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[fanourıo]

Is Turkey Deviating From Ataturk's Path? Elections Will Tell
The indisputable father of modern-day Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, accomplished great deeds in a short period of time. The greatest of these was the ease with which he weaved secularism into the fabric of a Muslim society. With his tantalizing and audacious reforms, he marched post-Ottoman Turkey unwaveringly toward the West and away from its Eastern neighbors. Among other reforms, Ataturk replaced the strict Islamic Shariah law with Swiss civil code, abolished state religion, secularized school curricula, and discouraged the use of the veil among women. Turkey's republican constitution, modeled after the French constitution, enshrined the country's commitment to secularism, referred to as Kemalism.

Today, Turkey's Kemalist secularism is under threat. This year, two events will have a critical effect on the future of Turkey's deeply ingrained secularist tradition. For the first time since 1973, Turks will go to the polls to elect both a president and a parliament that could revolutionize the country's political dynamics. If Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declares his candidacy and wins the presidency and his pro-Islamic party AKP (Justice and Development Party) regains parliamentary majority, "Islamists would control all Turkish offices and be positioned to erode secularism and redefine state and society," cautions historian Michael Rubin in the AEI Middle Eastern Outlook. Oktay Eksi, Turkey's respected columnist in the mass-circulation daily Hurriyet, echoes the same theme (in Turkish) in a Feb. 28 post: "Tayyip Erdogan's ascendancy to the presidency would constitute a stupendous blow to [the 80 year old] Turkish Republic, founded by our great Ataturk."

Worries about the future of secularism in Turkey are real. Ten years ago, while mayor of Istanbul, Erdogan's rhetoric bristled with Islamic sentiments. Democracy, he declared at the time, was like an automobile: "You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off." Beaming with pride, and casting his usual unsettling gaze into the TV camera, he also declared, "One cannot be a secularist and a Muslim at the same time. . . . The Muslim world is waiting for the Turkish people to rise up." Then there was the time he was convicted for inciting religious animosity by reciting the following lines in the public arena: "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers. . . . This holy army guards my religion." The recital would cost him four months in prison.

It is a small wonder that when Erdogan was later elected prime minister, in a landslide victory in 2002, shock waves swept across the Western world. Initially it was uncertain how AKP would lead the country, but Erdogan, an astute politician, was quick to reassure the Turks and the West of his intention to keep his personal beliefs at bay in politics. "Secularism is the protector of all beliefs and religions," he declared after victory -- a startling contrast to his earlier rhetoric of an Islamic revolution. "We are the guarantors of this secularism, and our management will clearly prove that," he consoled Turkey's suspicious secularist circles in an interview.

Five years later, however, AKP's legacy is anything but Kemalist. On one hand, Erdogan and his party have moved Turkey closer to the gates of the European Union than any of the previous parties. But on the other hand, there is increasing evidence to suggest that Ataturk's revolution is coming undone -- step-by-step, and almost insidiously.

If Turkey's educational system is a fortress of secularism, one wouldn't know it from today's changing laws. Indeed, the educational system has proved to be a fertile playground for the powers-that-be to push their Islamic agenda. Since the inception of the Republic in 1923, the secondary educational system has been divided primarily into three systems, as Rubin outlines in the AEI Middle East Outlook: Imam Hatips (religious schools based on the teachings of the Koran), whereupon pupils can enter the ranks of the clergy; vocational schools; and secular schools, where graduates are expected to gain posts in the public or private sector. Erdogan subverted the system by granting Imam Hatip graduates the right to enter secular universities of their choice.

At first glance, the move seems innocuous enough. But Turkey's secularist circles caution otherwise. The new law threatens the secular state by opening a gateway to Turkey's fundamentally secular institutions for individuals who are deeply versed in Islam, but illiterate in Western/secular values. Ayham Alkis, rector of the prestigious Yildiz University, summed up AKP's intentions in an interview with the International Herald Tribune: "Students in these schools are prepared for theological faculties. What we are seeing is a long term ploy by the administration to place these religious individuals in key national ministries in the future."

Assault on the educational system manifests in other ways. Time was when Turkey regulated its Koran schools in an effort to ensure that Saudi funded scholars were not indoctrinating young minds. Today's AKP-dominated parliament has not only loosened age limits on enrollment, but also relaxed Turkey's harsh penalties against illegal Koran schools. Illegal Koran schools -- incubators of Islamic radicalism -- now freely advertise on the pages of Turkish newspapers, albeit under intense scrutiny as of late. Turkey is now home to more than 63,000 Koran courses -- ten times the number before the AKP era, according to the Turkish Daily News.

A glossy 768-page "Atlas of Creation" that is mysteriously turning up in schools and libraries is also a cause for concern. Appearing unsolicited by post, the colossal copy authored by Harun Yahya, a member of the lavishly funded Islamic creationism movement based in Turkey, proclaims, "Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is the real root of terrorism," according to a 2006 Reuters report. Interestingly, in a recent survey of public acceptance of the Darwinian theory of evolution, Turkey came in last -- "just behind the United States," according to Reuters.

Evidence of the transformation can be found in other venues. In the name of European accession "reforms," the AKP-led government has acted to remove from key banking positions businessmen and women who were associated with the opposition parties. Those who have benefited from such shakedowns have been mostly members of the Islamic banking sector. One such beneficiary is Ahmet Erturk, who was a one-time imam (religious lecturer) at an anti-leftist camp in Malatya, a deeply conservative city in the Southeast. Kemal Unakitan, former board member at Al Baraka, a Shari'a-compliant bank, was also handpicked by Erdogan to represent the interests of the Islamists. Under AKP leadership, he was promptly appointed as the new finance minister.

Erdogan and AKP's anti-Kemalist spree has taken on more ominous proportions in the past two years. He has all but destroyed Turkey's fledging alcohol industry with punitive taxes and has banned alcohol in AKP-run municipalities. The municipalities have gone so far as to bulldoze restaurants that serve alcohol. The logo for the capital city, Ankara, which depicted an octagonal Hittite sun, has been replaced with an Islamic icon, ubiquitous on buses and public spaces. A recent survey questioning Turkish Airlines employees' attitudes toward Islam and the Koran have also touched a raw nerve. According to a report by Sabah, the mainstream daily, the Turkish Airlines test probed the respondents on whether they believed in the prescriptions of the Koran, regularly practiced the Islamic prayer ritual, and believed in the Islamic definitions of hell and heaven.

As early as 1925, Ataturk threw down an engaging admonition for the Turks: "If a society does not wage a common struggle to attain a common goal with its women and men, scientifically there is no way for it to get civilized or developed," he declared. The remark seems almost prophetic today. While Turkish women were some of the first women in the era to enjoy the privileges of political participation, today we see a subtle reversal of Ataturk's efforts in achieving greater equality. Indeed, if the status of women in a country is a barometer for civilization, then Turkey has fared badly under AKP leadership.

According to a recent independent study entitled "Does Islam Create a New Glass Ceiling," Turkish women face gross discrimination in the public sector. Erdogan and his clique have slowly and discreetly removed women from government posts. The Turkish cabinet is now home to a single female, and the number of women in the Parliament is rather dismal: Women hold only 24 seats of the total 550 seats -- up from 18 in 1935, the first year after Ataturk granted women full political participation. Currently, only 5 percent of legislators are women.

When AKP's main opposition party, CHP, backed legislation calling for affirmative action for women in Turkey's national legislative bodies, AKP leaders slighted the proposal. Burhan Kuzu, the AKP president of the Constitutional Committee, summarized AKP's attitudes toward women in his opposition: "Parliamentarianism is a hard task. We often work after midnight. A woman returning that late from work will not be looked upon with decency." But perhaps nothing illustrates Erdogan and his party's attitude toward women better than the comments Erdogan made to a Turkish journalist during a conference in Istanbul: "Now I will tell you this," Erdogan remarked to Sebnem Senyener, "A man looks at a woman in only one way. This is why we have to cover women -- to protect them. It is for your own good."

Although Erdogan has consistently rejected the Islamist label, and likened the AKP to mainstream Christian Democratic parties across Europe, his overt and covert actions during his five-year reign and his choice of leaders and party members suggest otherwise. Despite the comforting secularist rhetoric, numerous red flags indicate that Turkey might be sailing into the disaster that has long plagued its Islamic neighbors. If Turks wish to maintain and uphold one of the greatest secularist projects of our time, they should not take the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections lightly.

[pitsilos]

another anathema to turkey is their eu aspirations that your article seems not to mention. with greater democratic freedoms the islamist will have more freedoms to roam around.

i think this will be a bigger challenge to the military as they are the protectors of secularism. in one way they are looking to europe and in the other they are afraid of what this road will lead them to.

[fanourıo]

Turkey's way to the EU is another separate issue, but the Islamic Party is gaining voters... all remains to be seen...

[zan]

Will it not also give the freedom to those that want to speak up against the government. If they are leaning towards an Islamic lead government then others will expose them. Surely this will help the army.

[pitsilos]

yeah thats true, but it will cause a lot of problems, as the eu will insist that the army come under the government in the first place. so the guardianship might be lost in the process.

[zan]

yeah thats true, but it will cause a lot of problems, as the eu will insist that the army come under the government in the first place. so the guardianship might be lost in the process.

The army are under the government. They just have special veto powers.

[pitsilos]

yeah but that will be taken away under the eu. the eu will never accept such vetoes by the armed forces as that is deemed undemocratic. a not elected body with executive powers such as a special veto.

hard to swallow but thats the deal.

[cypezokyli]

i beg to disagree.
kemalism is not under thread in turkey. it never was. besides erdogan has nothing to do with erbakan. he could have been a danger , erdogan on the other hand is not.
besides kemalism can mean 1000 different things. the AKP may as well argue that its achievements in the economy where actually what kemal wanted :wing:
AKP had major achievements when it comes to the economy. CHP (and the army) has no arguments against that , so the only thing it can do is follow nationalistic rhetoric. AKP knows that, so it does the same. problem is , their nationalistic rhetoric doesnot help cyprus at all.

[pitsilos]

cyper, kemalism has a broad meaning and it can be interpreted in many ways, such as article 301

here is an interesting article about kamalism to which in my view describes kemalism

http://www.ataturksociety.org/asa/voa/kemalizm.html

[zan]

i beg to disagree.
kemalism is not under thread in turkey. it never was. besides erdogan has nothing to do with erbakan. he could have been a danger , erdogan on the other hand is not.
besides kemalism can mean 1000 different things. the AKP may as well argue that its achievements in the economy where actually what kemal wanted :wing:
AKP had major achievements when it comes to the economy. CHP (and the army) has no arguments against that , so the only thing it can do is follow nationalistic rhetoric. AKP knows that, so it does the same. problem is , their nationalistic rhetoric doesnot help cyprus at all.

Isn't the army of any country nationalistic by definition.