Democracy in Turkey
José M. de Areilza
May 1, 2007
The current political crisis in Turkey can be seen as the result of two imperfect views of democracy, competing one against each other.
The moderate islamists want to elect foreign minister Abdullah Gul to the office of President of the Republic, following legal procedure and using their majority in Parliament. They fear the minorities, political and military.
In turn, the secularist parties want to limit the power of the islamists and preserve the Presidency of the Republic from them. They invoke minority rights and the fundamental laique values of the Republic of Turkey created in 1923 by Kemal Ataturk, contradicted by the long-term agenda of the ruling party, of religious inspiration. The fear the islamist majority.
Two major problems are that unfortunately the Army plays an active role in Turkish politics and backs the secularist minority, and that sometimes the beliefs espoused by islamists contradict fundamental rights. These serious problems pose a challenge and make harder the only possible solution “balancing the fear of the few with the fear of the many”. This view of what is it an advanced democracy is hard to implement anywhere, but it is specially necessary for Turkey today.
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The mood and fun of the demonstrations held in Ankara and Istanbul should have been enough for you to realise that this was not an embattled minority but a confident majority demonstrating. But don’t take my word for it. Instead, note that the AKP won 34.3% of the vote in 2002. And that because of the dire economic mess of the previous Government. That was enough to give them a majority in the Assembly. However, that does not mean that the majority of Turks condone in any form or fashion the use of religion for political purposes.
We do not, by any stretch of the imagination, invoke minority rights. We assert that the will of the majority in Turkey is firmly opposed to ostentatious religiosity, and that religion will continue to be kept out of public life. What people do in their private sphere is, of course, not for us to decide.Hence the unsurprising participation of veiled women in the demonstrations.
And, dear professor, a final note: there ain’t no such thing as a perfect democracy. Most countries have fumbled their way towards it, just as we’re doing so now. And while the experiences of a learned man, who must have spent much of his life under a dictatorship are of course of interest to those of us who haven’t, please do be careful when making sweeping generalisations.
Comment by Emre — May 1, 2007 @ 3:21 pm