TURKISH ELECTIONS BRING ARAB SILENCE
By Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Mensur Akgun
Ha’aretz, Israel
Aug 29 2007
CAIRO/ISTANBUL – We were both in Turkey before and after Sunday, July
22, the day of the intensely debated parliamentary elections. Given the
large-scale, contentious demonstrations and the postmodernist military
intervention – via the Internet – over the issue of secularism, there
were hundreds of eager international observers expecting something
spectacular to happen. But to their dismay, and to the dismay of many
others, balloting was calm and orderly.
No violence or irregularities were reported. It was one of the highest
voter turnouts in the history of Turkey’s democratic elections (84.4
percent). The highly debated role of the religiously-affiliated
Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) was put to the test for
the second time in five years; it passed with flying colors.
The Turkish political community had anticipated the outcome. The
few surprises had to do only with margins of performance of the
various actors. Though the AKP was poised to win a majority, it
did far better than even it expected with 46.7 percent of the vote,
12.4 points higher than its 2002 victory.
Among the losers was the Turkish military, which has never hidden its
deep misgivings vis-a-vis the ascendance of the AKP in the country’s
sociopolitical space. It is widely believed that the military had
blessed the pro-secular demonstration in the spring as well as the
unification of center-right and center-left parties. Though clearly
rebuffed by the voters, the military seems to be learning to manage
such public adversities, at least for the time being.
AKP leader Recep Tayyib Erdogan went out of his way in his victory
speech later on the night of July 22 to allay the fears of AKP
detractors. He assured all concerned of his solemn commitment to the
secular principle of the Turkish Republic. He equally reiterated his
drive to join the European Union, and proudly pledged to maintain
the high rate of Turkey’s economic growth.
The whole world was watching Turkey that day; some admiringly, some
cynically, looking for any mishaps to justify keeping Turkey out of
the European Club. And yet others watched nervously for fear of a
success that would put pressure on them to follow its model. Among
the latter were Arab autocrats, to whose reactions we now turn.
While Arab opposition parties, civil society and democracy activists
cheered the news from Turkey, there was official silence from Arab
governments, as if the elections had occurred on another planet.
Unlike the front-page headlines in independent media, the
state-controlled media in many Arab countries either ignored, delayed
or relegated the Turkish elections’ story to internal pages or the
tail end of their regular news.
By the third or fourth day, these media pundits went out of their way
to tell their respective audiences how different the situation in
Turkey was from that of Arab countries. Some played up the chronic
Kurdish, Armenian and Cypriot problems as if to dampen any Arab joy
for their northern neighbor.
In some ways, this was reminiscent of cool or even hostile reactions
by the same Arab autocratic regimes to Mauritania’s giant step in
transitioning to democracy. Libya’s Gadhafi, already well into his
38th year of dictatorial rule, had dismissed Mauritania’s experience
as an exercise "in backward tribalism." None of the Arab heads of
state cared to attend the April 2006 inaugural celebration of the
democratically elected Mauritanian president.
It is abundantly clear that when such developments occur in Arab
or Muslim-majority countries, it proves doubly embarrassing. This
may also explain – at least in part – why many of these regimes are
reported to be undermining efforts to democratize Iraq.
The triumphant AKP is again victorious today in the election of
the mostly ceremonial president of the republic, an event which
became controversial a few months earlier over the headscarf of the
would-be first lady. Yet a challenge for the AKP in the short run is
the army’s request to use military means to crush the Kurdish rebels
in the southeast. Erdogan has resisted so far in search of nonviolent
alternatives and support from regional and domestic players.
In the medium and the longer term, the AKP has managed not only
to become solidly mainstream in Turkish politics but also, through
its own example, it paved the way for other Muslim Democrats, in a
manner akin to Christian Democrats in the West. As a matter of fact,
a Moroccan Islamic party bearing the same name in Arabic (French PJD)
is already a major contender in the parliamentary elections being
held in the beginning of September.
Beyond the Middle East, the latest democratic election in Turkey,
coupled with the success of other religiously-affiliated parties in
recent years in other countries, from Indonesia to Mauritania, may
be putting to rest the suspect proposition of "Muslim Exceptionalism."
If countries like Turkey can survive as democratic regimes with
Muslim-majority populations, why can’t others?
Saad Eddin Ibrahim is a human rights activist and founder of the
Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies in Cairo. Mensur Akgun
is the program director for the foreign policy department at TESEV,
an independent think tank in Istanbul. This article is distributed
by the Common Ground News Service.