MINORITY TEST FOR PARTIES
Bulent Kenes

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
June 25 2007

In democratic competitions, where every voter and every vote is
very precious, political parties usually develop mottos that will
be liked by the majority and pay great attention to the majority’s
sensitivities. Democracies with this dimension generate the danger
of laying down the groundwork for a majority dictatorship. Therefore
real democracies are those that secure the rights for minorities
against overwhelming majorities.

As in all democratic countries, political parties are opting for
the shortest path that will carry them to a political victory at the
ballot box: They employ rhetorical statements liked by the majority
and make promises that will appeal to the majority’s sentiments.

As they are focused on a tangible interest, the statements and actions
aimed at appealing to the majority don’t give much idea of where a
political party stands on the continuum of democracy. What matters
ultimately in terms of being a real democrat is how these parties are
assessed by the minorities, even though the minorities don’t offer
a large potential vote. Briefly, the best litmus paper to evaluate
the level of democracy in political parties competing in an election
process is how minorities view those parties.

With this reality in mind, Today’s Zaman presented two case studies
on the issue on its front page ("Minorities to shun nationalist
parties in elections," prepared by our friend Evin Barýþ Altýntaþ
was published on June 14, "Minorities to choose pro-EU candidates,"
prepared by our friend Jasper Mortimer, was published on June 23) and
in the meantime made use of another news story published by Reuters,
also on the front page.

What is interesting is, all of these news stories pointed out one and
the same reality. This reality was that the AK Party, branded by some
as Islamo-fascist and accused of being anti-secular and of following
a secret Islamic agenda to establish a regime like that in Iran,
was the first preference of all the minorities.

As Mortimer remarked, the minority communities are tiny in Turkey —
60,000 Armenians, 25,000 Jews and 3,000 Greeks in a population of 72
million. But at a time when the world is watching Turkey closely,
their influence outweighs their size. The way that the minorities
vote is a weathervane of democracy and human rights in Turkey.

As we found out from these case studies, the first choice of our
Armenian, Jewish, Greek and Syrian citizens are independent candidates
like Baskýn Oran and Ufuk Uras. When it comes to parties, they don’t
view any party other than the AK Party positively.

For instance Etyen Mahcupyan, a political columnist for Today’s
Zaman and the managing editor of Armenian weekly paper Agos, said,
"July 22 may be the first time in Turkish electoral history that the
Islamic party gets at least a third of the votes of the Armenians." He
estimated that in the 2002 elections only 5 percent of Armenians
voted for the AK Party. Of course, the role of the reforms on human
rights realized by the AK Party as a requirement of the EU membership
process cannot be denied.

Meanwhile, as Mihail Vasiliadis, publishing director of Apoyevmatini,
an 80-year-old newspaper for the Greek community in Turkey, said, the
AK Party’s deposing of the Minority Commission, a secretive advisory
body that was believed to exercise wide powers over minorities, was one
of the chief reasons for his sympathetic reception. In addition, the
law on foundations passed by the AK Party in 2005 seems to have been
a source of relief for minorities and directed them toward this party.

As Mortimer stated in his article, everyone agrees that in
constituencies where there is no credible independent, minority
voters will most likely back the AK Party. Here are a few sentences
from the prominent figures of these minority groups:

Vasiliadis: "The AK Party has to come to power so that I can feel
myself as a citizen after 60 years."

Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II: "The AK Party is more moderate and less
nationalistic in its dealings with minorities. The Erdoðan government
listens to us — we will vote for the AK Party in the next elections."

Mahcupyan: "Some minority citizens would vote [for the] CHP but
generally, they don’t like the CHP and they fear the MHP. The CHP
represents the state and all the laws against the minorities.

Minorities see the MHP as ‘an extremely nationalistic party whose
policies could provoke street violence’."

Turkey’s last surviving ethnic Armenian village Vakýflý’s headman
Berc Kartun: "The AK Party has tried to help the minorities, while
other parties just talk."

Zeki Basatemir, chairperson of the Syriac Catholic Church Foundation:
"I can’t say we are unhappy with this current government. We think
they are good at solving our problems."

Being a real democrat and real secularism lie in the democratic
attitude adopted toward religious minorities, regardless of their
voting potential — an attitude that views them as essential elements
and first-class citizens of this country. It seems that the AK Party
is streets ahead of its rivals.

–Boundary_(ID_9HRFJQb35fyWMYV2sWRlcg)–

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress