ERDOGAN INADVERTENTLY REIGNITES HEADSCARF DEBATE
By Gareth Jenkins
Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
Jan 16 2008
An off-the-cuff response by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan to a question by a journalist has unexpectedly reignited the
long-running debate in Turkey over the Islamic headscarf by triggering
a furious reaction from Turkish secularists.
The headscarf has long been one of the main ideological battlegrounds
between Islamists and secularists in Turkey. Recent opinion polls
suggest that around 70% of Turkish women cover their heads (see EDM,
December 3). However, women wearing the headscarf are forbidden from
being employed by the state or from attending university. Women
who wear the headscarf have repeatedly insisted to Jamestown that
they do so out of a sense of personal religious obligation. But,
for hard-line secularists, the headscarf is a political symbol that
silently advocates the establishment of a state based on Islamic Sharia
law. Leaked copies of a draft new constitution drawn up by the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP) suggest that it will attempt to
include a clause that will make it unconstitutional to prevent women
wearing headscarves from receiving a university education (see EDM,
January 7).
On January 15, Erdogan attended the first meeting of the UN-sponsored
Alliance of Civilizations forum in Spain. The alliance is the
brainchild of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero,
who decided to take action to build bridges between the Muslim and
Christian worlds following the devastating Madrid bombings of March
11, 2004, which killed 191 people.
Erdogan has been a strong supporter of the initiative and was one of
the main speakers at the alliance’s inaugural meeting in Madrid.
While responding to questions from Turkish journalists, Erdogan was
asked whether he would consider it a crime if the Islamic headscarf
was worn as a political symbol. He replied that he did not believe the
headscarf should be banned even if it was worn as a political symbol.
There is little doubt that Erdogan merely meant that he regarded the
headscarf as a question of freedom of conscience and that women should
be allowed to cover their heads, whatever the reason. His remarks were
largely ignored by the Islamist press. However, both the political
opposition and the mainstream secularist media seized on them as
proof that Erdogan was finally admitting that the headscarf was a
political symbol.
"Until yesterday the prime minister was claiming that the headscarf
was not a political symbol. Come on, admit it!" crowed Deniz Baykal,
the leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) (Milliyet,
Vatan, Hurriyet, January 16).
"Erdogan has dynamited social reconciliation," declared Devlet Bahceli,
the leader of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) (Milliyet, CNNTurk,
Sabah, January 16).
But AKP Deputy Chair Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, who is overseeing
the preparation of the AKP’s draft of a new constitution, remained
defiant, insisting that a clause guaranteeing that covered women can
attend university will be included in the new constitution, which is
expected to made public in early February (Milliyet, January 16).
The furor has demonstrated the continuing deep divisions in Turkish
society over the headscarf. The liberal daily Radikal reported that
university rectors in Turkey are virtually unanimous in opposing any
lifting of the headscarf ban (Radikal, January 16). Nor is there
any doubt that the traditional bastions of the Turkish secular
establishment, such as Turkey’s powerful military, will also voice
their concerns if the AKP presses ahead with the current draft of the
new constitution. Although the AKP appears electorally unassailable,
its plans to lift the headscarf ban appear to be a recipe for social
unrest and a deepening of the already dangerous divides in Turkish
society.
Ironically, at the same time as his remarks were causing uproar in
Turkey, the main theme of Erdogan’s address to the forum in Madrid
was how Turkey served as an example of tolerance and harmony between
people of different faiths. However well-intentioned Erdogan may have
been, it is hard to escape the conclusion that his sentiments have
yet to be internalized by some elements in Turkish society. The last
18 months have seen an alarming rise in an aggressive combination
of nationalism and religious intolerance. January 19 marks the first
anniversary of the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink
by an ultranationalist-Islamist youth. The trial is still continuing
of seven more nationalist-Islamist youths who tortured and then
cut the throats of three Christians in the southeastern city of
Malatya in April 2007. Threats and attacks on non-Muslims have become
increasingly widespread. Perhaps one of the most telling indications of
the deteriorating situation is an ongoing dispute between the Anglican
church in Istanbul and the Anglican bishopric of Gibraltar, which has
recently ordained a Turkish convert to Christianity. One of the main
reasons that representatives of the Anglican community have opposed
the ordination is that they fear that appointing as a priest a Turk who
was born into a Muslim family will further fuel local hostility towards
non-Muslims and endanger their lives (Turkish Daily News, January 15).
Nor are feelings running any less high among secular Turkish
nationalists. Last week, a group of students from a high school in
the central Anatolian city of Kirsehir presented a framed picture of
the Turkish national flag to General Yasar Buyukanit, the chief of
the Turkish General Staff (TGS). The students said that they had been
inspired to make the painting after the killing of nearly 40 Turkish
soldiers in attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in early fall
last year. Over a period of two months, the students – who included
both boys and girls – pricked their fingers so that they could use
their own blood for the red of the Turkish flag. Not only was their
gift accepted by the TGS but they were eulogized by both Buyukanit and
the nationalist press as an example for the youth of Turkey to follow.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress