Dear members,
Assalamu Alaikum.This is a good analysis .I have only one comment
.Islamic main political parties acepted pluralist democracy long back as it has
no real contradiction with Islam in principle or structure or
operation.Nazimuddin Erbakan was a democrat to the core, even then Turkish Army
threw him out.May be AKP is more wise in strategy or just lucky.
Shah Abdul Hannan
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/909/op3.htm
Turkey and democracy
Newly vindicated, Turkey's ruling party remains an important model of
democratic Islamist politics, writes Galal Nassar
------------------------------------------------------------------------
With the Turkish Supreme Court's recent ruling against banning it, the
Justice and Development Party (JDP) survived yet another one of the innumerable
challenges it has been encountering with increasing frequency. The terrorist
bombings that rocked Istanbul last week were another manifestation of these
challenges.
One was struck by the fact that official fingers did not immediately
point to the Kurdish Workers' Party, a fact that does not signify that this
party has abandoned recourse to violence or that Ankara has had a change of
heart towards it. Rather, as analysts have pointed out, there are other
agencies that are now resorting to violence to achieve their objectives in
Turkey. That this threat now may come from the militant left, the
ultranationalist and radical Islamist camps has gravely aggravated the
terrorist threat to Turkey and the problems its ruling party have to contend
with.
To compound the delicacy of the JDP's situation, the recent suit to
have it banned originated from the core of the country's nationalist secular
elite, undoubtedly with the purpose of overthrowing the democratically elected
ruling party and propelling it towards a clash with the military establishment.
It was also one of the endless bids in the campaign to put paid to Turkey's
drive to join the EU, a campaign that was given fresh impetus by the election
of Nicolas Sarkozy as French president and France's turn to chair the EU.
So far the JDP, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has handled
the challenges well. The primary theatre of battle has been in development,
with respect to which national growth rates have been in focus with steady
growth predicted now that Turkey has secured for itself huge and reasonably
priced quantities of oil from Central Asia in exchange for allowing the Central
Asian pipelines to pass through Turkey to Europe. Also supporting the
prediction of continued growth is the increased influx of foreign investment
that, last year, rose to $85 billion, a large sum compared to the size of the
Turkish economy.
Perhaps what helped Erdogan's party most is its ability to ensure
political stability for the Turkish public. The JDP was perhaps the first in
the history of the Turkish political system to win a large enough majority in
parliament to form its own relatively homogeneous government. Before this, the
Turkish political pendulum had always swung between the type of stability that
the military could bring or shaky democracy once civilians returned to
government. Under the JDP, the Turks have experienced for the first time in
their political history stability under democracy.
The JDP succeeded in scoring this double victory for itself and the
Turkish people after having furnished evidence of its intent to abide by the
country's democratic system instead of following in the footsteps of some of
its ideological predecessors, whether from the left, the ultranationalist or
the Islamist camps, and overturning the democratic order after reaching power
through the electoral process. The party's commitment to democracy has been one
of the factors that helped it expand its popularity from its original base of
support among the rural population and its urban extension into the middle
class.
In spite of the many democratic tests it has passed, the party's
detractors still claim that these successes are not a reflection of the party's
true convictions. Rather, they insist that the party continues to harbour an
Islamist agenda even as it remains consummately pragmatic; taking advantage of
the benefits democracy has to offer while observing its principles in order to
remain in power. In order to do so, it has to keep an eye on two highly
influential factors: the military establishment, which regards the Islamist
party as a potential threat to the Kamalist secularist legacy, and the EU,
which the Turkish people still hope to join.
It is not difficult to respond to such objections. While the Turkish
army may be a guardian of secularism and the Kamalist legacy, this does not
make it a guardian of democracy. Second, Turkish desire to join the EU is not
sufficient to explain the party's commitment to democracy. Indeed, a
considerable segment of its base of support is no longer enthusiastic about
joining the EU. This body of opinion is epitomised by some of the most
influential intellectuals in the party ranks, such as Ibrahim Kalyn, director
of the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research that is closely
connected to the party, and Ahmet Davutoglu, professor of international
relations and chief foreign policy advisor to the Turkish prime minister. Both
these men believe that there is no justification for linking Turkey's great
economic prospects with EU membership and that Turkish aspirations for progress
and prosperity may be better served through other channels such as developing
relations with Arab and Islamic nations and other regions or economic blocs.
Such attitudes undermine the argument that the JDP is only interested
in abiding by democratic principles in order to meet the conditions for EU
membership.
It seems reasonable to conclude, therefore, that even if the Turkish
army and the EU affect the JDP's attitude to democracy, there must be other
influences. Among these is the evolution in Turkey of Islamist thought. Not
that long ago, the JDP's predecessor, the Prosperity Party led by Necmettin
Erbakan, viewed democracy as a Western import and, hence, alien to Islamic
society. The JDP, in contrast, is strongly influenced by intellectual circles
that subscribe to the belief that democracy is a universal, humanitarian
political creed with strong roots in Turkish and Islamic heritage.
Perhaps it is this belief that has enabled the party to prosper while
repelling any number of attacks against it, and against democracy and human
rights in Turkey.
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