Turkey is going through turbulent times. The Kemalists are trying to get rid of the liberal Islamist AKP through the courts. The AKP has struck back by arresting two generals for allegedly leading an armed gang that wanted to destabilize society through killings thus paving the way for military intervention.
The words of Ataturk Kemal ring true even today. He had once said, ‘Politics and soldiering have no place together.’ The Turkish secularists seem to have not understood the wisdom of this advice. The result is - many military coups and the current clash between the military and the main political party.
Though the AKP claims that the clash is between democracy and rigid secularist authoritarianism, it too hardly covers itself in glory on many matters. The party leaders have the power to fire any party functionaries as they deem necessary with out being accountable for its action. So the party is inherently authoritarian.
Also the Islamist agenda of the party does peep through many of its actions like the lifting of the ban on scarves, efforts to ban alcohol on TV, force bars beyond city limits, and impose a conservative morality on the country. Erdogan recently said that every woman should at least have three children; a very ‘orthodox-Muslim’ statement.
But it is unlikely that Turkey will go the ‘Iran’ way. Less than 10% of Turks like the idea. The AKP should understand that the Turks voted for it because they feel it can deliver economic prosperity, not for its Islamist goals. Because of these factors the party is hardly expected to go a long way towards its Islamist agenda.
The army too will not dare to dislodge the AKP government by force because it came to power on the basis of a 47% brute majority. The main problem in Turkey is that it still has a constitution bestowed upon it by the last martial rule. But because the secularists and the AKP are at loggerheads, it is unlikely that a consensus on a new liberal charter for the nation will be reached.
Source: The Independent
