Gwinnett Daily Post, GA
May 28 2006
What others are saying
05/27/2006
Turkey’s Muslim conflicts troubling
Last week’s murder of a prominent Turkish judge, ostensibly by an
Islamist aggrieved at his court’s ruling on the headscarf
controversy, throws a worrying spotlight on the growing rift between
the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with its roots in political
Islam, and the secular establishment, militant defenders of the
legacy of Kemal AtatJurk. This division is being magnified by the
stand-offishness – real or perceived – of the European Union towards
Turkey’s accession ambitions. That is a potentially poisonous
combination.
Turkey’s powerful military and Kemalist bureaucracy has always been
profoundly suspicious of Erdogan and his Justice and Development
party (AKP), built from the rubble of more overtly Islamist parties
and broadened into a Muslim democrat movement analogous to Christian
Democracy. While both sides engage with each other in a wary pas de
deux, each occasionally puts its foot in it.
The government’s attempt to criminalize adultery, and the state’s
attempt to prosecute Orhan Pamuk, the world-renowned novelist, for
denouncing the mass murder of Armenians in the late Ottoman empire,
are memorable examples of such blunders. But they were recognized as
such and withdrawn.
The Erdogan administration tried recently to impose an Islamic banker
– who eschews interest as usury – as head of the central bank, which
sets interest rates. But it reconsidered.
Meanwhile, Turkish perceptions of EU bad faith are encouraging
popular disillusion with Europe and proving a godsend to the
nationalist right and hardline Islamists. Ankara formally started
membership talks last autumn, a process always expected to last a
good decade. Its requirements, in minority, human and democratic
rights as well as adopting the EU rules, were always going to
guarantee a bumpy ride. But in the backwash of last year’s French and
Dutch rejection of the EU constitution, hostility to Turkish
membership has hardened. To Turks, alert to every slight, the EU
often seems to be conducting a moral inventory rather than a
negotiation.
Europe is not only the engine of reform but the glue of political
cohesion in Turkey. EU membership is a national project shared by the
people, business and the army, and embraced by the AKP as a shield
against the generals. The European perspective, in other words, is a
good part of the explanation of why this Muslim democracy and secular
republic works, despite its unresolved contradictions. (FT)