TIME TO START TALKING TURKEY
By Bridget Johnson, Columnist
Los Angeles Times, CA
May 1 2007
ISTANBUL may be a far cry from the Vegas strip, but when it comes to
politics, what happens in Turkey does not stay in Turkey.
In fact, this country could have a greater impact on the spread of
Islamism and the direction of the war in Iraq than anywhere else.
Turkey isn’t just the geographical doorway from the Middle East into
Europe, but the ideological crossroads as well. Will the government
gain acceptance into the European Union, or will it never prove
that Turkey is European enough? Will it maintain its secular system
or become more Islamist? Will it see Iraq’s prosperous autonomous
Kurdish region as such a threat to its wholeness that it invades?
Islamism vs. secularism. Muslim vs. European identity. Iraqi
stability. It’s all coming together at the former Ottoman Empire,
and it’s worth paying attention.
Last week, as foreign minister and member of the current ruling,
pro-Islamist party, Abdullah Gul, aimed for the presidential office,
the Turkish army vowed to step in if necessary to ensure the country
remains firmly secularist. "Recently the main issue emerging in
connection with the presidential election has focused on a debate
over secularism. This is viewed with concern by the Turkish armed
forces," read the statement from the General Staff, which has toppled
governments four times since 1960.
"It should not be forgotten that the Turkish armed forces are partial
in this debate and are a staunch defender of secularism. The Turkish
armed forces are against those debates (questioning secularism)…
and will display its position and attitudes when it becomes
necessary. No one should doubt that."
The statement drew sharp rebukes from the European Union and others,
but Turks’ concerns about remaining secular are real. Strongly secular,
current President Ahmet Necdet Sezer keeps Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan’s pro-Islamist government – which has tried to criminalize
adultery – in check. The Turkish Republic, Sezer said recently of
the Islamist-secularist tug-of-war, "has not faced any threat as
significant as that of today."
And a million Turks turned out in Istanbul on Sunday to rally for
secularism, topping the 300,000 who recently rallied in Ankara. "This
government is the enemy of Ataturk," one demonstrator told The
Associated Press. "It wants to drag Turkey to the dark ages."
Also raising fears about the tide of Islamism was the murder of a
Catholic priest last year by a teenager who claimed the shooting
was retaliation for the Dutch Muhammad cartoons. That same month, a
Catholic friar was beaten by assailants who said they wanted to "clean
Turkey of non-Muslims," according to a State Department report. This
April, three employees of a Christian publishing house were found
with their hands and feet tied and throats slit; some Muslims had
previously accused the publisher of proselytizing.
And what about those ties to the direction of Iraq? Turkey fears a
strong Iraqi Kurdistan out of concerns that its own ethnic Kurdish
minority will be inspired to separatism. Turkey has also threatened
Iraq on the claim that the autonomous region is aiding and sheltering
Turkish Kurd separatists. Iraq swears any attack would be met with
massive resistance.
Forget the Shiite-Sunni tit-for-tats: There’s a real possibility that
the Iraq war could move to a whole new front, especially if Iraqi
Kurdistan gains the independence it wants (and, frankly, deserves).
Iraq’s Muslims would likely unite as never before to fight off secular
Turkey, yet the last thing coalition forces would want to do is battle
Turkey’s military – the avowed defenders of the secularism that the
region needs – or attract fundamentalists like Iran into the melee.
"We hope that one day Turkey can join the European Union, but for
that, Turkey has to be a real European country, in economic and
political terms," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso
said recently.
The EU wants a less-powerful Turkish military, but without it Islamists
could gain more power to turn back Ataturk’s vision. The nationalism
isn’t synonymous with Islamism, but endangers those who are seen as
insulting Turkish identity – such as slain ethnic Armenian newspaper
editor Hrant Dink. Turkey could very well invade from the north,
dramatically changing the region’s Risk board and forcing the U.S. to
uncomfortably pick alliances; with the second-largest standing armed
forces in NATO, Turkey could best Iraq’s current hardscrabble military.
It’s time to start talking Turkey.