XPost: soc.culture.turkish, soc.culture.europe, soc.culture.usa   
   XPost: alt.politics.usa.congress   
   From: bilgeekhhann@bilgekhannnnnetorg.tr   
      
   Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis   
   Volume VIII, Issue # 205, October 24, 2006   
      
   MR. ERDOGAN'S TURKEY  -  THE THREAT OF ISLAMISM IN TURKEY   
      
   By Dr. Michael Rubin   
      
   THE THREAT OF ISLAMISM IN TURKEY:  ISLAMIST INROADS INTO TURKISH   
   POLITICS, GOVERNMENT, & PUBLIC POLICY -- EROSION OF DEMOCRACY,   
   THE RULE OF LAW, CONSTITUTIONALISM & SEPARATION OF GOVERNMENT &   
   RELIGION IN TURKEY -- HOW INEPT & "POLITICALLY CORRECT" U.S.   
   DIPLOMACY IS PUTTING AT RISK TURKEY'S FUTURE AS A SECULAR,   
   WESTERN-ORIENTED NATION-STATE & ALLY OF THE U.S.A.   
      
   FULL STORY:   Five years into the war on terror, inept U.S.   
   diplomacy risks undercutting a key ally that President Bush once   
   called a model for the Muslim world. The future of Turkey as a   
   secular, Western-oriented state is at risk. Just as in Gaza and   
   Lebanon, the threat comes from parties using the rhetoric of   
   democracy to advance distinctly undemocratic and   
   unconstitutional agendas. Turkey has overcome past challenges   
   from terrorism and radical Islam; always, its system has   
   persevered. But now, as Turkish politicians and officials work   
   to defend the Turkish Constitution, U.S. diplomats interfere to   
   dismiss Turkish concerns and downplay the Islamist threat.   
      
   A crisis has simmered for months, but, earlier this month,   
   Ankara erupted. On October 1, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer   
   warned Parliament, "The fundamentalist threat has not changed   
   its goal to change the basic characteristics of the state." The   
   next day, as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the   
   Oval Office, General Yasar Büyükanit, Chief of Turkey's Armed   
   Forces, warned cadets of growing Islamic fundamentalism and   
   promised "every measure will be taken against it." Usually such   
   warnings are enough to keep those transgressing on the   
   constitutional separation of mosque and state in check.   
      
   Enter U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson. At an October 4 press   
   conference, he said: "There is nothing that worries me with   
   regards to Turkey's continuation as a strong, secure, stable,   
   and secular democracy." He dismissed opposition concern about   
   the Islamism of Mr. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development   
   Party (known in Turkish as the AKP) as "political cacophony."   
   Wilson's remarks were consistent with those of his State   
   Department superiors. Last Autumn, Daniel Fried, Assistant   
   Secretary of State for European Affairs, said "The development   
   of the AKP into a democratic party . . . has mirrored and   
   supported the development of Turkish political society as a   
   whole in a liberal and democratic direction." He described the   
   AKP as "a kind of Muslim version of a Christian Democratic Party."   
      
   Why are so many Turks angry at Washington's dismissal of their   
   concerns? While Turkish constitutional democrats fight for   
   change within the Turkish system, Islamists seek to alter the   
   system itself. This has been the case with the AKP. Over the   
   party's four-year tenure, Mr. Erdogan has spoken of democracy,   
   tolerance and liberalism, but waged a slow and steady assault on   
   the system. He endorsed, for example, the dream of Turkey's   
   secular elite to enter the European Union, but only to embrace   
   reforms diluting the checks and balances of military   
   constitutional enforcement. After the European Court of Human   
   Rights upheld a ban on headscarves in public schools, he changed   
   course. "It is wrong that those who have no connection to this   
   field [of religion] make such a decision . . . without consulting   
   Islamic scholars," he declared. Then, in May, 2006,   
   his chief negotiator for accession talks ordered the removal,   
   from a negotiating paper, of reference to Turkey's educational   
   system as secular.   
      
   The assault on the secular education system has been subtle but   
   effective. Traditionally, students had three choices: enroll at   
   religious academies (socalled Imam Hatips) and enter the clergy;   
   learn a trade at vocational schools; or matriculate at secular   
   high schools, attend university, and pursue a career. Mr.   
   Erdogan changed the system: By equating Imam Hatip degrees with   
   high-school degrees, he enabled Islamist students to enter   
   university and qualify for government jobs without ever   
   mastering Western fundamentals. He also sought to bypass checks   
   and balances. After the Higher Education Board, composed of   
   university rectors, rejected his demands to make universities   
   more welcoming of political Islam, the AKP-dominated Parliament   
   proposed to establish 15 new universities. While Mr. Erdogan   
   told diplomats his goal was to promote education, Turkish   
   academics say the move would enable him to handpick rectors and   
   swamp the Higher Education Board with political henchmen.   
      
   Such tactics have become commonplace. At Mr. Erdogan's   
   insistence and over the objections of many secularists, the AKP   
   passed legislation to lower the mandatory retirement age of   
   technocrats. This could mean replacement of nearly 4,000 out of   
   9,000 judges. Turks are suspicious that the AKP seeks to curtail   
   judicial independence. In May, 2005, AKP Parliamentary Speaker   
   Bülent Arinç warned that the AKP might abolish the   
   Constitutional Court if its judges continued to hamper   
   parliamentary legislation. Mr. Erdogan's refusal to implement   
   Supreme Court decisions levied against his government underlines   
   his contempt for rule of law. Last May, in the heat of the AKP's   
   anti-judiciary rhetoric, an Islamist lawyer protesting the   
   headscarf ban shouted "Allahu Akbar," opened fire in the Supreme   
   Court and murdered a judge. Thousands attended his funeral,   
   chanting pro-secular slogans. Mr. Erdogan was absent from the   
   ceremony.   
      
   There have been other subtle changes. Mr. Erdogan has replaced   
   nearly every member of the banking regulatory board with   
   officials from the Islamic banking sector. Accusations of Saudi   
   capital subsidizing AKP are rampant. According to Turkish   
   Central Bank statistics, in the first six months of this year,   
   the net error -- money entering the Turkish economy for which   
   regulators cannot account -- has increased almost eightfold,   
   compared to 2002, the year the AKP came to power. According to   
   the opposition parliamentary bloc, debt amassed under Mr.   
   Erdogan's administration is equal to total debt accrued in   
   Turkey between 1970 and 2000. Erkan Mumcu, a former AKP minister   
   who now heads the center-right Motherland Party, accused the AKP   
   in June of interfering in Central Bank operations. Accordingly,   
   President Bush's Oval Office statement, based on State   
   Department talking points -- congratulating "the Prime Minister   
   and his government for the economic reforms that have enabled   
   the Turkish economy to be strong" -- may have hampered   
   transparency, if not reform.   
      
   In the past year, the AKP anti-secular agenda has grown bolder.   
      
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