TURKEY’S LESSONS FOR ISRAEL

Canadian Jewish News, Canada
June 6 2007

Recently my e-mail has been deluged with articles about Turkey
and the intense confrontation going on there between Islamists and
secularists, as well as between the elected government of an Islamic
party and the secular army generals. I love the country I lived in
for two years. You can’t easily figure it out because it is a living,
breathing organism with a vigour that amazes me.

Briefly, the argument put forward against Prime Minister Recep
Erdogan’s government is that he will lead Turkey into an age of
religious fundamentalism by manipulating the existing political
system and shutting it down. He, so the argument goes, has an agenda
similar to that of Saudi Arabia, and Hamas: the implementation of a
state based not on western secular principles created by the Ataturk
revolution, but on sharia law, which would mean, among other things,
the re-enslavement of women behind the veil, the rise of a mullah-led
coterie within the government, and a slide backward to an intolerance
of non-Muslim minorities.

More dangerously, he is accused of imperilling the entente between
Turkey and Israel, and cozying up to people from Hamas and to
the anti-Semite and Holocaust denier, Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. Turkey and Israel have a strong economic and military
partnership, and this relationship has shown that a Jewish state can
live and do business with a Muslim country.

On the other hand, say Erdogan’s supporters, any attempt to undo the
election of the current parliament and prime minister is the real step
backward. (Note: his Islamist party got 35 per cent of the popular
vote, but has 65 per cent of the seats in parliament.)

Army coups in Turkey are always a possibility and have in the past
occurred when the generals felt the country had strayed too far
from Ataturk’s secularist vision. The generals once had one prime
minister hanged, his party disbanded and its leaders imprisoned. That,
supporters say, was a step away from democracy, and a similar move
by the army today would be truly destabilizing.

They also point out that the secular left is very anti-American and
often anti-Israel, and many leftists are against joining the European
Union, a membership that the Islamist governing party has supported.

Each side is partly right. The EU membership would, it seems, be a
boon to Turkey, and an army coup is hardly a democratic move.

And while the wearing of head scarves has increased (not to mention
the wearing of full regalia, including veils, at least in villages),
many observers note that recent million-person marches clamouring
for the country to remain true to its secular ideals have included
scarf-wearing women.

So what’s the truth about Turkey? It’s still a work in progress.

Its women, secular and religious, have come a long way. Its middle
class is strong, which is vital for any country that wants a
sustainable democracy. It’s also rich in natural and human resources.

It has some history to sort out, most glaringly the need to come to
terms with the Armenian genocide and with its Kurdish population.

Yet, what other Muslim country can we think of that has come so far
into the western world?

But why am I even writing about a situation that is seemingly so far
away from us?

Because it is precisely such a nuanced approach that we must apply
to Israel.

It too has its religious right, its fundamentalists, its resolute
secularists, its traditionalists and its own anti-Zionists (religious
and secular). It is also no stranger to radicals, such as those
behind the hateful assassination of prime minister Yitzchak Rabin. It
has its seemingly endless struggle with the Palestinians. It has its
tension between civil and military authority, although no general has
needed to stage a coup – they just run for office. It has byzantine
corruption, nasty inequality for women (not to mention tolerance for
sexual harassment), and yet it boasts a vibrant civil society.

Israel is not a dream palace, but a real place, where all these
currents jostle for influence. People get up in the morning, brush
their teeth and go to work. Like Turkey, Israel deserves our considered
appraisal, not doomsday scenarios or unqualified praise.

She – and we – will survive.

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