With friends like these... B
Why Turkey's 'Islamists' are the West's best friends Published: Wednesday 10 October 2007 Grenville Byford, Researcher Turkey's AKP party is generally defined in the Western press as "Islamist", while its military opponents are "secular", writes Grenville Byford in an article published in the autumn 2007 issue of Europe's World. However, this does not imply that the AKP is any "less in tune" with the West, as the reality is precisely the opposite, he argues. The author dismisses the idea raised by President Bush that once the "war against terrorism" is won, the West's relationship with Muslims will restructure. For Byford, the challenge rather consists of persuading the world's Muslims that they can be "rich, free and yet remain Muslim". Turkey could be the concrete example of such an outcome, outlines the author. If Turkey succeeds in becoming a democracy, it will have an influence not only on the Muslim world, but also around the Black Sea, southern Russia, the Caspian Basin and parts of Central Asia, argues the author. However, if Turkey remains unreformed, it will have the opposite effect, he adds. The author comments on the general election in June, which he describes as "a triumph" for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). However, the "real question" is whether the losers of these elections - the politicians, the generals and the secular elite - understand their loss, he believes. The military made two distinct attempts to influence Turkey's election, recalls the author: * The first attempt was to raise the spectre of a "threat to secularism" in their "coup-threatening e-memorandum" in late April. * The second was to spread the idea that Erdogan was "too soft on terror and cringes before America". The main opposition party, the Kemalist CHP, does not "contemplate resignation and sharp knives" and will try to engage the sympathy of the West, arguing that protecting democracy from "Islamism" requires non-democratic "checks and balances" such as the generals' role as "guardians of the republic", says the author. Nevertheless, the West is more likely to consider the Kemalists to be "incompetent", despite the fact that they are "democratic". According to the author, there is an underlying deal underwriting US support to the AKP party. This deal would be the Turkish acceptance of independence for northern Iraq in exchange for Barzani, the Kurdish leader, closing the border to the PKK, the Kurdish separatist party, and controlling it internally. The other role that the US should be playing is helping to ease Turkey's military out of politics, he adds. Finally, even though the AKP party is often described as "Islamic", its major characteristic is its full acceptance of free market capitalism "and all it implies". As the AKP is much more of a reforming party than a conservative one, what Turkey's democracy still needs is an opposition "equally wedded to the future", concludes the author. <http://www.euractiv.com/en/foreign-affairs/turkey-islamists-west-best-frien ds/article-167503> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
