BALANCE
به زبان فارسی
PICTORY
LATEST MUSIC
SEARCH
Battle for the Soul of Turkey
23-Jul-2008
A fortnight ago Turkish prosecutors indicted 86 secular Turks on terrorism charges for their alleged involvement in plots to topple the governing conservative populist Justice and Development Party ( known as the AKP), led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan. Though lips across the ideological spectrum were for the most part restrained and tightly buttoned, Aykut Cengiz Engin, a chief prosecutor has stated that the suspects, believed to include at least one former general and an opposition politician, were charged either with belonging to a terrorist organisation, or of attempting to instigate a military coup.
It appears that after some years of relative quietude these two stalwart adversaries have reawakened their longstanding animus, as the onetime radicals turned Islamist democrats and the Kemalist establishment once again start to claw at one another, duking it out over who’ll ultimately exercise control over the levers of power defining the oft precarious terrain of Turkish politics. The Kemalists not only have a virtually unchallenged stranglehold on the judiciary, but also have close to a monopoly on violence by means of their porous boundaries and symbiotic relationship with the armed forces. If the history of modern Turkey is anything to go by, there have been four military coups since 1960, then the present game of tit-for-tat is unlikely to end civilly, with an exchange of respectful handshakes and boisterous pats on the back. Turkish politicians of all persuasions have come to know well that the military is far from shy about issuing threats, or flexing it muscle if and when deemed necessary.
Though the days of flooding the streets of Ankara and Istanbul with tanks and armed soldiers are of the past, Turkey's military establishment penetrates most if not all the key institutions of the Turkish republic. Steven A. Cook, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations contends that:
“Like-minded members of the bureaucracy such as the state prosecutor and the Kemalist stronghold that is the judiciary are critical partners of the military in the effort to undermine the AKP. The confluence of interests among these groups produced the present case before the Constitutional Court that seeks to close the party and ban 70 of its members [including both the Prime Minister and the President] from politics for five years.
The old establishment is seeking to regain its predominant position in the political system through an outdated set of ideas--Kemalism--that never achieved ideological hegemony.”
Ever since Turkey first made its bid for accession to the EU there has been a watchful eye on domestic political developments as well as unremitting scrutiny of civilian-military relations, prompting the top brass to tread with greater deftness than in the past. Politically motivated use of the courts and what one prominent commentator has referred to as ‘lawfare’ have emerged for the time being as the preferred tactic, even if the omnipresent threat of violence is never far too far in the distance.
The overriding conclusion amongst key analysts in the foreign policy establishment is that what we are witnessing is a struggle, not between the Kemalist vanguard who have been bequeathed the role of safeguarding and buttressing the tradition of Turkish secularism AND a quietly creeping Islamic albeit passive revolution (a la the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci) fostered and cultivated by the ruling AKP party and various other ‘subterranean’ elements hell-bent on subverting the state to theological dogma, but rather a struggle between liberal democracy and authoritarianism with a military hue. And what many in west may find counterintuitive, given the never-ending parade of hyperbole and tabloid sensationalism regarding the foreboding and forever looming ‘Islamic threat’, is that it’s the staunch secularists of a Kemalist bent that are guilty of contempt and a risible attitude toward democracy, democratic institutions and minority rights. The latter’s frosty attitude toward the US, European Union and inter-civilizational dialogue is also deepening, since all demand (to varying degrees and levels of ingenuousness) the hitherto indeterminate relationship between the civilian government and military be resolved once and for all in favor of the former.
On both poles of the ideological spectrum there’s a fairly robust consensus that the Islamist AKP has done more than any previous government to propel Turkey toward EU accession and reconciliation with its sizeable minority population of 15 million Kurds. Omer Taspinar, Professor of National Security at the US National War College, only last year in Foreign Affairs argued that:
“The AKP government has doubled the country’s per capita income, significantly improved its democratic record, and begun accession negotiations with the EU – even the most zealous secularists would struggle to find an Islamist agenda behind all this…Thus, the AKP’s landslide victory in July – it won 47 per cent of the vote [in 2007], compared with 34 percent in 2002, when it first came to power – was less a victory for Islam over secularism than a victory for the new democratic, pro-market, and globally integrated Turkey over the old authoritarian, statist, and introverted one.”
That it’s in the AKP’s interest to push for liberalization so as to enervate the iron-grip of the military establishment is a point of which be must remain cognizant, but it nevertheless fails to detract from the gains made by the AKP in working toward a more liberal polity. The AKP’s pragmatism, pro-Western and pro-globalization attitude is not something that can be ignored or easily sidestepped, and it’s in this respect that they have been blasted by both the far-right and far-left. Many problems undoubtedly remain, but the key is that the current momentum shouldn’t be permitted to stall and aimlessly meander so as to finally taper off into oblivion.
Taspinar also forcefully contends that in the advent of the AKP’s proscription and marginalization, the party’s constituency may well turn to more radical means in order to make their voices heard and articulate their societal grievances. Despite the marked softening of these former Islamists cum media-savvy politicians, there’s no guarantee against the tide once again turning in favor of the latter trend, amongst both Turks and Kurds. Though there is little need to worry about the old-guard of the AKP who appear to have decisively mellowed with little desire to give up the power and privilege to which they are now accustomed. The worry resides with those young men and women who have come to eke out a dejected, disillusioned and disenfranchised existence on the edge of Turkey’s rapidly growing metropolises and the peasantry whose subsistence earnings have compelled them to migrate and fall into pauperized urban lifestyles teetering on the breadline. This is where the potential for ‘righteous anger’ and fury at state inaction finds its constituency, not over symbolic and often sensationalized issues such as whether the headscarf should be allowed in Turkish universities or the permissibility of alcohol consumption in certain districts.
The three main issues which perform the role of tacitly understood redlines between the Turkish government and the military establishment are:
- An intolerant brand of Turkish secularism (laiklik) and any publicly visible challenge to its hegemony.
- The question of Cyprus and the preservation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognized solely by Turkey and perceived as a key strategic asset by the military elite. A coup was very nearly mounted against the government on just this issue in 2004.3
- Kurdish cultural rights and greater autonomy for Turkey’s Kurds who number 15 million in total (hardly a negligible figure) and heavily populate the southeastern regions of the country.
- Acknowledgement and open discussion of the Armenian genocide during and in the aftermath of the First World War.
Governments and individuals who have dared broach these issues with even a modicum of seriousness have paid a heavy price, since the top brass, have willingly intervened without hesitation to valorize what it perceives as the Kemalist legacy . Even Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s greatest living novelist and 2006 Nobel Laureate was slammed with a barrage of nationalistic vituperation and litigation for adducing the Armenian genocide and was consequently charged with ‘insulting Turkishness’; an obscure law which has allowed hyper-nationalist lawyers to file lawsuits against anyone who questions or contests the official Kemalist narrative and imprimatur. Historical accuracy is mere quibbling in this regard and finds a paucity of support amongst the Kemalist constituency. The case against Pamuk was eventually dropped at the behest of the highest echelons of government because of the reams of bad western press rained down upon Turkey as a consequence of his Nobelist status; many others, however, aren’t so fortunate. The Turkish-Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, was gunned down in the street by an extreme Turkish nationalist and a great many other individuals have been prosecuted under the vague and inchoate constitutional stipulation of ‘insulting Turkishness’, first postulated by the military cabal who ousted the government in 1980.
Many see Turkey’s present turmoil as stemming from the innate and manifold contradictions latent in Ataturk’s legacy. Mustafa Kemal made his way from a position of petit-bourgeois obscurity to the highest office in the land. In the aftermath of the Second World War, he not only prevented his nation from being torn asunder and carved up by the European powers, but in tandem forged an emboldened, assertive and highly militarized state. Many Turks almost in automaton-like fashion avow that they will never forget Ataturk’s great service to their nation and the debt they owe him. In good old republican fashion (think of Machiavelli’s Discorsi where the Italian philosopher argues that the republic’s founders remain its touchstone and ultimate source of legitimacy, blessed with a boundless capacity to lend cohesion and reinvigorate the body politic) he has become well-nigh immortalized with a somewhat kooky cult of personality to boot, which even the man himself, one might speculate, would have found distasteful.
Ataturk’s modus operandi was of a different era and germinated in response to what he saw as an imminent crisis and dissolution of the Ottoman state and society, which if not confronted head-on might well have spelt the demise of the Turkish nation as he knew it. In an effort to combat the decline of the once awe-inspiring Ottoman Empire and paradoxically stave off western interference and intrusion in Turkish affairs he sought to emulate and even outdo the west, and to that end adapted the republican laws and codes of conduct he’d witnessed in France and other western nations, as he saw fit and tailored them to his own country’s specificity. He Latinized the alphabet, purged the Turkish language of Persian and Arabic words in order to construct a ‘purer’ and more ‘authentic’ Turkish, forbade the fez and veil, lampooned the religious establishment under the umbrella of state-control, and finally instituted a secular legal code.
As far as he was concerned such measures needed to be unilaterally enforced from above and divorced from the protracted and tedious rumination and deliberation characteristic, as he saw it, of the parliamentarian mould. Hence a great many allude to the man’s penchant for authoritarianism, disdain for the rule of law and therefore Ataturk’s complicity in stressing the will of the military over the will of the people. These same critics intimate that authoritarianism was tossed aside at the expense of democracy and liberalism. Defenders of this aspect of the Kemalist legacy claim that Turkey wasn’t yet sufficiently ‘mature’ for democracy and so democratic reform was necessarily retarded until the guardians of the realm decide otherwise.
These same defenders point to the example of Iran. Iran’s Reza Shah was powerfully impacted by his formidable neighbor and even went on a fact finding mission in 1934 to see Ataturk’s sweeping innovations for himself. Though Reza Shah did institute a series of measures akin to those already implemented by Ataturk in Turkey, he was compelled to abdicate his throne in favor of his son Mohammad-Reza in the course of the Second World War due to his pro-German sympathies. That Reza was unable to finish the job, is cited as one of the prime reasons by partisans of Kemalism for the final takeover of the state by reactionary elements in the Islamic revolution of 1979. That all secular forces, whether liberal, leftist, nationalist, women’s lib etcetera, in concert with civil society and the network of informal political organizations of which it was comprised, were totally decimated leaving only an emaciated and enfeebled bundle of opposition elements (leaving Islamist forces in the ascendance and Khomeini as unifying nodal point upon the eve of revolution and as the only feasible alternative) to the dictatorship of Reza’s successor and son, Mohammad-Reza, is hastily swept beneath the rug. That question, however, necessitates a discussion of its own, and ought to be left for another time.
Despite Mohammad Reza’s putatively modernizing reforms the clergy reacted on one-level to the Shah’s ever-tightening grip on power and his growing disdain for democratic institutions. On another level, the clergy reacted to the steadily encroaching threat posed by the state to their traditional sphere of influence and financial earnings. Despite violent suppression by the Shah’s military and intelligence services, the clergy maintained relative autonomy and independence of action and were thereby able to mobilize supporters en masse against the Pahlavi regime. This of course culminated in the Iranian revolution’s rapid transformation into a full-blown Islamo-clerical revolt and overthrow of the status quo ante. It is this scenario which the Kemalist establishment avers it’s trying to forestall today.
Though at one time this may have perhaps been a legitimate concern, it’s become clear that the Kemalists continue to use the politics of fear and hyperbole as a fig-leaf to ensure they will never be forced to relinquish the reins of power to which they have grown used to wielding wherever and whenever they feel their traditional supremacy threatened. One example of the rhetoric customarily fulminated from out of the rightwing establishment is the branding of politicians of a religious persuasion and religious leaders of a liberal persuasion such as Fethullah Gulen who whole-heartedly endorse the coexistence of faith and scientific discovery, back the Kemalist tradition urging the separation of state and religion and extol the importance of faith as a matter of private concern as opposed to politico-legal institutionalization, as the Turkish Khomeini incarnate. Such slander unfortunately comprises a significant part of Turkish high politics where the back and forth of polemic and counter-polemic has left an electorate lukewarm and wearily apathetic.
The underbelly of the Kemalist legacy of course is that it suppresses all subaltern and marginalized voices: it’s fundamentally univocal, as opposed to plurivocal. One either accepts the dominant or rather domineering paradigm encumbered by ethnicity, language and to a lesser extent religion or one is ostracized from political life in toto. As Cihan Tugal, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Berkeley has argued, the modern Turkish state was birthed and established on this very basis, and balefully manifested itself in the form of religious homogenization, an aggressive brand of assimilationist nationalism and ethnic cleansing.
It is thus that an imposed homogenous identity along the lines of the Westphalian model which has long been the standard-bearer of statehood in the western world i.e. a single ethnic, linguistic, and religious identity, imposed upon a canvas that was and continues to be multi-colored, intrinsically diverse and cosmopolitan. The idea that dissent from the state-centric and pre-delineated Kemalist-identity is forbidden and should be greeted with opprobrium remains a powerful current in Turkish political life, and in all likelihood will take many years to erode and tame.
The AKP’s initial overtures to Turkish Kurds and the overwhelming majority of Kurd’s renunciation of violence in favor of inter-cultural dialogue, debate and discussion marks a step forward rather than a leap. A dangerous political cynicism continues to obdurately reveal itself amongst the military elite and top brass, perhaps best evinced by the Semdinli incident in which Turkish intelligence forces allegedly planted explosives in Semdinli deep in southeastern Turkey, in a bid to spark ethnic unrest by blaming Kurdish separatists and strengthen the military’s hand against both Kurdish militants and the civilian government whose credibility could be sapped due to being ‘soft on matters of national security’.
One can only hope that the humble steps already enacted are on track to definitively vouchsafing Turkey’s democratic future. No one should be under the illusion that we’re out of the woods yet, as tumult and intrigue, as we have seen, could with relative ease return to Ankara. It’s an oversimplification to frame it in such terms, but today it’s clear that Turkey faces a choice between a liberal-pluralistic parliamentarianism and military authoritarianism, and that the AKP with ample succor from the EU, for all their flaws represent the best chance of the former’s realization, whereby the paternalistic shadow of a meddlesome military will be once and for all expunged.
| Recently by sadegh | Comments | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Optimism and Nightmares | 2 | Jun 18, 2009 |
| The Quest for Authenticity | 6 | Mar 18, 2009 |
| Thirty Years On | 39 | Feb 01, 2009 |
RECENT COMMENTS
IRANIANS OF THE DAY
| Person | About | Day |
|---|---|---|
| نسرین ستوده: زندانی روز | Dec 04 | |
| Saeed Malekpour: Prisoner of the day | Lawyer says death sentence suspended | Dec 03 |
| Majid Tavakoli: Prisoner of the day | Iterview with mother | Dec 02 |
| احسان نراقی: جامعه شناس و نویسنده ۱۳۰۵-۱۳۹۱ | Dec 02 | |
| Nasrin Sotoudeh: Prisoner of the day | 46 days on hunger strike | Dec 01 |
| Nasrin Sotoudeh: Graffiti | In Barcelona | Nov 30 |
| گوهر عشقی: مادر ستار بهشتی | Nov 30 | |
| Abdollah Momeni: Prisoner of the day | Activist denied leave and family visits for 1.5 years | Nov 30 |
| محمد کلالی: یکی از حمله کنندگان به سفارت ایران در برلین | Nov 29 | |
| Habibollah Golparipour: Prisoner of the day | Kurdish Activist on Death Row | Nov 28 |
Zionist Fred
by Mammad on Thu Jul 24, 2008 09:25 PM PDTyeah right, smart a..
Mammad
Haji professor
by Fred on Thu Jul 24, 2008 08:18 PM PDTThe similarities of slothful induction and the precise language employed in defense of Islamism as a democracy compatible ideology and those of a certain outed Islamist republic lobbyist is just uncanny. Haji professor who prefers it scientifically, Mendeleev would not be proud of you
For those who suddenly
by Kurdish Warrior (not verified) on Thu Jul 24, 2008 07:47 PM PDTbecame sympathizers of Kurds and started to defend them. There is no doubt that Kurds voted for AKP. But we also need to analyse why they supported such party that has link to political Islam. Generally Kurds are more secular than any other groups in the region so the question is why?? The answer is very simple...Kurds had two options; One is to continue struggle to be recognized as Turkish citizen and gain individual rights or to be suppressed as they have been in Turkey for centuries. However they know that with AKP, secularism might eventually vanish. So FOR NOW they have no choice but to support that government. AKP knows this but this still would benefit them, because there are more than 25 million Kurds in Turkey so AKP can use them as a vote as well as show to EU that we are democratic. This is what lies behind the concept of AKP and Kurds.
Mammad, The Resident Islamist
by Marg Bar IRI (not verified) on Thu Jul 24, 2008 07:27 PM PDTFirst says:
"Fascism has a scientific definition, used by political scientists. We either want to do things in an arbitrary fashion, or according to a scientific, well-established way. You want to choose the first way, be my guest. I select the second."
The Resident Islamist with the speed of light than says the following:
"The secu-fascists in Turkey even denied that Kurds actually existed in Turkey. They called them "mountain Turks!" No one, absolutely no one, in Turkey has committed more crimes against Kurds than the secu-fascists."
This resident Islamist, with the speed of light forgot to live by his own standards of using the "Scientific Definition" he had just requested from Mortad and used "Secu-fascists" in his standard Pro Islamic diatribe.
The resident Islamist also conveniently forgets all the crimes the IRI has committed against the Kurds, Azari, Bahai, Baluchi.... and the rest of the Iranian population.
Sadegh
by Mammad on Thu Jul 24, 2008 07:10 PM PDTAs you can see below, Bush, the hero of the bogus "war on terrorism," is now actually the rescuing angel of the "Islamo-fascists" in Turkey. The smart ... man does have deep, incurable dementia.
The secu-fascists in Turkey even denied that Kurds actually existed in Turkey. They called them "mountain Turks!" No one, absolutely no one, in Turkey has committed more crimes against Kurds than the secu-fascists. At the same time, in order to get Turkey's membership in the EU, no Government in Turkey has done more for the Kurds than that of AKP.
Yet, Islam haters - who cannot even hide their colours - jump at any opportunity to attack Islam. The AKP has won two landslide elections in two democtratic elections, and has respected the letter and spirit of Turkey's constitution to the hilt, yet IRANIAN Islam haters jump on them to attack Islam.
Yes, roo-ye amsaal-e man ziyad ast!!!!!
Mammad
Mortad aziz
by Mammad on Thu Jul 24, 2008 06:58 PM PDTIf what you said is the definition of Islamo-fascism, then,
(1) we have Christo-fascism which, in the name of Christianity and modernism, has killed tens of millions of people, from the time when close to 1 million peopole in Latin America were killed by the Christian missionaries because they did not want to convert, to all the crimes that the colonialist did in Africa and Southeast Asia, to when the West supported all the bloody dictatorships in Latin American, Africa and South East Asia, all in the name of confronting "the Godless communists."
(2) We have Judo-fascism which takes Palestinian lands by force, forces the Palestinians to flee, and kills those who do not.
(3) We have Hindu-fascism which forced millions of Muslims to flee to form Pakistan, and still bombs Muslim places in India in a systematic fashion.
You can give a name to anything you want. At the level of a personal opinion, that is just fine. But, just because we say so does not make it so.
Fascism has a scientific definition, used by political scientists. We either want to do things in an arbitrary fashion, or according to a scientific, well-established way. You want to choose the first way, be my guest. I select the second.
Mammad
Fact quilting
by Fred on Thu Jul 24, 2008 06:16 PM PDTAgain, all the personal attacks, tack teaming and all, including the cyber-diagnosis of dementia as well as a string of other cognitive brain ailments and a whole lot of character flaws will not change a thing. The write-up is painting a progressive picture of the Islamist AKP that is pure fabrication and outright falsity. For the Islamist/Anti-Semites and their likeminded lefty allies who defend the AKP may not be realizing they are in total sync with the Turkish policies of their nemesis the grand “neocon” himself. If it was not for the direct intervention of the big B during the constitutional crises over the election of the Islamist president the Turkish army was all but resigned to implement that which the constitution mandates. Twisting facts and dolling up an ugly bride might fool some but for Iranians who have been hoodwinked by the same kind of used jalopy salesmanship into marrying the Islamist witch and have to bear the consequence of it every second of their lives it is not easy when the same matchmaking service is being advertised to stay silent. So, please don’t mind me it is probably my dementia acting up, just ignore my comments and go about your convoluted fact quilting.
Jamshid
by Mammad on Thu Jul 24, 2008 06:06 PM PDTYour "comment" is not worth responding to. You have shown your true colour in the past.
Mammad
Mammad, there is indeed Isalmo-Fascism
by Anonymous58 (not verified) on Thu Jul 24, 2008 05:26 PM PDTMammad,
IslamoFascism has always existed since the begining of Islam. Meaning since the Sadreh Eslam. All you have to do to prove this to yourself is study the events of 640-650 AD in Iran, and the atrocities committed by the Arabs in Iran. These included rape, beheadings, and slavery among others. Furthermore, if you feel that Islamo-Fascism does not exist, can you make a gues as to what would happen to a person who would try to spread Christianity, Zartoshtism, Budhism, or any other religion in Saudi Arabia ?!!
Regards,
A Mortad !
Thank you for your kind
by sadegh on Thu Jul 24, 2008 05:41 PM PDTThank you for your kind words Mammad. You certainly make some trenchant points worthy of serious rumination.
Regarding Fred's crocodile tears for the Kurds...it shows the perversity of the man's logic that he defends the biggest oppressors of Turkey's Kurds i.e. the Kemalist establishment. It is the latter that couldn't even tolerate the Kurds' possession of even basic linguistic, cultural and human rights, and in the ensuing conflict have butchered some 30,000 Kurds and engaged in state terrorism against Kurdish civilians - it was the efforts of the AKP to steadily move toward the model of liberal-cosmopolitanism demanded by the EU that led the vast majority of Kurds to vote for the AKP in the first place (this again conveys the depths of Fred's ignorance)...His hatred of what he perceives as 'Islam' or anything he deems 'Islam-related' is so irrationally fanatical that he even finds it necessary to defend crypto-facists at the expense of those who support human rights...hypocrisy and an 'attitude of saying anything to vindicate one's position' evince the man's double standards and delusional hatred...one minute he quotes Montazeri to support his position the next he's conflating all of 'Islam' with facism etc...the dementia never ends with this one...
Ba Arezu-ye Movafaghiat, Sadegh
Re: Mammad
by jamshid on Thu Jul 24, 2008 04:58 PM PDTWasn't the destruction of Iran by your ideology 30 years ago enough?
Now you want to help your friends do the same in Turkey too?
maashaalah roo ke nist.
Turkey is not a full democratic ......
by Kurdish Warrior (not verified) on Thu Jul 24, 2008 04:25 PM PDTEven thou I agree with their secular idea as state I disagree with their sense of nationalism and their action against others. The genocide against Armenians and Kurds are examples of that nation. Unfortunately Turkey is stuck between two parities. The AKP which has the root in political Islam and the CHP which has close relationship with military organization. None of these two are a democratic organization. One which seeks to mix Islam with politics and the other deny minorities rights and represents more ultra nationalistic view. The Turks need to look for another solution if they want to have democratic state and to join EU.
Bad chemistry
by Fred on Thu Jul 24, 2008 01:34 PM PDTTraitors, charlatans, patriots or smart...will be judged once Iran and Iranians are emancipated. Islamist/Anti-Semites and their likeminded lefty allies should not rush to judgment.
Sadegh
by Mammad on Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:42 PM PDTThank you. Excellent article.
It would be good if you could analyze the similarities and differences between the AKP in Turkey and the reformist/leftist political groups in Iran (see my comment to Iranian Muslim).
Mammad
Iranian Muslim
by Mammad on Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:40 PM PDTI agree with you, and would like to add the following point:
The Freedom Movement is a centrist party. In fact, many of the political parties in Iran that are on the left-side of the political spectrum are the way you describe.
For example, the Nationalist-Religious Coalition is very much similar to FM. In fact, many of its leaders are members of both. I also note that the NR group is very popular among the university students in Iran. Same thing about Islamic Iran Participation Front.
Mammad
Anonymous-today
by Mammad on Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:34 PM PDTWith all due respect, I believe that the AKP of Turkey already resembles to a large extent the Islamic version of the Christian Democrats of Western Europe. The CD also started their life as very religious, but evolved over time. The same is true about AKP. They are not what they were 20 years ago.
It would be informative and very useful if you point out the extent of the differences between the two groups.
Mammad
MRX1
by Mammad on Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:29 PM PDTCan you please specify who, IN TURKEY, are the Islamo-fascists and who are the democrats (aside from the fact that, there is no such thing as Islamo-fascism)?
If the former are the governing party, then a very large portion of the population must also be so, because in two democratic elections they have voted for the ruling party BY WIDE MARGINS. The second elections took place last year after the supposedly seculars held demonstrations, which led to the dissolution of the parliament and new elections. At least a portion of the opposition is secular-fascist, or secu-fascist as I called them in an article in 2007. We have them among the Iranian opposition as well.
People like smart ... Fred shed crocodile tears for the Kurds, while supporting the repression and suppression of Palestinians by Israel, for at least 41 years, if not 60 years. Criticism is great, so long as it is not directed at Israel.
The fact of the matter is, the secu-fascists of Turkey (but not all the seculars) cannot tolerate the success of a moderate Islamic Party which has done much for Turkey in getting it close to European Union membership (which the previous secular could not), as well as Turkey's economy. The 86 people have been arrested not for peaceful opposition to the government. Their peaceful opposition was rebuked by the people in the elections when they gave overwhelming majority to the ruling party again. Rather, they were arrested because they wanted to incite bloodshed and unrest.
Mammad
two things
by MRX1 (not verified) on Thu Jul 24, 2008 11:01 AM PDTThere are two things that I realy like about Turkey
1) The sense of fighting islamo facists at any cost with out caring what mumbo jumbo hollywood liberal idiot types have to say. Their firm stance on secularism is breath of fresh air. I only wish U.S deport these bourka and roosari wearing moron who seem to have multiplied like cockroaches these days.
2) Despite being a musilm country, they have seperated their path from Arabs long time a go. Their aspiration to join Europen Eunion speaks of volume. They have realized long time a go nothing interesting or progressive comes from Arab neighbors. You don't see them get invloved in Arab, Isreali affairs.
French vs. American democracy
by Anonymous-today (not verified) on Thu Jul 24, 2008 09:39 AM PDTTrue, but French republicanism, at least in theory, defends a universalism that all its citizens are guaranteed to. Of course you can question who sets the parameters of that universalism (in the case of French the Enlightenment, warts and all) but I'm not sure if the American version of multi-culturalism within the context of global dominance of Capital is in long term any better. But in case of Turkey, the dilemma is simple: Can Islam as a political force be trusted? The answer in my opinion is let's see. Can Turkish Islam evolve into the equivalent of Christian Democrats in Germany and Italy operating within the framework of a modern democracy? It seems to me nearly 90 years of militant, at times brutal secularism has not resolved the Islam question in Turkey. The AKP has been elected twice in fair elections with the army in the background ready to pounce. Can the AKP formulate a modern politics along the lines of other socially conservative populist parties? Perhaps this is pie in the sky but worth keeping an eye on. Although Turkish Islam is different from Iran's or Egypt's or Indonesia, the outcome could be critical for the rest of the Islamic world.
raping to defend virginity
by Alborzi (not verified) on Thu Jul 24, 2008 05:12 AM PDTIts hypocritical to suppress people to defend freedom. A Turkish woman (who observes hejab) is treated better in USA than in Turkey. Their treatment of kurds is also criminal. In some regards Turkey is just like Iran, they make rules as they deem necessary. Its case of western son of bitch vs eastern son of bitch.
Thanks for your excellent
by sadegh on Thu Jul 24, 2008 04:00 AM PDTThanks for your excellent points Iranian Muslim...it's always fascinating to see what might have been through counterfactual history...though I think you are correct when you point out the uneasy relationship between French republicanism and the accompanying tradition of laicite and the values of liberalism, pluralism and multiculturism...France is still trying to come to terms with it as can be seen from its treatment of the muslim minority who reside there...
Ba Arezu-ye Movafaghiat, Sadegh
Fascinating Article
by Iranian Muslim on Wed Jul 23, 2008 06:42 PM PDTReading into the early years of the revolution in Iran, I am
beginning to see a striking similarity between the development of Turkey's adalet ve kalkinma partisi and Iran's nehzate azadi.
Both of these organizations were traditionalist, socially conservative
Muslim movements committed to the democratic process and human rights.
While the AKP survived its secular opponents, Iran's nehzat was
politically obliterated when Bazargan's provisional government resigned
in a principled stand against the taking of American hostages. One can
only wonder where this cadre of Muslim Mossadeghites would have steered
Iran's political trajectory.
I believe that the AKP's political and ideological evolution demonstrates a positive realignment of Muslim priorities. That is, a move away from political theology.We can see this best in the fethullahci schools, which have provided
world class education to Muslims and non-Muslims alike while providing
a space for Muslim traditionalism to chart a more open-minded course.
There is little doubt that the pluralist traditionalism of Mowlana Rumi,
buried in nearby Konya, has contributed to the emergence of this type
of Muslim experience in Turkey (as it has, on the popular level, in
Iran). Thus spake Mowlana, in what I think sums up the AKP's/nehzat political
platform: "mA borun rA nangarim-o qAl rA / mA darun rA bengarim-o hAl rA".
The solution for many a Turkish ill, in my view, is to gradually move away from a French laicite towards an American model of liberty, individual rights
and popular sovereignty. Feel free to disagree, of course!
The upshot
by Fred on Wed Jul 23, 2008 06:09 PM PDTNo amount of personal attack would hide the double talk displayed in this write-up. The upshot is an Islamist light ideology jazzed up to look like a progressive one will not fool anyone particularly the Turkish women. By now the Islamist/Anti-Semites and their lefty allies’ bait and switch is a well known con.
no arguments, no
by sadegh on Wed Jul 23, 2008 05:36 PM PDTno arguments, no facts...big surprise...and I didn't say it was liberal-pluralistic and parliamentarian...i said given the present domestic political dynamic it represents the best opportunity for the realization of that paradigm which is still some way off...it most certainly is parliamentary and democratically elected...two election victories speak for themselves or do you have that much contempt for democracy and the turkish people Freddy boy...it has even agreed a defense agreement with israel, so there's your habitual refrain of 'anti-semite' right out the window...orhan pamuk agrees with the position advocated in the article and I'm far more inclined to ally myself with him rather than an ignoramus such as yourself...the turkish establishment has butchered some 30,000 Kurds in recent years, adamantly denies the armenian genocide as well as cypriot sovereignty so if you're so weary of human rights violations, try doing a little research befor you start your usual insipid blathering...also thanks for clarifying your anti-democratic, anti-pluralistic credentials for us all to see...
Ba Arezu-ye Movafaghiat, Sadegh
I wish the Turks would also stand up to ZioNazis
by Mehdi on Wed Jul 23, 2008 05:32 PM PDTOtherwise what is the point of. We attack the little drug dealer and let the major distributor go free?
Call a spade a spade
by Fred on Wed Jul 23, 2008 05:15 PM PDTThe Islamist AKP has tried on number of occasions to impose its Islamist light ideology on the secular Turkey. Per Turkish Constitution the Turkish military is the guardian of the hard fought for secularism that has transformed a backward Turkey to a modern state and thus will oppose any regressive moves. The Islamist light AKP has also been cooperating with the Islamist republic in suppression of the Kurds and in summarily handing over Iranian opposition back to the Islamist republic. It has expelled the VOA Persian service reporter, an Iranian Kurd, on the direct request of the Islamist republic. To frame the Islamist AKP in “liberal-pluralistic parliamentarianism” is at best uninformed or at worst disingenuous and misleading.
All the brave secular Turks
by Farhad Kashani on Wed Jul 23, 2008 05:07 PM PDTAll the brave secular Turks who are confronting the IRI-like-and-inspired Islamic fundamentalists, should have the world support. I really hope Turkey does not go through what we have gone through by the hands of Islamist fascists.