A CHALLENGE TO TURKEY’S IDEOLOGUES
By Andrew Duff MEP

FT
June 6 2007 14:31

Atilla Yayla is not a terrorist. He is not a Kurd. He is not an
Armenian. He is not a Marxist. He is not a conscientious objector. He
is not a gay activist. He is not a Christian. He is not a Muslim
fundamentalist. He is not famous, like Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize
winning author. Dr Yayla is a quietly spoken Turk, a liberal, a
professor of politics at Gazi University in Ankara.

On July 2 Dr Yayla will be on trial in Turkey, facing a maximum of
four and a half years in prison, for breaching Article 53 of the
Turkish penal code.

According to the ultra-Kemalists who have brought the case, his crime
was to "publicly insult the moral legacy" of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
the founder of the Turkish Republic. Dr Yayla is supposed to have
committed the offence during a seminar given in Izmir, a city on
Turkey’s Aegean coast, last November to a group of 30 or so members
of the ruling Law and Justice Party (AKP).

The theme of the seminar was how Kemalism, the official ideology of
the Turkish state, had adapted over the years – or failed to adapt –
and how, today, Turkey’s bid to join the European Union posed new
challenges to the ideologues.

Dr Yayla was not uncritical of the EU, making the point that it should
not be equated with civilisation and that its creed of tolerance is
not always observed in practice. But the most controversial part of
the speech criticised the cult around the personality of Ataturk. Dr
Yayla called for a rational debate. Turkey in the EU would be a liberal
democracy where the hero worship would be modified. Turkey outside
the EU, with Kemalism unreformed, would be "like Jordan or Syria".

In addition to the criminal charge, the professor was suspended from
his teaching post. Although now re-instated, the university is under
pressure from the military to sack him. Ignoring the fact that a
criminal prosecution is under way, General Yasar Buyukanit, chief of
the general staff, has publicly attacked Dr Yayla, inviting the court
to convict him. This is the same Gen Buyukanit who, in April, issued
the "e-coup" which warned the government not to nominate Abdullah
Gul, foreign minister, as president. And the same Gen Buyukanit who
is massing Turkish troops on the Iraqi border in apparent preparation
for an invasion aimed at smashing the separatist Kurdish Workers Party
(PKK).

Students of modern Turkey will not be surprised by the belligerence
of Gen Buyukanit. The Turkish politico-military establishment shows
precious few signs of embracing European liberal democracy. Instead,
it prefers to cling to the structure and ideology of a Republic crafted
on western lines at possibly the worst time in western history. It
was not Ataturk’s fault, of course, that he lived through Europe’s
fascist period, but it is astonishing that many of his followers today
can hardly bring themselves to ditch the authoritarian elements that
still survive in the Turkish constitution: the tough penal code,
the primacy accorded to the armed forces, the intense nationalism,
the aggressive laicism, the lack of freedom of expression, the
heavy centralisation, the penalising of minorities, the contaminated
judiciary, the exaggerated legalism – and the personality cult.

It does injustice to the memory of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk that his
ultra-loyal supporters still regard the Turkish citizen as a servant
of the state – the antithesis, indeed, of post-War west European
democracy.

What is newsworthy, however, is that Turkish liberals are suddenly
strong enough to fight back. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister,
has intensified the battle to get Gul elected to succeed the present
Kemalist incumbent of the presidency, Ahmet Nedet Sezer. Hayrunisa Gul,
the putative First Lady, is giving interviews to the press about her
wearing of the headscarf. More than 200 academics have petitioned the
government in support of Dr Yayla, and human rights lawyers have come
to his defence. Turkey’s flourishing business community is outspoken
against Ankara’s failure to press on with radical constitutional
reform, as well as being strongly opposed to military interventionism.

In the campaign for next month’s parliamentary elections, the gloves
have come off. The AKP’s main rival, the CHP, abhors the headscarf. But
its devotion to modern western clothes is not accompanied by a liking
of western values. The AKP seems wholly sincere in its efforts to
join the EU, thereby quelling suspicions that it has a secret agenda
to introduce Sharia law. If the opponents of Erdogan and Gul succeed
in turning Turkish opinion against the EU and if Gen Buyukanit gets
to invade Iraq, it will be time to be gloomy about Turkey.

So think of the modest professor of politics, now protected by
bodyguards, as he steps into the dock on July 2.

Andrew Duff MEP is vice-president of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary
Committee