Donme secularists vs Islamofascists

[Gavur]

Military issues harsh warning over secularism

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=71863

Saturday, April 28, 2007





In an unusually strong statement, the Turkish Armed Forces say it is the defender of the republic's secular system.

ANKARA – TDN with agencies


The powerful Turkish military said late Friday that it was watching a parliamentary presidential vote with concern and issued a harsh warning against questioning the country's secular system and said it would “openly display its position and attitudes when it becomes necessary.”

Hours earlier, the ruling party's presidential candidate failed to win enough votes in a first round of balloting in Parliament, reflecting the deep rift between the Islamic-rooted government and the secular establishment.

“The problem that has recently stood out in the presidential election process has focused on the issue of questioning secularism. The Turkish armed forces are following this with concern,” the general staff said in a statement late in the evening.

The military also complained about a series of public events where it said Islam had encroached on secular traditions. In particular, it mentioned a competition for children to memorize the Quran during the April 23 Children's Day, a festival initiated by the country's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as a secular event. The competition was canceled after the program was publicized.

The military statement also said girls dressed in Islamic outfits were seen reciting prayers at an Islamic event in the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa on April 22, as the organizers attempted pull down Turkish flags and pictures of Atatürk.

“Those who are engaged in such activities do not refrain from exploiting our people's holy religious sentiments and try to hide their real intentions, which amount to challenging the state, behind religion,” the military statement said.

“This radical Islamic understanding, which is against the Republic and has no goal but to erode the basic qualities of the state, has been expanding its span with encouragement” from politicians and local authorities, the statement claimed.

The statement was posted on the army web site hours after parliament held a first round of voting in the presidential election, in which Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül of the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) was the sole candidate.

“It should not be forgotten that the Turkish armed forces are a side in this debate and are a staunch defender of secularism.

“The Turkish armed forces are against those debates... and will display their position and attitudes when it becomes necessary. No one should doubt that,” the statement said.

The main opposition secularist Republican People's Party, which insists that the presidency cannot be left to the AKP, petitioned the Constitutional Court to annul the vote on the grounds of a technicality.

The AKP is the moderate offshoot of the Welfare Party (RP)of Turkey's first Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, which was forced from power as a result of a secularist campaign in 1997 and was outlawed the following year.

[Gavur]

EU warns Turkish military to stay out of election crisis

http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,2070872,00.html

[Gavur]

Putting the brakes on democracy in Turkey

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=5/3/2007&Cat=14&Num=001

[Gavur]

What the hell is the big deal about head scarfs?

[Joseph]

What the hell is the big deal about head scarfs?

I believe it is seen as backward/a throwback and indicative of devout islamic faith and it drives the ultra-secular elite in Turkey nuts. Some see it as a challenge to Ataturk's principles.

[bell-the-cat]

What the hell is the big deal about head scarfs?

See what would happen to any woman who would dare walk down a street in Islamo-fascist Iran without wearing one, and you will see why it is such a big deal.
Living next to a tyranical country makes people appreciate and want to keep what freedom they have in Turkey.

[imported_DHolyGhost]

http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18110

[bell-the-cat]

http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18110

Not sunny.

[Gavur]

Can secular Turkey survive democracy?

How reformists can stop the Islamists who have chipped away at Turkey's secularism.
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Dutch legislator and women's activist who now lives in the U.S., recently published her memoir, "Infidel."
May 9, 2007


SECULAR AND LIBERAL Turks have had a rude awakening from years of deep slumber. Kemal Ataturk's heritage is about to be destroyed — not by an invading power but from within, by fellow Turks who yearn for an Islamic state.

Ever since Ataturk, Turkey has been divided into those who want to run state affairs on Islamic principles and those who want to keep Allah's will from the public space.

The proponents of Islam in government, such as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and their Justice and Development Party, have been remarkably successful. They have exploited the fact that you can use democratic means to erode democracy, employing a powerful strategy.

Three pillars of that strategy are worth discussion.

The first is Dawa, a tactic inspired by Islam's founder, Muhammad. Dawa means to preach Islam as a way of life, including a way of government, perpetually and with conviction. Every convert is obligated to preach Islam to others, creating a grass-roots movement.

The secularists in Turkey underestimated this pillar and thus neglected competing with the Islamists for the hearts and minds of the electorate. Polls suggest that 70% of voters might still elect Gul president if Erdogan succeeds in changing the constitution so that the president can be elected directly. Any protest from the secularists against this evident popular will sounds irrational and undemocratic.

The second pillar is the improvement of the economy. No one can deny that when the secular parties were in power, the Turkish economy was in tatters. Since Erdogan took office, growth has been strong, with inflation down and foreign investment high.

The third pillar is taking control of two types of institutions in a democracy: those designed to educate civilians (education and media) and those designed to keep law and order (police, justice and the secret service).

After an initial attempt at Islamic revolution failed in 1997, when the military engineered a "soft coup" against elected Islamists, Erdogan and his party understood that gradualism would yield more lasting power. They surely realize that Islamizing Turkey entirely is possible only if they gain control of the army and the Constitutional Court, the two institutions that have helped preserve Turkey's secular state.

The recent Constitutional Court ruling annulling the nomination of Gul for the presidency, after the military warned that it is the guardian of secularism, is only a temporary setback for the Islamists. Erdogan and Gul have another trick up their sleeves.

If they show the same restraint and patience that have brought them this far, they may achieve their aim by continuing to court membership in the European Union. Well-meaning but naive European leaders were manipulated by the ruling Islamists into saying that Turkey's army should be placed under civil control, like all armies in EU member states.

In hindsight, Turkey's secular liberals have only themselves to blame. They underestimated the power of Dawa, they failed at growing the economy and they have not realized that members of the EU have been manipulated.

An important trait of liberalism, however, is the opportunity to learn by trial and error. Turkish secular liberals must start their own grass-roots movement, one with the message of individual freedom. They must restore the confidence of the electorate in entrusting Turkey's economy to them, and they must reconquer the institutions of education, information, police and justice.

They must also make EU leaders understand and respect the fact that the army and the Constitutional Court — besides defending the country and the constitution — are also, and maybe even more important, designed to protect Turkish democracy from Islam.

Bringing back true secularism does not mean just any secularism. It means secularism that protects individual freedoms and rights, not the ultra-nationalist kind that breeds an environment in which Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" is a bestseller, the Armenian genocide is denied and minorities are persecuted. Hrant Dink, the Armenian editor, was murdered by such a nationalist.

It is this mix of virulent nationalism and predatory Islam in Turkey that makes the challenge for Turkish secular liberals greater than for any other liberal movement today.

[Gavur]

Babacan: Turkey must choose EU or Third World

Turkey will be relegated to the status of "a Third World country" unless it applies EU standards of democracy and the rule of law, the country's chief EU negotiator State Minister Ali Babacan said on Tuesday.


State Minister Ali Babacan delivered a speech at a conference on energy cooperation between Turkey and the European Union in İstanbul.
Babacan made what sounded like a veiled warning to the EU candidate country's powerful military and secular judicial establishment after six weeks of political turmoil over the election of a new president.

The events of the last month and a half had shown how important Turkey and the EU were for each other, Babacan said, in an apparent reference to the ongoing political turmoil that kicked off with release of a military warning of intervention -- the infamous "e-memorandum" -- released on April 27. At the time the General Staff made clear its opposition to the ruling Justice and Develop-ment Party's (AK Party) bid to have Parliament elect Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül, whose wife wears a headscarf, as president.

“If there is no benchmark and if we think that each country has its own peculiar conditions and our democracy is specific to us, if we say we have the rule of law, but sometimes we can do things outside of that, such approaches will condemn Turkey to being a Third World country for decades and decades,” Babacan told a conference on EU-Turkey energy cooperation held in İstanbul.

The AK Party, which denies any Islamist agenda, contrary the overtones of the “e-memo,” eventually called for general elections ahead of schedule to resolve the conflict with the secularist elite over the election of Turkey’s next president. The General Staff statement -- posted on its Web site hours after the first round of the presidential election and only minutes before midnight -- expressed concern over debates on secularism in connection with the election process and threatening intervention in the name of secularism if such a need arises.

Upon an appeal by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) submitted soon after the first round of presidential vote, the Constitutional Court later ruled that there were not enough legislators at the balloting session to make it a valid round.

The EU, which Turkey aspires to join, has condemned the military’s intervention in the political process. Meanwhile, the government asserted that the military was to receive orders from it, not vice versa.

Speaking on the same platform, at the conference titled “Turkey and the EU: Together for a European Energy Policy,” which assembled key politicians and economists to discuss the challenges and opportunities concerning future energy issues faced by both the EU and Turkey, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn urged Turkey not to step back from reforms because of the election campaign and to accelerate the process afterwards. “We need to see the next government and the newly elected Parliament revitalize and advance the reform process with full determination and concrete results,” Rehn said.

Need for consensus

Rehn also said Turkey, bitterly divided between secular nationalists and supporters of the pro-European AK Party, required above all a “broad national consensus” in support of EU accession.

Seeking to assuage nationalist feelings, Rehn condemned a wave of attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Certain parts of Turkey’s public accuse the EU of encouraging Kurdish separatism by pressing for cultural and minority rights and seeking to shackle the power of the army. “Rest assured, the EU is on your side in this struggle against terrorism,” the commissioner said.

Neither speaker mentioned the election of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is adamantly opposed to Turkish EU entry, but both said the conference highlighted the geopolitical interdependence of Turkey and the EU in the key field of energy. “The strategic thinking behind the accession process remains more valid than ever,” Rehn said, urging both sides to increase discuss strategic cooperation in areas such as energy and to set aside the “existential debate” about Turkish membership.

Depicting Turkey as an anchor of stability in the wider Middle East as well as an energy hub between Central Asia and Europe, he urged Ankara to become a full member of the Energy Community of southeast Europe. “What better way to prove the skeptics wrong?” Rehn said.

Turkey became an observer last year but has been reluctant to join the Energy Community, diplomats say, because it regards the move as a significant concession to the EU without reciprocity in terms of its membership prospects.





State Minister Ali Babacan delivered a speech at a conference on energy cooperation between Turkey and the European Union in İstanbul.