Posted on 05/02/2007 6:45:47 AM PDT by forty_years
The question of the day: Will Turkey have an Islamist president? This question is important because of Turkey's strategic position in the Middle East, its potential accession to the EU, and perhaps most importantly, whether the current conflict between the country's Islamists and secularists can be settled peacefully and democratically. Yes, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (AKP), with his "autocratic tendencies," was elected democratically, but he has been steadily moving Turkey away from its secular roots, planted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and towards Islamist "ideals." To reframe the question: Can there be an Islamic democracy? In Islam's current state, I doubt it. We may end up seeing Turkey's secular military intervening rather undemocratically, but necessarily.
Some sophists argue that Islam has already embraced democracy:
John L. Esposito... argues that "Islamic movements have internalized the democratic discourse through the concepts of shura [consultation], ijma' [consensus], and ijtihad [independent interpretive judgment]" and concludes that democracy already exists in the Muslim world, "whether the word democracy is used or not."
Huh? David Bukay counters:
If Esposito's arguments are true, then why is democracy not readily apparent in the Middle East? ...Only after eviscerating the meaning of democracy as the concept developed and derived from Plato and Aristotle in ancient Greece through Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in eighteenth century America, can Esposito and his fellow travelers advance theories of the compatibility of Islamism and democracy.
Prime Minister Erdoğan's AK party is trying to shove an Islamist president down Turkey's throat:
Turkey's ruling AK Party has asked parliament to approve an early general election amid deadlock over who should become the country's new president.The party proposed 24 June for the poll, which had been set for November.
The move comes after Turkey's constitutional court annulled last Friday's vote to elect a new president.
Secularist opposition parties boycotted the vote to prevent the ruling party candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, from winning.
They accuse Mr Gul of having a hidden Islamist agenda and say that if he became president it would threaten Turkey's secular tradition.
Thankfully, not all Turks are buying Erdoğan's manuvering:
More than a million Turks rallied here [Istanbul] Sunday in support of secular democracy amid an unprecedented stand-off between the Islamist-rooted government and the army over the country's next president.
...and...
The army has warned that it will not permit Turkey's secular traditions to be compromised...
I'm not sanguine with military intervention in the democratic process, but does Erdoğan's AK party have any intention of maintaining democracy? His past actions show the opposite -- his ultimate goal is the implementation (enforcement) of Sharia. Will there be any other choice than military intervention to preserve Turkey's secular roots?
As Michael Rubin puts it, "The future of Turkey as a secular, Western-oriented state is at risk."
Very, very interesting. Thanks for posting.
I have known several Turkish AF officers over the years. They were very professional and absolutely non-political. I couldn't even get them to offer an opinion on Turkish or political questions in the Middle East.
Let's hope they do their duty under their constitution.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
More discussion here...
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/016265.php#comments
Thanks Robert Spencer and posters.
Wow. I knew Turkey’s military had a long secular tradition, but didn’t know this about the constitution. Thanks.
Under its secular government, Turkey has been a better and more reliable U.S. ally than its neighbor Greece. We must hope and pray that the outcome of this crisis leaves the rational people there in charge.
BTTT
What happened to last weeks news that Turkey had begun attacking and bombing its neighbor?
Think of Iran as a neighbor.
Some neighbors need bombing...
Why am I thinking about the future Second Battle of Vienna?
The truth is the vast majority of Muslims are incapable of practicing the type of representative government seen in the west. This is because their religion prohibits it.
I was giving up on the Army doing its Duty but the fact of the demonstrations returns some optimism. I doubt that the Islamists will back off and the Army, indeed, will step in. I think the Army has let it slide a little farther this time because of the relationship with Europe but Brussels seems more and more inclined to give Ankara the brushoff anyway. They don’t need each other. Europe doesn’t need the floodgates to Mohammedan immigration to be thrown open and Turkey does not need to be smothered by Eurosocialism.
If the lucre’ loving turks want a return to the 13th century to hell with them.
That battle may already be over and Europe has lost. Instead of assaulting the walls the mohos are sweeping the streets and attaching themselves to the welfare system. Instead of being kidnapped from the alleys and the farm country to be thrown against the Polish and Austrian armies, they are being birthed as Eurocitizens.
- According to the journalist Mark Steyn, Turkey’s current problems stem from the fact that the modern Turkish state and it’s Constitution were fashioned back in the 1920’s by a society that was governed by a largely moderate and far more secular segment of the population. Since then, the decline in birthrates among this group has led to an ever increasing influence from areas of the country which have always been hard core Islamic and whose higher birthrate over the years has given them greater and greater numbers and political clout.
Turkey is now at the tipping point where the country’s clerics are using this majority to make a bid to turn the country into another Iranian type theocracy.
And of course Blair and Bush are supporting Erdogan's government and 'free' elections. Further displaying, to many in Turkey it seems, they have no clue about Islam, democracy, and why those two ideals will never fit together over a long term. But they'll do their best to keep 'spreading' it where it is not wanted for the short term at least.
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