The measures have also been ratified by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Erdogan's AKP ally.
"The AKP government actually did more for the Kurds than anyone up until now, " Pope said.
The AKP sees the military, judiciary and state bureaucracy as the last bastion of conservative secularism.
Egitim-Sen, a leftist teachers' union, charges that Islam has been permeating textbooks under the AKP.
If instead the AKP stayed in power, that would bring Islamists closer to the mainstream.
In less than 10 years, the AKP regime has dismantled Turkey's strategic alliance with Israel.
But a senior party member of the AKP, Bekir Bozdag, said the court had overstepped its jurisdiction.
When the AKP turned its guns on the military it used leftist journalists to support its actions.
AKP's surviving parliamentarians would remain as independents in sufficient numbers to be able to force another snap election.
The AKP is uncomfortable with the Kurdish movement proclaiming it has brought the Turkish state "to its knees".
"I never deluded myself that they are super-democrats, " says journalist Nuray Mert of Mr Erdogan's party, the AKP.
The AKP holds onto to power by delivering consistent economic growth, approaching 10% per year, through market-based reforms.
Yet just as in the AKP case, much of the prosecution's argument rests on words rather than deeds.
Militant Islam of the AKP variety has been enjoying growing popularity and support throughout Turkey for many years.
However, one notable change included the removal of Erdogan's interior minister from one of the AKP's top leadership councils.
When in 2003 the AKP-dominated Turkish parliament prohibited US forces from invading Iraq through Kurdistan, the US blamed itself.
The AKP party opposed the military's power because it blocked the party's path to Islamizing Turkish society and politics.
Turkey's chief prosecutor says the AKP is "the focal point of anti-secular activities", and is seeking to have it disbanded.
Last year's elections were forced after a constitutional impasse over whether the AKP's Abdullah Gul could be the country's president.
Both leaders telephoned Turkish Prime Minister Recip Erdogan to congratulate him on his Islamist AKP party's electoral victory on Sunday.
The blueprint was drawn up after the AKP was returned to power for a second five-year term in July 2007.
While we are assured it is a "moderate" religious party, the same has long been said of Turkey's governing AKP party.
In a resounding victory for Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), voters approved the 26 amendments by a wide margin Sunday.
But that process has stalled amid disagreements with opposition political parties, who accuse the AKP of trying to rewrite the constitution unilaterally.
Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin's hawkish stance towards Turkey's long-simmering Kurdish conflict has sparked controversy both within the AKP and throughout Turkey.
The party congress also led to the appointment of a slew of new names to the central coordination committee of the AKP.
"Solving the problem and ending the war would be seen as a positive step for the AKP's election prospects, " Ms Kaya says.
The AKP won the 2002 elections and has since been reelected twice.
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These helped the AKP to clobber the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) in much of the south-east in the July 2007 election.
The CHP and MHP see the referendum as the AKP's attempt to politicise the judiciary and subordinate it to the executive branch.
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