Zan wrote:The army saved Turkey from the corrupt gangsters in the 70s and now it can do the same against this corrupt religious group. Until they can separate religion from politics then there is no democracy that the article is calling for. No country should be run by religion as no country should be run by the army but I am gald that the army are there until full democracy is reached. This is a transitional period that Turkey will have to go, through with a lot of pain but I am confident that they will go through it. Look at what Greece went through. Don’t panic.
There is another way at looking what the Army did in Turkey in the 70s...
The coup in 1970 was a fascist intervention which totally destroyed any semblence of the political left,the union movement,and decimated those community organisations which were trying to fight for real democracy in Turkey...
I wish you put your mind in gear before you open your mouth,Zan...
How on earth will Turkey reach "full democracy" if the military steps in every ten years and sets the democracy movement back 20 years???
I am no lover of the AKP and the Erdogan government or their candidate for President,but the military should step back once and for all and let the fledgling democracy take root.Gul is on record for saying he will respect the secular nature of the Turkish constitution. And if they removed the ridiculously high 10% benchmark for getting into parliament,AKP would instantly lose its dominance(their base vote is around 28%),and with the representation of the Kurdish parties in the Parliament Turkey will be on the way to real democracy.
But first Turkish people must learn the meaning of "freedom of speech".
It does not mean "you can say anything as long as I approve what you are saying"...It means "I don't agree with what you are saying but I respect your right to say it"...It is a sad say for Turkey and for Turkish democracy when even westernised intellectual and influential journalists are urging the military to step in to save...'the secular Turkish democracy'...