Turkey’s Secular Military Begins Showdown With New Islamist Government
And according to other media sources the military has threatened a coup and on Monday denounced the new government on its website.
NYSUN:
WASHINGTON — For the first time in the history of the modern Turkish republic, Turkey’s military has boycotted swearing-in ceremonies for the country’s new president, a sign of rising tensions between the largely secular military and Turkey’s Islamist ruling party.
Abdullah Gul was sworn in as Turkey’s president yesterday, making him the commander in chief of a powerful military whose generals have protested the concentration of power for his Justice and Development Party, or AKP. At the center of the controversy is Mr. Gul himself. A devout Muslim, Mr. Gul’s wife wears a traditional “turban” head covering, a political statement in a country that bans the Islamic hijab for women in government offices and schools. His political rivals have said the former foreign minister and prime minister is a stalking horse for radical Islam and that Mr. Gul eventually seeks to return Turkey to Islamic rule.
Mr. Gul did not bring his wife to yesterday’s ceremony and, in a speech to Parliament after taking the oath of office, affirmed that ” Turkey is a secular democracy … these are basic values of our republic and I will defend and strengthen these values.”
In an interview from Istanbul yesterday, a former Turkish parliamentarian with the secularist Youth Party, Emin Sirin, told The New York Sun that he was not concerned that Mr. Gul would break the country’s strong ties with America, Israel, or NATO.
“I am concerned that he will bring slowly an Islamic fascism here,” he said. “The AKP are very clever people; they will not adopt the attitudes of Hamas or the Iranian clergy at first. What they are going to do, with the majority they have and the support of the population, is show that they can govern for 10 to 15 years. They will educate a new generation and slowly turn Turkey into the Malaysia model, where people have the choice to follow the secular or Islamic law.”
On Monday, Turkey’s top military leader, General Yasar Buyukanit, warned that the new ruling party could be trying to undermine the secular republic created by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on October 29, 1923. Two years later, the first president of modern Turkey abolished the Muslim caliphate that had ruled the Ottoman Empire. Islamists in the Middle East today have stated that they seek to restore Turkey to the Islamic rule that Ataturk destroyed.
Mr. Sirin told the Sun that he fears his experience since retiring from Parliament last month may be a harbinger of things to come in Turkey under the Islamists: On August 18, he was held by the national counterterrorism police for 36 hours based on anonymous allegations that he said were trumped up to punish him for his political activities.
“They searched my house without me being present, they took up my computer. They came to the Youth Party, they searched my office in the party, they took my computers, they searched the hard drives with no warrant from the judge,” he said.
The arrest and search, according to Mr. Sirin, was the first time a former member of Parliament has been targeted by the national police in Turkey since the 1983 elections that ended a military regime that had begun in 1980.
Mr. Sirin said he has sent a letter to Mr. Erdogan to protest the investigation and to demand the evidence used to justify the search of his home and offices.
In addition to his own detention, he said many Turkish journalists with a history of expressing skepticism about the AKP’s commitment to secular rule have been asked by government officials to tone down their criticism — requests that amount to veiled threats, he said.
“When I talk to my friends in the media, there is tremendous pressure on them. The moment they publicize anything against the AKP, immediately they receive a telephone call from the AKP saying, ‘You should not criticize us,’” Mr. Sirin said.
American diplomats have been meeting with members of Turkey’s Islamist parties since the end of the Cold War, and the State Department has pointed to the AKP as a model for Islamists to participate in open democratic political systems.
Yesterday, President Bush congratulated Mr. Gul in a telephone call. A State Department deputy spokesman, Tom Casey, hailed Mr. Gul’s election as a “testament to the maturity of Turkish democracy and the strength of the Turkish constitution.”
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
If you can't handle using your real email address, don't bother posting a comment.
give him the benefit of the doubt, since the Turcs are pragmatic people, if he want to come back to middle-aged rules, he will be fired out
August 29th, 2007 at 9:55 am“Mr. Gul did not bring his wife to yesterday’s ceremony and, in a speech to Parliament after taking the oath of office, affirmed that ” Turkey is a secular democracy … these are basic values of our republic and I will defend and strengthen these values.”
And since Mr Gul is an Islamist, I spect those values would include more Sharia and less attaturk?
One of the missions given to the military by attaturk was to be the guardians of attaturk’s vision of Turkish democracy.
In the past, any threats to that vision were put down by the Turkish military. Mr Gul may want to watch his back and steer clear of Turkish Islamists if he wishes to stay in power for very long.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:02 amGood news!!
Hey Retour!!!!
August 29th, 2007 at 11:01 amhi tedders, I suppose your joking
August 29th, 2007 at 11:19 amFrance:
There is no doubt with Gul. He is and has always been an Islamist. His views on Islamic jurisprudence have no place in Turkish secular society.
August 29th, 2007 at 11:36 amhttp://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2913961420070829?pageNumber=2
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2972767420070829
well, benefit of the doubt is the only feeling we can manage so far
August 29th, 2007 at 12:09 pmCan you believe the stupid europeans are proposing to let this
August 30th, 2007 at 1:04 amcountry into their “European Union”?
And can you believe that our stupid State Department is encouraging
them to do it too?
Great idea! 60 million islamists inside a borderless EU.
If 10% of them move to Belgium they can institute sharia law in
the EU’s capital.
Doesn’t anyone at State know what the word “Taqiyya” means?
David M, can we believe your so stupid to believeyour US media bias ? or is it in your Bubush religion to hold that deal for a great middle-east ; if you read the very papers, you should know that France has always say no, and all the EU countries, except UK, bizarre no ?
August 30th, 2007 at 1:50 amFrenchy:
You shouldn’t be calling people names…especially with your liberal views and biases. Everybody in here knows that you are the stupid one. And your English is still piss poor.
August 30th, 2007 at 9:32 amGet a French-to-English dictionary and wise up bitch.