Birth pangs of a democratic Turkey
To reflect upon some of the issues pertaining to and from churning within Turkish political and social landscape, Indialogue Foundation organised an interaction with two of Turkey’s well known academicians and columnists.
With the probable exception of Iran, none of the countries in the recent times has seen its internal politics under the constant scrutiny of western press and the intellectual class, as has Turkey. What makes these events more interesting is the way people perceive them inside and outside Turkey and how these perceptions shape each other. In a country like India, where foreign reporting is close to zilch, the over-dependency on the western agencies is a reality. Needless to say, it does not help most of the time.
To reflect upon some of the issues pertaining to and from churning within Turkish political and social landscape, Indialogue Foundation organised an interaction with two of Turkey’s well known academicians and columnists; Dr. Ihsan Yilmaz, a political scientist based at Fatih University and Dr. Savaş Genc, a foreign policy expert at the same university.
It is interesting and at the same time immensely confusing for outsiders to understand some of the changes that have happened in Turkey in the last 7-8 years. The rise of the moderately Islamic AK Party and its efforts towards the process of democratization has received bouquets and brickbats in huge numbers both inside and outside of Turkey. While bouquets are self-explanatory, it has surprised some of the keen Turkey watchers, including me, how the West has focused on the brickbats.
Turkey, although secular to the hilt, has grappled with democratisation since the death of Ataturk. Kemalists, a broad network of politicians, judges, army officers, journalists and who not, have used Western style secularism as a mask for continuous subversion of the democracy in the last 50-60 years. Time and again coups (and lately a post-modern coup) trampled on the democratic rights of the people as the West watched in satisfaction and glee that Turkey has remained a secular nation. However, this changed with the emergence of the Gulen movement.
“Has the Western style rejectionist secularism helped Turkey? No. It has only undermined democracy. In the Turkey style of secularism, can a Christian even dream to build a new Church, for example, in Istanbul? No. We need secularism where the government keeps equal distance from all religion, and not reject them,” explains Dr Yilmaz.
There have been some really interesting experiments that have taken place within this process of democratisation. Quite evidently, most of them have had an ideological basis. The Gulen movement sees the process of modernization near-perfectly compatible with Islam and there is no dichotomy between religion and democracy to start with. The ideological basis of this inference is the Quran itself. Quite evidently, the Quran has not said that there should be a monarchy or for that matter superiority of one group, or house over the other. It clearly indicates that there is an ideological synergy between democracy and Islam.
“We believe in a bottom up approach. We are not like some Islamic Republic whose citizens when in Turkey on holidays get famously sloshed or roam in bare minimum of dresses. It won’t ever be successful top-down. We don’t see the process as a reaction to the Western values. I always say that there are two Europes. One Europe is expansionist and colonial in mindset. That should be resisted.
But there is another Europe as well. This Europe believes in innovation, human rights, equality. How can Islam be against that?” quips Dr Yilmaz.
But has the implementation of democracy been easy in Turkey? Far from that. Take for example the famous Ergenekon case. Ergenekon, an ultra-nationalist, Kemalist, deep-state group has been instrumental in throttling the democracy for years. Since the arrival of AKP on the scene, its various tentacles are being pulled out and exposed. Naturally, several army officers, journalists and government officials have been prosecuted. However, the Western press has maintained that it is a process to silent the media. That journalists are being harassed. Now nothing can be farther from the truth. A journalist who conspires to kill or facilitates a coup ceases to be a journalist. He is just a common criminal. However, such is the mechanism of Ergenekon that they managed to sell this story to the Western press for long. But last week, something changed. One of the main culprits who had approached the European court of Human Rights before the verdict of Turkish court had his appeal squashed. But it went unreported. A reverse decision would have lit the media organisations from Tel Aviv to Tennessee on fire.
“The verdict has relieved the pressure from the government and the present judiciary. It’s a big victory. For the first time a top general plotting coup has been jailed. If it is not the process of democratisation then what is?” asks Dr Yilmaz.
Another aspect of this process is the process of integration within European Union. It will surprise many that it is the so-called Islamists who have advocated this integration and have meticulously tried to follow the guidelines to fulfil the process. Adds Dr Genc, “The process is not easy. There are biases to fight. Some opinion maintains that if leaders like Sarkozy and Merkel lose the elections in their respective countries, the process will be easier. May be. But look what we have achieved. When years ago this process started, people laughed about it. Nobody is laughing now as there is serious endeavour towards this and we have achieved quite a lot.”
The coming decade remains crucial for the Turkish society. The churning will intensify. The old order will not leave the battle so soon. They will try to strike back. The crucial point is, it must not affect the process of democratisation.
SAURABH KUMAR SHAHI | New Delhi, February 18, 2012
Source: http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/Birth-pangs-of-a-democratic-Turkey/14/30240/
