The Calgary Herald (Alberta)
July 21, 2007 Saturday
Final Edition
Turkish voters to decide between headscarves or a secular state;
Muslim nation has long been western-oriented
Matthew Fisher, CanWest News Service
Turks voting in parliamentary elections Sunday are focused on issues
such as how to keep the vibrant economy racing ahead, preventing the
rise of Kurdish power in northern Iraq from spilling over into
Turkey’s Kurdish areas, and whether to continue trying to win
membership in the European Union.
But the most emotive issue by far is whether this country of 70
million, which forms a bridge between the Middle East and Europe,
should remain secular and western-oriented, as it has been since
Kemal Ataturk founded the republic on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire
more than 80 years ago, or draw closer to its Islamist roots.
And if Turkey decides to turn towards Islam, will the staunchly
secular Turkish military launch another coup?
Didem Mercan plans to vote for the Republican People’s Party, which
was founded by Ataturk, because she fears the Islamist connections of
the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
She worries that, if the AKP wins a second majority in parliament, it
could force women to wear headscarves. Clad in blue jeans and a
summery blouse, her fingernails painted bright red, the 23-year old
communications student is a walking advertisement for her belief that
"religion should have no place in my personal life, and I am prepared
to fight for that right."
Mesut Topcu, on the other hand, said he intends to vote for the AKP
because, since it won power in November 2002, the authorities have
stopped hassling men in the deeply conservative Istanbul suburb of
Fatih about wearing the skullcaps, baggy trousers and long beards of
pious Muslims.
Topcu, an electrical engineer, was unequivocal about the value of
headscarves, which remain banned in schools and government offices
but are commonly worn by women in Fatih, as are black, Iranian-style
full-body chadors. "I am sad for a woman who does not cover herself.
She will go to hell on judgment day."
The public expression of such sharp differences in opinion is
relatively new in Turkey, but the debate is actually many centuries
old.
The country’s population is about 98 per cent Muslim, but its history
has been profoundly influenced by geography. In the northwest and
northeast, Turkey is bordered by Christian Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia
and Armenia, while in the east and south, it sits alongside Muslim
Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. It is also the only Muslim nation
in NATO.
Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city with a population of 12 million, has
always felt the pull of east and west particularly keenly. Famously
divided by the Bosporus Strait into European and Asian parts,
Constantinople, as it was called until 77 years ago, is home to
spectacular mosques and minarets as well as the Orthodox Church’s
oldest patriarchate.
Although he was Muslim, Ataturk replaced sharia law with a
Swiss-style legal system. Women were given the vote, veils were
banned, drinking alcohol was permitted, and Latin script replaced
Arabic letters.
Many secularists are convinced that some of those fundamental changes
are now at risk if the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan wins another parliamentary majority.
"They are really Islamists and we believe that they wear a mask right
now, trying to pretend that they aren’t," said architect Eliz Ofil,
25, sitting in a smart cafe, watching huge tankers and freighters
from Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran and many other countries gingerly
navigate the narrow Bosporus artery between the Mediterranean and
Black seas.
Metres away, Egeman Bargis, an AKP deputy and Erdogan’s chief foreign
policy adviser, did not hide his contempt for such views.
"This is not a difference of opinion between Islamists and
secularists. It is a difference of opinion between those who want
more democracy or less. The opposition has tried at every chance to
create tension."
Although some of the AKP’s most prominent members have Islamist ties,
the party has not spoken much about religion since it emerged as a
grassroots movement a few years ago. It has positioned itself on the
centre-right and concentrated, with considerable success, on pursuing
internationalist economic policies. Turkey’s GDP has risen more than
seven per cent per year since 2003, per-capita income has more than
doubled, and inflation has been reduced to single digits for the
first time in decades.
But the AKP crossed a line with the military when it proposed Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gul, a practising Muslim whose wife covers her
head, as its choice for president.
In what was dubbed an e-coup, the military derailed the plan last
April by posting on its website a warning about a "growing threat" to
Turkey’s secular practices.
Erdogan’s response, however, was to seek a new mandate by calling
early parliamentary elections.
There are indications that the military may have misjudged the public
mood, or perhaps didn’t care what it was.
Polls suggest that the AKP’s share of the vote will increase to more
than 40 per cent from 34, largely because of a backlash against the
military’s stance.
Paradoxically, though, although the prime minister’s party is more
popular than ever in religiously conservative rural areas, and is
gaining support in urban areas because of its economic policies, the
AKP may actually win fewer seats.
That’s because of an awkward electoral system that only allows
parties with more than 10 per cent of the vote to have representation
in the 550-seat parliament.