Turkish Politics & Internal Affairs

[Solomon2]

MURAT YETKİN
murat.yetkin@hurriyet.com.tr

Turkey: Recalling secularism after 93 years

Currently going through one of its most traumatic years in 2016, the Turkish Republic celebrates its 93rd anniversary on Oct. 29 embroiled in a number of problems.

The coup attempt on July 15 was the main source of trauma. At a time when many people thought military coups – three of which took place in the Republican era, all during the Cold War in 1960, 1971 and 1980 - were over in Turkey, a junta within the army attempted an incredible move to overthrow the government and seize parliament. Unlike previous coups, this one was not conspired by those claiming that Turkey has diverted from its Kemalist path. On the contrary, both the government and the opposition accuse Fethullah Gülen, an Islamist preacher living in the U.S., and his network in the Turkish system of being behind the coup attempt.

Underlining that Gülen was also tolerated by governments before the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti), President Tayyip Erdoğan has admitted that he was “wrong” to trust Gülen purely out of religious sympathy. It is indeed a fact that the Gülenists have been infiltrating the Turkish bureaucracy, including the military, the police and the judiciary for nearly four decades. But it is also a fact that they secured all of their key positions during the rule of the AK Parti.

Since the coup attempt, one of the biggest political cleansing campaigns in Turkish history has been ongoing in the bureaucracy and the judiciary, which has naturally become the source of many complaints.

Now, in the atmosphere of the ongoing state of emergency, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım is pushing the AK Parti and other parties in parliament to hold a referendum on shifting Turkey from a parliamentary system to an executive presidential system, in line with the targets of President Erdoğan. Erdoğan has never hidden that he is not in favor of parliamentary and judicial checks and balances over the elected executive, and the desired system change is likely to continue to be a major debate in the Turkish Republic’s 93rd year.

But there is something else going on too. A quiet debate has started within the AK Parti following the July 15 coup attempt. The outrage caused by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has irritated most Muslims in Turkey, and now they are further embittered by the actions of the Gülen network, which also acted in the name of Islam. Now, it is not only the parties with secular roots - like the social democratic main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) – but also certain opinion-holders within the AK Parti who have started to value the secular system of Turkey more.

One year before the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk pushed for the parliament in Ankara to abolish the Caliphate. He later announced that the state and religious affairs were officially separated. Today, Turkey is the only country with a predominantly Muslim population that also has a multi-party, secular democracy. Extremist movements like al-Qaeda and ISIL have been greeted coldly by many Muslims in the world, particularly in Turkey. And now those in Turkey also have the Gülen movement to consider when it comes to mixing religion and politics.

It is true that the implementation of secularism in Turkey in the past sometimes went to extremes, putting extra pressure on pious Muslims. But it is also clear that the secular nature of Turkish democracy, perhaps with certain modifications, should be maintained. It needs that in order not to lose the country’s Western-oriented political and economic perspective, which might ultimately help Turkey return to being seen as an example for other Muslim-majority countries.


October/29/2016

 

[!eon]

How effective is this beautiful western term "secularism" in Israel ?

 

[Solomon2]

How effective is this beautiful western term "secularism" in Israel ?

Why not do your own research on this question?

 

[!eon]

Why not do your own research on this question?

Why are you hesitating to answer here ?

 

[Solomon2]

Why are you hesitating to answer here ?

The article - and thus the thread - is about Turkey and the example it sets for Muslim-majority countries. Secularism in Israel is a worthy subject but here it is off-topic, unless you can relate it to Turkey specifically.

 

[Selim I]

MURAT YETKİN
murat.yetkin@hurriyet.com.tr

Turkey: Recalling secularism after 93 years

Currently going through one of its most traumatic years in 2016, the Turkish Republic celebrates its 93rd anniversary on Oct. 29 embroiled in a number of problems.

The coup attempt on July 15 was the main source of trauma. At a time when many people thought military coups – three of which took place in the Republican era, all during the Cold War in 1960, 1971 and 1980 - were over in Turkey, a junta within the army attempted an incredible move to overthrow the government and seize parliament. Unlike previous coups, this one was not conspired by those claiming that Turkey has diverted from its Kemalist path. On the contrary, both the government and the opposition accuse Fethullah Gülen, an Islamist preacher living in the U.S., and his network in the Turkish system of being behind the coup attempt.

Underlining that Gülen was also tolerated by governments before the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti), President Tayyip Erdoğan has admitted that he was “wrong” to trust Gülen purely out of religious sympathy. It is indeed a fact that the Gülenists have been infiltrating the Turkish bureaucracy, including the military, the police and the judiciary for nearly four decades. But it is also a fact that they secured all of their key positions during the rule of the AK Parti.

Since the coup attempt, one of the biggest political cleansing campaigns in Turkish history has been ongoing in the bureaucracy and the judiciary, which has naturally become the source of many complaints.

Now, in the atmosphere of the ongoing state of emergency, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım is pushing the AK Parti and other parties in parliament to hold a referendum on shifting Turkey from a parliamentary system to an executive presidential system, in line with the targets of President Erdoğan. Erdoğan has never hidden that he is not in favor of parliamentary and judicial checks and balances over the elected executive, and the desired system change is likely to continue to be a major debate in the Turkish Republic’s 93rd year.

But there is something else going on too. A quiet debate has started within the AK Parti following the July 15 coup attempt. The outrage caused by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has irritated most Muslims in Turkey, and now they are further embittered by the actions of the Gülen network, which also acted in the name of Islam. Now, it is not only the parties with secular roots - like the social democratic main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) – but also certain opinion-holders within the AK Parti who have started to value the secular system of Turkey more.

One year before the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk pushed for the parliament in Ankara to abolish the Caliphate. He later announced that the state and religious affairs were officially separated. Today, Turkey is the only country with a predominantly Muslim population that also has a multi-party, secular democracy. Extremist movements like al-Qaeda and ISIL have been greeted coldly by many Muslims in the world, particularly in Turkey. And now those in Turkey also have the Gülen movement to consider when it comes to mixing religion and politics.

It is true that the implementation of secularism in Turkey in the past sometimes went to extremes, putting extra pressure on pious Muslims. But it is also clear that the secular nature of Turkish democracy, perhaps with certain modifications, should be maintained. It needs that in order not to lose the country’s Western-oriented political and economic perspective, which might ultimately help Turkey return to being seen as an example for other Muslim-majority countries.


October/29/2016

Remarkable that one associates Gülen and ISIL with Islam.

In fact Gülen is very much supporting "Modern Islam" alongside with all of western world.

This is indeed a very poor article with little to no consistency to the real world.

 

[Solomon2]

In fact Gülen is very much supporting "Modern Islam" alongside with all of western world.

Last I checked the "western world" does not endorse bombing parliaments, as the coupsters did back in July.

 

[Selim I]

Last I checked the "western world" does not endorse bombing parliaments, as the coupsters did back in July.

Last time I checked western ex-generals were included in the coup.

 

[!eon]

The article - and thus the thread - is about Turkey and the example it sets for Muslim-majority countries. Secularism in Israel is a worthy subject but here it is off-topic, unless you can relate it to Turkey specifically.

I have seen you always running and hiding in narrow streets when same question you people asked about Muslim countries is turned toward Israel.

 

[Solomon2]

Last time I checked western ex-generals were included in the coup.

There doesn't appear to have been any Western gov't involvement in the July coup attempt. A July story in the Turkish press blaming an ex-American general has been denounced as absurd and there has been no follow-up to it that I know of.

 

[SALMAN F]

Remarkable that one associates Gülen and ISIL with Islam.

In fact Gülen is very much supporting "Modern Islam" alongside with all of western world.

This is indeed a very poor article with little to no consistency to the real world.

Islamist filth is islamist there is no such thing as modern islam

Gulen is no different than isis or erdogan

 

[-SINAN-]

There doesn't appear to have been any Western gov't involvement in the July coup attempt.

You sure ?

 

[Solomon2]

You sure ?

About appearances - that is, open support - yes, I'm sure there wasn't any open support by Western gov't for the coupsters. I understand that in the Turkish system once a party is accused they may be deemed guilty until proven innocent or until the prosecution's case falls flat; however, if you're accusing someone of SECRETLY doing something criminal there is no way to ever disprove such an accusation, is there?

 

[xenon54 out]

But there is something else going on too. A quiet debate has started within the AK Parti following the July 15 coup attempt. The outrage caused by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has irritated most Muslims in Turkey, and now they are further embittered by the actions of the Gülen network, which also acted in the name of Islam. Now, it is not only the parties with secular roots - like the social democratic main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) – but also certain opinion-holders within the AK Parti who have started to value the secular system of Turkey more.

I can only welcome this development, finally they found out that Atatürk was right.


AKP GHQ in Ankara couple days after the coup.

 

[Targon]

Remarkable that one associates Gülen and ISIL with Islam.

In fact Gülen is very much supporting "Modern Islam" alongside with all of western world.

This is indeed a very poor article with little to no consistency to the real world.

"Modern" political islamic movements aim to rule over you in the way Gulen did. With money, influence and tricks. "Old School" political islamic movements wear baggy pants, turbans, and threaten to kill you and your entire family if you do something they deem "wrong".

Such groups should never get special treatment, like the Gulen. Do they want to partipicate in politics? They will do it in their own following honest ways. And all their inner structure and money movements should be strictly scanned. As far as I see there is no attempt on that from the government sides.