf, saying women employees would be allowed to cover their heads at state institutions except in the military and security services, and for judges and prosecutors.
