The Anachronistic Kemalist Ideology
Khalid Amayreh
Underscoring the ideological rigidity of the ultra-secular but undemocratic Kemalist ideology, Turkey’s Constitutional Court this week ruled that Islamic headscarves violated secularism and can’t be allowed to be worn at universities and other public institutions.
The verdict overrides a recent decision by the Turkish parliament allowing the hijab at universities as a matter of personal and religious freedom. It also sets the controversial court above the parliament and even above the collective will of the Turkish masses.
Indeed, it is more than mind-boggling to see female Muslim students granted full freedom to attend universities in Europe and North American with their headscarves on while Turkish students are denied the same freedom in a country where Muslims constitute nearly 99% of the population.
The military-dominated Kemalist establishment, which has been steadily losing public appeal as is evident from the outcome of the two latest general elections, claims that the hijab constitutes a mortal threat to the safety and survival of secularism in Turkey.
This rationale, however, is as irrational as it is silly, since it is beyond the pale of common sense to think that a small piece of cloth covering a woman’s hair poses a threat to the survival of secularism. In fact, one might argue that a secular regime that can’t tolerate, let alone survive, a woman’s headscarf is not worth maintaining.
Besides, true secularism shouldn’t really interfere with people’s choices and personal freedoms.
Nonetheless, it is obvious that the Turkish court as well as the military establishment and their allies in the media and business sectors have long come to view secularism as a kind of religion whose raison d’etre is to counter and, if possible, eradicate Islam.
To the chagrin of the anti-Islam Kemalist establishment, however, nearly nine decades of fundamentalist secular inquisition have utterly failed to realize this sinister goal. Turks continued to express their respect of and adherence to Islamic teachings and ideals.
Fascist Ideology
While paying lip service to democracy, the Kemalist ideology actually shows little respect for genuine democracy and human rights. Kemalism (the political philosophy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of Modern Turkey) emphasizes the ideals of secularism, republicanism, nationalism, authoritarianism and patriotism. However, the ideals of democracy, human rights, civil liberties, civil society are discouraged and, if necessary, crushed, often through direct interference and intervention by the military.
The Kemalists say their goal is to “secularize and westernize” every aspect of Turkish life. However, these pseudo agents of western culture have utterly failed to adopt the basic western concepts of democracy and human rights.
Instead, they repeatedly acted to suppress and repress the will of the people whenever free elections produced governments the military establishment deemed incompatible with the Kemalist philosophy.
This military establishment had carried out at least three military coups against civilian governments in 1960, 1971 and 1981, leading to the dissolution of well-established political parties.
In 1998, the same notorious constitutional court rubber-stamped a decision by Turkish Generals to ban the country’s leading political party, the Refah (welfare) Party for “constituting a threat to the secular order.”
Prior to the decision, the military establishment waged a war of attrition against Prime Minister Necmettien Erbakan on several fronts, including the media, the all-powerful National Security Council and the courts. The military also pursued a foreign policy of its own by forging a strategic military alliance with another pseudo democracy in the Middle East, Israel.
This happened in a state which hypocritical western leaders kept referring to as the “other democracy in the Middle East.”
Now, in addition to once again banning the hijab from university campuses, the constitutional court is flying in the face of the vast majority of Turks by threatening to ban the ruling and most popular party in Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), headed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Earlier this year, AKP once again won an overwhelming election victory following a standoff with the Kemalist establishment which had been organizing massive street protests in an effort to bring the government down.
However, it is obvious that the secular fundamentalists in Turkey are unfazed by the clear popular mandate granted to AKP by the Turkish masses, which explains their continued plots to corrode democracy and defy the will of the Turkish people.
Bankrupt
Unlike Marxism, for example, Kemalism is not an all encompassing ideology that provides explanations for such issues as history, society, man, God, ethics and nature. Hence, it lost much of its appeal especially in the past two decades as many societies and individuals reverted to religious ethos to ensure moral integrity and social cohesion.
In addition to its intellectual bankruptcy, the Kemalist establishment has also been quite opportunistic. In 1980, the leaders of the military coup, staged a military coup to stem the rising tide of violence between right-wing ultra-nationalists and militant Marxists.
Then, the establishment saw the great merit of encouraging Islamic ideas and education as an antidote to Marxism. In 1982, the military government made the teaching of Islam compulsory in secondary education, something that had been optional since 1967. (See Turkey: Erbakan’s Legacy, Middle East International, 11 July, 1997)
However, when Islamic or quasi-Islamic parties arose, which really don’t differ much from Christian Democratic parties in Europe, the Kemalists hastened to suppress them, arguing that secularism came before and overrode democracy.
Crossroad
Today, Turkey stands at a crossroad, which leads either to true democracy, development and modernity, or takes the country back into the throes of military dictatorship that would hang prime ministers for the pettiest deviation from the Ataturk line of thinking.
Mustafa Kemal, his worshipers must realize, was not Prophet Muhammed or Jesus Christ. And his ideals and principles don’t constitute a holy scripture.
Hence, the free will of the Turkish people should always override malicious efforts by the diehard Kemalist old-guards to perpetuate a sacrosanct ideology that had outlived its usefulness a long time ago.
In short, the Turkish people have every right to shun the anachronistic Kemalist ideology and free itself from the claws of its reactionary symbols, including the constitutional court.
Otherwise, Turkey will remain under the mercy of its self-serving generals and anti-democratic elites who so contemptuously and impetuously continue to disregard the will of the people. (end)
-###-
June 14, 2008 By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/06/14/the_anachronistic_kemalist_ideology
...too many points to highlight...An interesting look in the insides of "turkey=fascist state"
Another good reason of nothing to do with this 3rd world nation
