Turkey’s ‘Islamic Revolution’

Recently, a major earthquake hit the traditional political establishment of Turkey, and its reverberations were felt in all the capitals of the western world. In a national election the Turks threw out all the major political parties and their heavyweight politicians and gave a clear majority to an Islamic party.

The victory of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pronounced Regeb Tayyab Erdoghan or Erdoan), a one-time mayor of Istanbul, has created some very interesting dynamics in that nation of 68 million people.

Present-day modern Turkey emerged from the debris of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI. Mustafa Kemal Pasha (commonly known as Ataturk or the father of Turks), an army general in Ottoman army picked up the pieces of a devastated empire and established modern Turkey in 1923. In a clear break with the past he set his country on a westward course. He gave women the right to vote, changed Arabic alphabets to Latin for the Turkish language, closed religious schools, and banned the wearing of headscarves by women and the fez by men. In a secular democratic Turkey, he surmised, religion would play no role in public life and in effect would be discouraged. While throwing out the bath water, he tossed out the baby as well.

Or at least that is what he hoped.

It has become evident that a majority of Turks do not subscribe to that gospel of extreme secularism and have instead remained attached to their faith and their age-old traditions. Since the days of Ataturk there has always been a disconnect between the elite in Ankara and Istanbul and the common folks in the country. The importance of Turkey’s religious identity became apparent when in 1995 Necmettin Erbakan (Turkish for Najamuddin) succeeded in forming a coalition government with the help of the centralist True Path Party to become the country’s first Islamist prime minister of modern Turkey. But not for long. After two years the powerful army brass had him forced out of office and banned his Refah, or Welfare Party. In Turkey the fiercely secular and decidedly anti-religious generals consider themselves the custodians of Ataturk’s legacy and do not hesitate to impose their will on the government. Their shadow has always loomed long over the civilian governments.

In Turkey the official restriction on the display of religion in public life is rather bizarre. For example, girls in public schools and women in government jobs are forbidden to wear headscarves. A few years ago an elected member of the parliament, 31-year old western educated Merve Kvackci, caused a stir by appearing in parliament wearing a headscarf.

She was expelled from the parliament and then stripped of her Turkish citizenship on a flimsy technicality that forbids dual citizenship. Like so many other Turks she had acquired American citizenship while studying in the United States. The leader of the victorious AK Party (Ak in Turkish means white or clean), Mr. Erdogan, had to send his two daughters to Indiana for education because the girls could not wear the scarf in schools in their native land.

The ouster of Mr. Erbakan in 1997 did not persuade Turks to abandon their Islamic identity. After five years they have now sent an unambiguous message to the generals by giving AKP a clear and decisive majority.

Unlike the Taliban of Afghanistan, the ayatollahs of Iran, or the religious politicians of Pakistan, Mr. Erdogan is a pragmatic man who understands his country’s secular traditions and has vowed to uphold them. At the same time he has shown pride in his country’s Islamic identity. If he becomes prime minister, he would not abandon Turkey’s ties with the West but would also strengthen ties with the Islamic world. Already he has done the rounds of European capitals, allaying their fears of an Islamic government in Turkey. He would push for the resolution of the Cyprus issue that has stymied Turkey’s relations with Greece and in turn with most of the Western Europe. Already the generals have backed off from their traditional hard line position over Cyprus by indicating that the problem should be solved by political negotiation.

Mr. Erdogan would also push for Turkey’s admission to the European Union. On the domestic front he would allow the Kurds the freedom to use their language in schools and in broadcasts.

However, there is a big hurdle in his way to become prime minister. He was banned from contesting elections because of a conviction for reading a poem in public that according to authorities promoted religious hatred. Unless the new parliament amends the constitution, he would be denied his rightful claim to become prime minister. In the interim his deputy, Abdullah Gul, has been sworn in as prime minister. It is widely believed that his AKP would amend the constitution to bring Mr. Erdogan into the government.

Turkey has an unprecedented opportunity to show the world that an Islamic party can govern according to democratic principles. With its one foot in Asia and one in Europe and its solid Muslim past Turkey, more than any other Muslim country, can prove that.