Turkey Moves Away From Democracy
This analysis is written by Robert Ellis.
In August an editor from Kazakhstan was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for “divulging state secrets” in an article which dealt with the relationship between the state security service KNB and a local distillery owner. Therefore the European Union has issued a declaration which states that journalists should be free to report on all issues of interest to the public, including commentary on how the state is run. All member states have signed as well as candidate countries Croatia and Macedonia, potential future members Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro together with Island and Norway. The only country which has not signed is Turkey.
Turkey has similarly refused to sign a similar statement, accusing Uzbekistan of trying to silence the media through intimidation and criminal proceedings. But when you look at the way Turkey has handled the media since the AKP (Justice and Development Party) came to power in 2002, this is no surprise. Especially after the government’s latest attempt to silence a critical press.
As former EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn emphasized to Turkey shortly after the start of accession talks in October 2005: “pluralism and free speech are basic values which cannot be compromised”. However, the message doesn’t seem to have got through to the Turkish government.
Social engineering
Since the AKP formed a government, the party has embarked on what Riza Türmen, former judge at the European Court of Human Rights, has called “social engineering” and “a radical transformation of society” from Western-oriented and secular to Islamic and conservative.
The means to achieve this goal has been through political and economic power, and the former has been the prerequisite for the latter. Because of the Turkish electoral system the AKP gained almost two thirds of the seats in parliament in 2002 with only 34 percent of the votes, and five years later the party gained 47 percent of the votes but only 341 ouf the parliament’s 550 seats. The AKP commands strong local support but even so won only 39 percent of the votes in the local elections this year.
The party’s victory in 2007 made it possible for the AKP to elect their own president - Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül – in spite of opposition from the military. But irrespective of the fact that the former president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a staunch secularist, blocked much of the AKP’s legislation, the government has succeeded in achieving most of its aims.
In 2003 the AKP amended the Public Procurement Law, which made it possible to exclude energy, water, transportation and telecommunications related contracts from the scope of the law, and last year a further amendment has made the awarding of public contracts even more opaque. Two years ago Hüseyin Tugcu, an AKP deputy and one of the party’s founders, stated that people who are given contracts or work by the government must have covered families i.e. where the women wear headscarves.
According to a report published last December by the Open Society Institute and Bosphorus University, “Being Different in Turkey”, whose who are not religious or secularists feel under pressure to conform to the social norms promoted by the AKP to keep their jobs and protect their businesses. For example, the membership of Memur-Sen, an Islamic union for civil servants, rose from 42,000 in 2002 to 315,000 in 2008, while the membership of other unions remained stable.
Imam-hatip schools
One aspect of this creeping Islamization of Turkey is that almost all leading positions inside state administration have been filled with government supporters, a number of whom – like Prime Minister Erdogan – have studied at imam-hatip schools (IHL), religious high schools. They are officially designated as vocational schools and for that reason IHL graduates have not been allowed to enter university on equal terms with graduates from state high schools. Now this barrier has been removed, so they have access to all the faculties.
About 13,000 graduate from imam-hatip schools every year, over half of whom are women, which undermines the government’s argument that the purpose of these schools is to train imams, as only 3,000 a year are needed.
As well as most ministries supporters of the AKP government have gained control of a number of independent boards, such as the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), the Capital Market Board (SPK), the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), the Competition Board (RK), the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK), the Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBITAK), the Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK) and the Higher Education Board (YÖK). It is the latter which is responsible for the appointment of rectors for Turkey’s 114 universities.
Part of the AKP’s EU-oriented reform programme has resulted in a reduction of the military’s influence, and in a late night sitting at the end of June the government passed an amendment to the Penal Code, which makes it possible for civilian courts to prosecute military personnel. However, as the law is a violation of the Turkish constitution, which gives military courts sole jurisdiction, the opposition party CHP has petitioned the Constitutional Court to annul the amendment.
This is the same Constitutional Court which last year found the AKP guilty of being “a focus for anti-secular activities” and halved the party’s state funding. Erdogan has threatened to shut down the Court, but it is likely it will be included in the AKP’s coming judicial reform, which will change the composition and jurisdiction of the Court and place it under government control.
A critical press
The greatest opposition to the government’s “social engineering” comes from a critical press and for this reason the Calik Group, where Erdogan’s son-in law is general manager, has taken over the Sabah-ATV media group, Turkey’s second largest. Most of the cost of the takeover has been financed by two state banks.
However, the Dogan Media Group (DMG), which has been responsible for revealing extensive corruption in government circles, sits on 50 percent of the market, and therefore the AKP has taken unusual steps to silence its critics. In February a tax fine of $592 million was imposed on the DMG and last week came the final blow - a record tax fine of $2.5 billion.
As Ismet Berkan, editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily Radikal concludes: “Unfortunately, this is the situation in new Turkey; a country far from democracy, yet close to fascism.”
Robert Ellis is a commentator in Denmark and from 2005 to 2008 he was a frequent contributor to Turkish Daily News
Michael I understand your concerns with Turkey. I know some of your history. You need to be careful here in your opining about the goings on of the state of affairs within Turkey.
In August an editor from Kazakhstan was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for “divulging state secrets”
The pen is not mightier then the sword in some countries.
Thanks for this analysis. It’s incredible that Turkey’s application to join the European Union is still progressing in view of this creeping state-driven Islamisation of the country.
Thanks for this excellent analysis of an increasingly troubling situation. I traveled in Turkey in 2007 just before the election, and it sounds like the worst fears of many of the people I met and talked to are slowly becoming realized.
The author forgot to mention the massacres of the Kurds under the secularist regime in the 1990’s. The many torture cases and the people slaughtered are forgettable, since Turkey’s measures were more lenient towards Western political perceptions at the time. When did democracy even exist in Turkey? This argument promotes Islamophobia as it restricts the breach of democracy to Islamic factions. Please review Turkey’s modern history before you advocate for it;)
Dont forget that Ottoman Empire existed for more than 550 years with ; TURKS, KURDS, ARMENIAN, ARABS and the others. Turks never do torture, and never did. Old people know that the Armeniens lived their best years under Ottoman Empire control however foriegn countries changed their minds with political ways and they want them to think that They have to live with the country that named with their racial. If you search from facebook or from the other sites, you will be able realize that, thier groups are claim that Turks did torture to them. Indeed , most of people are not from their racial at these groups at facebook. They are American, German or etc.
[b]“Daar praat ik liever niet over in een land als Nederland”[/b]
Zo antwoordde de vrouwelijke hoogleraar Birsen Karaca op een vraag over de Armeense kwestie van 1915 tijdens een conferentie op de Vrije Universiteit van Amsterdam afgelopen vrijdag op 2 oktober.
Alhoewel de conferentie over de verschillende vormen van migratie en de invloed ervan op de literatuur ging, kwam er een vraag uit het ruim 250-koppige publiek over de gebeurtenissen van 1915. Prof. dr. Birsen Karaca antwoordde hierop dat ze niet in wilde gaan op dit onderwerp omdat de ChristenUnie een wetsvoorstel heeft ingediend wat het bespreken en/of discussiëren van de Armeense kwestie strafbaar maakt.
Prof. dr. Birsen Karaca nodigde alle 250 luisteraars, voor het overgrote deel jonge studenten, uit om dit onderwerp in Turkije te bespreken. “Ik vertel graag over de relocatie van de Armeniërs in het Osmaanse Rijk maar doe dat alleen in een land waar de vrijheid van meningsuiting en de rechten van de intellectuelen gewaarborgd worden, denk hierbij aan Turkije waar zelfs de boeken van Taner Akçam, Vahakn Dadrian en Hilmar Kaiser vrijelijk verkocht en gelezen worden.”
Aan de andere kant hekelde de vloeiend Russisch, Armeens, Turks en Engels sprekende Karaca het feit dat haar boek niet gedrukt werd in Europese landen vanwege het woord “vermeende” in de titel van haar boek ‘Sözde Ermeni Soykırımı Projesi’ (vertaling: ‘Het project achter de vermeende Armeense Genocide’).
[i]Persbericht © DeArmeenseKwestie.nl, 6 oktober 2009 [/i]
[b]“Bu konuyu Türkiye gibi özgür ortamda konuşmayı tercih ediyorum”[/b]
İki ekim 2009 tarihinde Amsterdam’ın Vrije Üniversitesi’nden düzenlenen “Göç ve Edebiyat” konulu konferansında Ermeni meselesi ile ilgili bir soruyla karşı karşıya gelen prof. dr. Birsen Karaca “bu hassas konuyu bilim adamların fikir özgürlüğünü kısıtlayan Hollanda’da değil de Türkiye gibi özgür bir ortamda tartışmak daha uygundur diye düşünüyorum” diyerek dinleyicilerin dikkatini çekti.
Hıristiyan Birliği (Hollandaca: ‘ChristenUnie’) partisi tarafından meclise sunulan yasa önerisini kasteden prof. dr. Karaca böyle devam etti: “Ermeni meselesi’ni tartışana iki seneye kadar hapis cezası vermek isteyen Hollandalıları bu konuda kınıyorum. Türkiye’de Taner Akçam, Vahakn Dadrian ve Hilar Kaiser gibi yazarların kitapları her yerde satılırken Hollanda başta olmak üzere Avrupa’nın bilim adamlara böyle bir sansür uygulaması son derece yanlış ve fikir özgürlüğü aykırıdır”.
Konferansa katılan çoğu genç üniversite öğrencisi olmak üzere 250 kişiyi Türkiye davet eden prof. dr. Birsen Karaca Türkiye’deki özgürlüğe vurgu yaptı. “Siz gelin Türkiye’ye ve ben orada özgür bir ortamda sizinle Ermeni meselesi’ni ayrıntılarıyla tartışırım.” diyerek Hollanda meclisine mesaj göndermiştir.
Rusça, Ermenice, Türkçe ve İngilizce bilen prof. dr. Karaca son olarak Avrupa yayınevleri yazdığı ‘Sözde Ermeni Soykırımı Projesi’ adlı kitabı “sözde” kelimesinden dolayı tercüme veya basmak istemediklerini dile getirdi.
[i]Basın Bildirisi © DeArmeenseKwestie.nl, 6 ekim 2009 [/i]
[b]“I can’t discuss this due to a lack of freedom in the Netherlands”[/b]
This is what female professor Birsen Karaca said during a conference concerning migration and literature held at the Vrije University of Amsterdam on Friday October 2nd.
Although the conference was not about the Armenian question of 1915, someone from the audience asked prof. dr. Birsen Karaca what she thought about the situation. Prof. dr. Karaca replied by stating that the Netherlands has recently discussed a law proposition presented by the Christian Union party (Dutch: ‘ChristenUnie’). This proposition stated that it would no longer be possibly to discuss or question the Armenian issue. And according to prof. dr. Karaca taking this proposition serious by discussing it in parliament meant that the freedom of speech for intellectuals in the Netherlands has been censored.
Prof. dr. Karaca also said “I would like to invite every one of you to come to Turkey so we can discuss the Armenian topic, because there certainly is intellectual freedom in Turkey unlike in the Netherlands.” The 250 participants, mostly young university students, also learned that the books of genocide-scholars Taner Akçam, Vahakn Dadrian and Hilar Kaiser are available in almost every store in Turkey.
Professor Birsen Karaca, who is fluent in Russian, Armenian, Turkish and English, stated that she wanted her book ‘Sözde Ermeni Soykırımı Projesi’ (translation: ‘The Project behind the so-called Armenian Genocide’) to be published in Europe but that every single publishing house declined due to the use of the word “sözde” (or ‘so-called’). This proves the bias stance of Europe and the lack of freedom for intellectuals.
[i]Press Release © DeArmeenseKwestie.nl, October 6, 2009[/i]
http://www.dearmeensekwestie.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=126:daar-praat-ik-liever-niet-over-in-een-land-als-nederland&catid=5:actueel&Itemid=7