Yoshie: > It's interesting that the law that was meant to favor the > military-backed party ended up being the opposite.
Not only that, such a strong Islamist movement in Turkey is also the monster the Military created in the 1970s. They used Islamists and Nationalists that they created and encouraged against the left until 1980 takeover. Later, after the 1980 takeover, they pumped the number of Imam-Hatip(preacher) High Schools,a breeding ground for Islamists, and imposed compulsory religion (Islam) courses from elementary school to high school all around the country. In the late 1980s and the 1990s, they again used the Islamists, mostly Hizbullah (Party of God), against the Kurds and the PKK. As I said elsewhere, in those lands that we call Turkey today, there has always been an Islamic fundamentalist base of about five to ten percent of the population for many centuries. I doubt that it is more than ten percent even today. Suppose it is fifteen percent to be generous. The additional ten percent who voted for AKP in the last elections where not Islamists but were those who were disillusioned with other existing alternatives. All of the alternatives where neoliberal anyway. AKP stands for Adalet (Justice) ve (and) Kalkinma (Development) Partisi (Party) but when read as AK Parti (Party) it has a second meaning. "Ak" in Turkish means "white" and, as in many other languages, white is a symbol of cleanness in Turkish. Their promise was that they were clean, not corrupt as the other alternatives and were not tried before. Moreover, they made a strategic change and started to advertise themselves as moderate Islamist, whatever that means, although the above mentioned Islamic fundamentalists were not only still in the rank and file of the party but also among its leaders. On top of all of these, they had the backing of the US. The leaders of the party made many trips to Washington and met with the US government, including the president, if I recall correctly. They also got the approval of the Military (nothing happens in Turkey if the Military does not want it) and the Military allowed Tayyip Erdogan to get elected after the elections were over. For this, the election in a distant province of Anatolia, called Siirt, was canceled for a made up reason and Erdogan was elected to the National Assembly in that fake provincial election. Initially, the Military had the full control over the AKP but overtime started to lose control of the AKP both for internal and external reasons that I will not go into. What is going on in Turkey in these days is about the Military trying to regain its hegemony that the AKP government has been weakening in the past few years. And to do this, the Military pumped up the already emerging nationalism as a reaction to the devastating effects of "globalization" as well as the rejection and harsh criticism of Turkey by the EU. This is what is going on in Turkey the way I see it. By the way, whether the AKP is "mildly Islamist" or "Islamic Democrat" is yet to be seen. Many of those who took to the streets on April 24 and April 29, at least the ones who were sincerely concerned, do not believe that they are and I do not know what "mild Islamizm" or "Islamic Democracy" means. The sad thing is that at least the sincere ones among those who took to the streets are being used. Neither of the sides in this battle can be defended or supported. Best, Sabri __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
