Charter referendum new test for Turkey's PM Erdogan

KONYA, Turkey (Reuters) - Shortly before sweeping to power, Tayyip Erdogan pledged at the tomb of state founder Ataturk to revive a secular democracy he said was losing the nation's trust. Turkey would now get the leadership it deserved.

Militant secularists saw his sentiments, etched in the ledger of Ataturk's mausoleum, as high treason coming from a man who had recently served a jail sentence for Islamist agitation.

Eight years later and facing a new test at the ballot box, Prime Minister Erdogan is a towering figure in Turkish politics; the former Istanbul mayor who challenged the establishment with a reformist agenda that brought the Muslim democracy closer to Europe where his secularist predecessors had failed.

Tainted still by the corruption and mismanagement of the 1990s and lacking a strong leader, the secularist opposition shivers at changes Erdogan has introduced and fears while paying lipservice to democracy he could prove its gravedigger.

"There is no question that Erdogan has put a stamp on Turkey as none of his predecessors have," said Henri Barkey, a Turkey expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"He has made significant changes by marrying piety with the state and he is willing to break some china to get things done."

Turks vote on Sept 12 on plans to reform a constitution rooted in an army coup exactly 30 years earlier. The referendum, though, is as much a vote of confidence in Erdogan, who came to power in 2002 and is likely to seek a third term in 2011.

TURKEY IN THE WORLD

The reforms focus on reorganizing the high courts -- a last redoubt for conservative secularists. Erdogan says they meet requirements for EU membership, opponents see an attempt to seize control of the judiciary.

Erdogan will draw core support in the Anatolian heartland.

With its mix of economic prosperity and social conservatism, Konya, a leafy city on the plains of central Turkey, epitomizes the rise of an observant Muslim middle class.

In industrial zones on the city's outskirts, firms that have turned Konya into a business hub by tapping into markets in the Middle East display signs reading "From Turkey to the world."

Billboards along the city's tree-lined streets advertise public Koran readings during Ramadan -- a sign of an increasingly open religiosity that has mirrored the AK's ascent.

"Any Turk who loves his nation should vote 'yes'," said shopkeeper Kemal Akkora, who admitted knowing little of the changes. "Erdogan is the greatest prime minister Turkey has had. Turkey is respected in the world, its economy grows strongly."

Ataturk founded modern Turkey on the ruins of the Ottoman empire in 1923. He imposed radical reform, banishing religion from government, promoting the interests of women, changing the alphabet from Arabic to Latin, turning the country to the West.

The army, judges and state bureaucrats were the self-appointed guardians of this legacy.

That rigid edifice changed with the ascent of AK, created with one clear and unchallenged leader as a broad coalition of conservatives, nationalists and liberals disillusioned with traditional parties riven by infighting.

Thanks to market-friendly reforms, AK has transformed Turkey into one of the world's fastest growing economies with a GDP that has almost tripled in the last eight years.

But under Erdogan, Turkey -- a U.S. ally that occupies a vital geostrategic position between Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East -- has also moved into uncharted territory.

He has pursued a vigorous foreign policy toward the EU but has repositioned Turkey in the Muslim world as a rising power by deepening ties with Iran, Syria and Iraq and by criticizing Israel, prompting concerns the NATO member is changing axis.

HAPPY TO BE A TURK

Domestically, changes have been equally dramatic.

Generals and political rivals have been humbled and religious Turks, long the underclass of society, have moved into positions of power. Erdogan's wife and the wife of President Abdullah Gul both wear headscarves -- redrawing an old debate on the space Islam should have in secular Turkey.

The AK Party considers itself a Muslim version of Europe's Christian Democrat parties and rejects the Islamist label.

Born of the macho-swagger culture of Istanbul's Kasimpasa district, Erdogan, a devout Muslim who doesn't drink or smoke, works crowds and rallies well.

"Think big, you are Turks," is a popular refrain of his that for many could carry echoes of Ataturk's fatherly exhortation: "Happy is he who can say 'I am a Turk'"

Critics say he is growing increasingly despotic and fear the constitutional changes are part of a creeping Islamist 'coup'.

A multi-billion dollar tax fine levied against Dogan Yayin, Turkey's largest media group and a frequent critic of AK, has raised some concerns about Erdogan's democratic credentials.

Cengiz Aktar, a liberal professor at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University, rejects talk of a "Putinisation" of Erdogan.

"He is not a democrat at all. He has autocratic tendencies, but if Erdogan goes for an autocratic presidential system it will be the end of him. Turkey has a vibrant civil society and nobody would follow," Aktar said.

At a recent rally in Konya loudspeakers blasted campaign music and the refrain: "We are walking toward an AK future. Hand in hand, the whole nation is following you, great prime minister Erdogan!"

Turks may argue for years yet over what was going through Erdogan's mind when he wrote his entry at Ataturk's tomb, ending then with the salute: "Rest in peace, the Grand Founder."

(Editing by Ralph Boulton)