The Turkish people reelected the Islamic Justice and Development Party to its position of power by a landslide vote over the weekend.

In 2002 elections in Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (akp), which had recently formed out of a banned Islamic movement, took control of parliament with a two-thirds majority. The people’s democratically elected choice in 2002 was confirmed at the polls again five years later.

At the time, there were claims, as the Washington Times observed, that the “party’s control of parliament was not truly representative.” That claim is now dead, since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party took 47 percent of the vote. Over 80 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the election.

Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s first president and the founder of the Republic of Turkey, focused on education, abolished the Islamic caliphate and outlawed the veil and fez. He transformed Turkey into a secular nation. But in the decades since, Turkey’s secularist political parties became corrupt, and the average Turk remained poor and dissatisfied. In contrast, under the nation’s new Islamic leaders, the country has experienced a strong economic expansion.

But New York Post columnist Ralph Peters warns that, given time, Turkey’s leaders will also undo the secular constitution and become more actively anti-West; in addition, this election effectively ends Turkey’s hopes of joining the EU:

With Sunday’s vote, Turkey chose Asia over Europe. Ankara wants to belong to the Islamic Middle East on the social side, while exploiting Europe economically. But the EU isn’t obliged to subsidize Turkey’s return to the Middle Ages (albeit with cellphones). Talks will drag on for years, but Turkey’s hope of EU membership is dead.

The Turkish election also represents another failure of the Bush Doctrine. The spread of free elections, rather than increasing peace and freedom throughout the world, is putting hardline Islamists in power. To better understand why more freedom doesn’t necessarily equate with more peace, please read “The Democracy Paradox.”