The Irish Times
September 27, 2006 Wednesday

Turkish general warns levels of Islamism ‘alarming’

by Ian Traynor

TURKEY: A leading Turkish general issued a stinging attack on the
centre-right government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan by warning that the
danger of Islamism in the country was reaching "alarming" levels.

Defying EU demands for the military to keep out of politics, Gen
Ilker Basbug, the chief of land forces, warned the Erdogan government
that the top brass still saw itself as the ultimate arbiter of
Turkey’s secularist constitution. "The Turkish armed forces have
always taken sides and will continue to do so in protecting the
national state, the unitary state and the secular state," he told a
ceremony for cadets at a military academy in Ankara.Islamists were
"patiently and systematically" seeking to erode the secularist order.

The robust defence of the military’s role in Turkish politics is
certain to affect an EU assessment of Turkey’s bid eventually to join
the EU.

The European Commission is to issue a report card on Turkey in
November, delayed from next month, and is concerned about curbs on
freedom of expression, persecution of the large Kurdish minority and
the military’s interference in democratic politics, as well as
Turkey’s dispute with EU members Greece and Cyprus over trade.

Other incidents yesterday showed Turkey ignoring EU criticism,
suggesting a rise in hostility ahead of elections next year.

Prosecutors filed new charges against the Turkish-Armenian editor
Hrant Dink for "denigrating Turkishness", an article in the penal
code used to muzzle writers and journalists and which Brussels wants
scrapped.

Meanwhile, 56 Kurdish mayors went on trial yesterday over a letter
they sent to Denmark’s prime minister in a case that has raised
concerns in the EU.

The mayors from Turkey’s largest Kurdish party are charged by state
prosecutors with "knowingly and willingly" helping Kurdish rebels
when they urged prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen not to close
Danish-based Kurdish broadcaster Roj TV.

The members of the Democratic Society Party, which champions Kurdish
rights, each face up to 15 years in jail if convicted. The criminal
court judge adjourned the trial until November 21st.

"The problem [Kurdish rights] cannot be solved by closing Roj TV
which has been forced to broadcast from Denmark," said Yenisehir
mayor Firat Anli in a defence statement on behalf of the mayors.