ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's ruling party surged to a third term in parliamentary elections Sunday, setting the stage for the rising regional power to pursue trademark economic growth, assertive diplomacy and an overhaul of the military-era constitution.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters gathered in front of his Justice and Development Party headquarters in Ankara, Turkey, late Sunday.

However, the Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan fell short of a two-thirds majority in parliament, a shortcoming that will force it to seek support for constitutional change from other political groups. Despite a record of democratic reform, the government has faced increasing criticism that it has sought to consolidate power at the expense of consensus-building.

Erdogan sought to allay those concerns in his victory speech, delivered from the balcony of the ruling party headquarters to thousands of ecstatic supporters who gathered below, chanting slogans and waving Turkish flags.

"We will be humble," said Erdogan, who pledged to start work on a new constitution. "We will be seeking consensus with the main opposition, the opposition, parties outside of parliament, the media, NGOs, with academics, with anyone who has something to say."

Erdogan's party won 50% of the votes, according to TRT, the state-run television. It said the Republican People's Party, the main opposition group, had 26% of the vote.

İstanbul - A 47-year-old former refugee has a chance to become the first Christian member of the Turkish parliament in half a century.

If he succeeds in parliamentary elections on Saturday, Erol Dora, an attorney, could also go some way in adjusting the electoral status quo in this mostly Muslim nation that critics say does not provide its religious minorities with fair representation.

"There has not been a Christian MP since the 1960s," Mr Dora said in an interview from his campaign in the south-eastern city of Mardin this week. "I don't think that's normal."

Mr Dora is a Syriac Christian, an ancient community that numbers about 13,000 in Turkey and that still uses Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus.

The region around Mardin is the traditional home of Syriac Christians, but many fled to Istanbul or western Europe when Turkey's south-east became a battleground between Kurdish rebels and the government in the 1980s.

If elected, Mr Dora has promised to speak for Syriac Christians in the national assembly and "work for democracy as a Turkish citizen".

Mr Dora is running as an independent backed by the Party for Peace and Democracy, or BDP, Turkey's main Kurdish party.

Political parties in Turkey must gain at least 10 per cent of the national vote to enter parliament, but that clause does not apply to independent candidates.

The BDP, which holds 5 to 6 per cent in the polls, hopes to send deputies to Ankara by having them run as independents.

In Mardin, a region with an ethnic and religious mix of Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Muslims, Christians and Yezidis, Mr Dora has a chance of being among the five deputies the province will send to Ankara.

His life story resonates with voters in the region. Mr Dora was born in a Syriac village that was evacuated by the military during the fighting between rebels and soldiers in the 1990s.

Friday, 25 March 2011 - Ali Cinar-New York, Mehmet Ali Şahin, New York'ta Türk Kültür Merkezi ve Türk Amerikan Dernekleri Konseyi tarafından düzenlenen ''4. Geleneksel Dostluk Yemeğine'' onur konuğu olarak katıldı.
Programa , New York Senatoru Kristen Gillibrand, Philidalphia Senatoru, Bob Casey, New York Kongre Uyesi Ed Towns, NYPD Baskani Ray Kelly, New York Eyalet Meclisi Üyesi Steven Cymrowitz gibi isimlerde katildi.
TBMM Başkanı Mehmet Ali Şahin, ''Türkiye ve ABD'nin çok geniş bir coğrafyada, kritik önem taşıyan  konularda, kapsamlı bir işbirliği yürüten iki dost ve müttefik ülke olduğunu, ancak iki demokratik ülke aralarında zaman zaman görüş ayrılıklarının yaşanmasının da doğal olduğunu'' söyledi. Friday, 25 March 2011 -