Der Spiegel Online, Germany
May 7 2008
POLITICAL TREMORS IN ISTANBUL
The Rise of Turkey’s New Left
By Daniel Steinvorth in Istanbul
In the wake of the May riots in Turkey, another group has now entered
the power struggle in Istanbul. In addition to pro-secularism
Kemalists and conservative Muslims, workers and the left are now
making their voices heard.
Istanbul and Ankara are like antipodes. Although the cosmopolitan city
on the Bosporus is not the capital, it is Turkey’s shimmering
showcase. Ankara, in the heart of the country’s rural highlands, is
the capital, but despite some modernization it is far from a worldly
metropolis. Rarely have the differences between these two cities been
as obvious as they were on May 1, the day of labor and red flags.
FROM THE MAGAZINE
Find out how you can reprint this DER SPIEGEL article in your
publication. While downtown Istanbul became immersed in clouds of tear
gas, Ankara celebrated the glorious past. In Istanbul, police armed
with water canons and batons clashed with thousands of
demonstrators. Meanwhile, in Ankara, a delegation from the national
television network laid a wreath in devout silence before the
mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.
Helicopters circled loudly over Taksim Square in Istanbul, while
soldiers were on parade and the sound of trumpets filled the air under
a clear blue sky 350 kilometers (219 miles) to the east.
It was no accident that Turkey’s two faces were so clearly in evidence
on this particular day. The ostentatious memorial to Atatürk, in
downtown Ankara, was the perfect place to repress and forget Turkey’s
turbulent day-to-day political life, if only for a short while. That
turbulence, in turn, was all the more obvious in wild Istanbul, which
saw one of the most violent street battles in recent years.
What’s wrong with Turkey? For weeks, an ominous petition to ban the
governing party, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and
Development Party (AKP), has paralyzed political life. Supporters of
the conservative Islamic AKP and secular Kemalists in the judiciary
and the military are apparently irreconcilably at odds.
In addition, the army is still waging a war against the militia units
of the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK). Now that the PKK has
withdrawn from northern Iraq, the focus of that conflict has shifted
to Turkey’s interior, amid growing dissatisfaction within the Kurdish
population.
To make matters worse, protests by angry workers against the Erdogan
government have intensified, and not just since the May Day riots last
Thursday. The government’s decision to enact austere social cuts has
triggered growing frustration among workers and civil servants. "I am
afraid," said the notoriously good-humored television host Mehmet Ali
Birand, mirroring the mood of his millions of viewers. "I believe for
the first time that Turkey is truly in danger of splitting apart."
It is no longer merely an issue of two diametrically opposed
worldviews, one of them strictly secular and the other deeply
religious. The two camps are also at odds economically: The Kemalist
establishment, fearful of losing its privileges, and those
conservative Muslims who have acquired wealth without the help of the
government and are now demanding a larger share of power.
The intensity of the May riots indicates that a third camp is taking
shape: the disappointed working class, together with the
almost-forgotten Turkish left. For Tufan Türenç, a columnist with the
Turkish national daily Hürriyet, this is a positive development. In
fact, Türenç believes, it could even be a stroke of luck for democracy
in Turkey. "Large segments of the unions were still loyal to the AKP
in the last elections. But social disparities have worsened,
especially under Erdogan’s pro-business agenda." The liberals and the
left, says Türenç, could "bring new excitement to the political
competition."
What these groups lack, however, is leadership — the left has no
charismatic leaders. As a result, the Kemalist Republican People’s
Party (CHP) has so far been relatively successful at representing the
interests of workers. That party was founded in 1923 by none other
than Turkish über-father-figure Atatürk.
"Defending the Republic and Secular Values"
Only a week ago, Deniz Baykal, a 69-year-old lawyer, was reelected as
chairman of CHP. Alternately described by the press as colorless and
populist, Baykal focused his last campaign on the supposed threat of a
theocracy and the gradual Islamicization of Turkey.
Social policy, equal opportunity in education and other leftist issues
are almost completely absent from CHP’s agenda. "The party is elected
for historic and cultural reasons," says Sencer Ayata, a social
scientist. "It is the most credible in defending the republic and
secular values."
Nevertheless, CHP is still a member of the Socialist International, a
worldwide umbrella group for social democratic and labor parties that
includes Britain’s Labour Party, Germany’s Social Democratic Party and
France’s Socialists among others. It defines itself as "naturally
social democratic" — and, most of all, as the most European of all
Turkish parties.
"We were the ones who paved the way to the West," says Onur Öymen, 67,
the CHP’s deputy chairman. "Does a man like Erdogan represent European
values? Someone who believes that a murderer, under Islamic law, could
be pardoned by the family of the victim?" Öymen says that he never
tires of explaining to his friends in Europe how important secularism
is at their doorstep. Besides, he adds, "moderate Islamists" do not
exist. "Those who believe in the Koran don’t believe in it halfway,
but in its entirety."
The CHP leader is troubled by the fact that the European Union sees
things a little differently and considers Erdogan’s experiment —
reconciling religious society and the secular state — a
success. Besides, relations between Brussels and Turkey’s traditional
Islamic party are already on shaky ground.
EU Tensions
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has already threatened to
terminate accession talks in the event of a court-ordered ban on the
AKP, which the secular faction would welcome. Besides, European
confidence in Turkey wasn’t exactly bolstered when the Kemalists
fought tooth and nail to prevent an amendment to the notorious
paragraph 301 of Turkey’s criminal code, which makes "insulting
Turkishness" a crime. After years of criticism from Brussels, the
Erdogan government finally watered down the law (more…) last
week. In the past, journalists and writers, in particular, have
repeatedly been hauled before courts for addressing such taboo
subjects as the persecution of Armenians and Kurds. They have included
Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, and
Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered in Istanbul
in 2007.
In the future, disparagement of the "Turkish nation" will still be an
offence, but the maximum prison sentence will be reduced from three to
two years. While human rights activists consider the amendment little
more than window dressing, the nationalist opposition parties see it
as the beginning of Turkey’s demise. The move, say members of
parliament in the CHP and its ultra-right allies, opens the floodgates
to insulting the Turkish state.
However, it remains to be seen just how far the clearly reawakened
left will manage to insert itself into ordinary political life.
The fact that Istanbul was under a state of emergency on May 1, and
that tourists had the nightmarish feeling of being caught in the
middle of a "war," attest to a disappointment and frustration that the
established parties may not be able to channel much longer, especially
not with bans or with violence.
The three trade union umbrella organizations, Disk, Türk Is and Kesk,
were barred from staging demonstrations on May Day in Istanbul. A
strong police presence frustrated their attempts to launch
demonstrations despite the ban. Using tear gas, the police even
advanced into a union building.
That was too much, even for the CHP, which is not exactly
pro-union. Ali Özpolat, a CHP member of parliament, was outraged:
"People can’t be treated this way."
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan.
Box text
EU CRITICIZES TURKEY OVER TREATMENT OF PROTESTERS
The European Union on Tuesday accused Turkish police of using
excessive force against protesters during the May Day rally. European
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn described the use of force as
"disproportionate" and deplorable during a visit to Ankara. "We
reiterated our call for the Turkish authorities to act within European
law and practice, and to respect trade union rights in line with EU
standards," Rehn said. Meanwhile, Turkish opposition parties are
calling for a government investigation and an apology from Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In a speech given to members of his
party, Erdogan admitted "mistakes" had been made, but he also
lambasted the "extremists" amongst the protesters who he claimed
attacked security forces and showed their "animosity towards the
police." Turkey is currently in negotiations to become a future EU
member.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress