TURKISH DEMOCRACY: MUSLIM OR SECULAR?
By Michael Rubin
In July, 2004, I visited Turkey for a series of meetings with Turkish government and military officials, as well as prominent journalists and public intellectuals. "Why have you abandoned us?" one Turkish parliamentarian asked, as we drank tea in his office. "You toss aside an 80-year tradition for an experiment in political Islam," he explained. He cited not only the U.S. President's statement, but also that of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Speaking in Ankara last April, Powell called Turkey a model for Iraq, "a Muslim democracy living in peace with its friends and neighbors." National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice has made similar comments.
Nice words, infused with well-meaning Washington-style political correctness, but they raised hackles in Turkey. "We are a democracy. Islam has nothing to do with it," one professor said. "By calling us a Muslim democracy, Powell endorsed the [ruling] AKP [Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi]. If I called the United States a Christian democracy, what would that say to you?"
Belief that Washington supports the AKP is widespread across Turkey, from parliamentarians in the National Assembly to storekeepers in provincial towns to university students relaxing in cafes. "Yes, we think they support us," one prominent AKP member told me, "We are a Muslim party and Powell called us a Muslim democracy. We know he chooses his words carefully." Turks interpret the friendship of other senior Bush administration officials with Cuneyd Zapsu, a key adviser to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as another indication of American bias.
Part of the Turks' sensitivity has to do with the position of the AKP. The AKP, led by Erdogan, erupted on the national scene in 2002, when it took 34 percent of the vote in Turkey's elections. Because a ten-percent threshold was necessary to enter Parliament, the AKP's proportion in Parliament jumped to 66 percent. The absolute AKP majority in Parliament negated the necessity for a broad coalition for the first time in a generation. The AKP proportion of the vote rose even higher in November, 2003, when it won 42 percent of seats in municipal elections. In December, 2004, the European Council will decide whether to grant Turkey a date to begin accession negotiations. Should the European Union invite Turkey to begin negotiations, the AKP might expect an additional electoral boost; many Turkish politicians and pundits speculate that the Erdogan might call early elections and win majority enough to permanently alter Turkey's political foundations.
While the last great leader, Turgat Ozal, brought unity after the chaos wrought by street battles between Left and Right, and terrorism by Kurdish separatists, Erdogan has instead sought to reorient Turkish society, opening wounds regarding the issue of mosque and state.
The issue remains central to the AKP platform. Most graduates from Turkey's religious high schools do not currently have the arts and sciences base taught in secular secondary schools to win admission to the University. Because university degrees are prerequisites for many government jobs, Erdogan needs the seminary students' lack of qualification waved, if he wishes to have his supporters increase their grip on the government bureaucracy.
The military is right to be concerned about the issue, though. According to 1995 annual statistics released by Turkey's general directorate of religious affairs, between 1983 and 1995, enrollment in Turkey's religious schools increased 105 percent. In 2005, experts expect 1, 215, 000 students to graduate after receiving on a religious curriculum. Turkey's religious schools have become hothouses for radicalism. Off-the-beaten track, in places like Cizre, Mardin, Kayseri, and even the Fatih, Bayrampasha, and Sultanbeyli districts of Istanbul, women increasingly not only wear headscarves but also the head-to-toe black hijab characteristic of Saudi Arabia. Bookstores around the Konya tomb of the prominent 13th. century Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, a figure revered for preaching tolerance and love, now sell the teaching of the late 13th. and early 14th century Islamic scholar Ahmad ibn Tamiya, who laid the philosophical groundwork for the Islamic fundamentalism centuries later adopted by Saudi Arabia.
Symbolism is important in Turkey. On July 11, Erdogan's daughter married the son of the head of al-Bayrak holding. Al-Bayrak, one of Turkey's leading religious companies, owns Yeni Safak, a national Islamist daily close to the AKP. The bride — and the bride's mother — wore not the lose scarf characteristic of Anatolia for centuries, but a tight-fitting scarf (with a rubber seal around the face) that is symbolic of the Islamist movement in Turkey. The wedding pictures were the talk of Turkish pundits for more than a week following.
Turkey's secularists and nationalists are increasingly bitter with Washington. In the outlying residential districts of Istanbul, far from where tourists venture, posters dot storefronts and apartment blocks. They depict an octopus wearing an Uncle Sam hat, with tentacles labeled AKP. The octopus is strangling Turkey. Washington's close association with the AKP encourages Turkey's secular parties to conflate distrust of the Islamists with the renewed anti-Americanism unleashed by AKP press and publications. At the same time, Washington will win no true friends among the AKP, which seeks to build its relations with Paris, Berlin, Damascus and Tehran, not on their own merits, but rather on the ruins of Ankara's "special relationship" with Washington. Bush's advance team did not help during his visit. In Istanbul and Ankara, the State Department invited vocal critics of U.S. policy to meet the President, but neglected to invite some prominent Turks who not only have long supported Washington, but also advocated for Iraq's liberation. The Bush doctrine — at least in implementation — and the Clinton doctrine appear little different when it comes to coddling adversaries and slighting friends.
The U.S.-Turkish relationship is too important to be undermined by the political correctness of our diplomatic corps. Our ambassador to Ankara, Eric Edelman, is excellent, but he is one man among many, and is still focused on repairing the damage wrought by the disastrous tenure of his predecessor. Sometimes, tough love is necessary. Perhaps it is time for Bush, Powell, and Rice to say that we respect Turkey, for the same reasons we respect Israel, South Korea, India, and Taiwan — because it is a democracy. We will oppose any government or politician that seeks to undermine that democracy. We will support the AKP, not because we like it, but only because the Turkish people elected it. But, there is no reason why the State Department should not invite politicians from secular parties to Washington. There is no reason why the White House should not fete our friends, and only politely receive those who bash us in their local media. If Erdogan is really a democrat, then he will understand the need for Washington to hear a plethora of voices.
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Editor of the Middle East Quarterly. The foregoing article by Rubin was originally published in National Review Online and can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum.
Africa: Black Africa *
Africa: North Africa *
American Government 1
LINKS TO PARTICULAR ISSUES & SUBJECT MATTER CATEGORIES
TREATED IN THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, U.S.A.:
American Government 2 *
American Government 3 *
American Government 4
American Government 5 *
American Politics *
Anglosphere *
Arabs
Arms Control & WMD *
Aztlan Separatists *
Big Government
Black Africa *
Bureaucracy *
Canada *
China *
Civil Liberties *
Communism
Congress, U.S. *
Conservative Groups *
Conservative vs. Liberal
Constitutional Law
Counterterrorism *
Criminal Justice *
Disloyalty *
Economy
Education *
Elections, U.S. *
Eminent Domain *
Energy & Environment
English-Speaking World *
Ethnicity & Race *
Europe *
Europe: Jews
Family Values *
Far East *
Fiscal Policy, U.S. *
Foreign Aid, U.S. *
France
Hispanic Separatism *
Hispanic Treason *
Human Health *
Immigration
Infrastructure, U.S. *
Intelligence, U.S. *
Iran *
Iraq *
Islamic North Africa
Islamic Threat *
Islamism *
Israeli vs. Arabs *
Jews & Anti-Semitism
Jihad & Jihadism *
Jihad Manifesto I *
Jihad Manifesto II *
Judges, U.S. Federal
Judicial Appointments *
Judiciary, American *
Latin America *
Latino Separatism
Latino Treason *
Lebanon *
Leftists/Liberals *
Legal Issues
Local Government, U.S. *
Marriage & Family *
Media Political Bias
Middle East: Arabs *
Middle East: Iran *
Middle East: Iraq *
Middle East: Israel
Middle East: Lebanon *
Middle East: Syria *
Middle East: Tunisia
Middle East: Turkey *
Militant Islam *
Military Defense *
Military Justice
Military Weaponry *
Modern Welfare State *
Morality & Decency
National Identity *
National Security *
Natural Resources *
News Media Bias
North Africa *
Patriot Act, USA *
Patriotism *
Political Culture *
Political Ideologies
Political Parties *
Political Philosophy *
Politics, American *
Presidency, U.S.
Private Property *
Property Rights *
Public Assistance *
Radical Islam
Religion & America *
Rogue States & WMD *
Russia *
Science & Ethics
Sedition & Treason *
Senate, U.S. *
Social Welfare Policy *
South Africa
State Government, U.S. *
Subsaharan Africa *
Subversion *
Syria *
Terrorism 1
Terrorism 2 *
Treason & Sedition *
Tunisia *
Turkey *
Ukraine
UnAmerican Activity *
UN & Its Agencies *
USA Patriot Act *
U.S. Foreign Aid
U.S. Infrastructure *
U.S. Intelligence *
U.S. Senate *
War & Peace
Welfare Policy *
WMD & Arms Control