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TURKEY: WHAT CHANCE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN TURKEY'S ELECTIONS?
By Dr. Otmar Oehring, Head of the Human Rights Office of Missio
Forum 18, Norway
http://www.missio.de
June 28 2007
Turkey is due to hold parliamentary elections on 22 July, which will
have a crucial impact on the presidential election due in autumn.
Both elections will strongly influence the chances
of greater freedom of thought, conscience and
belief, Otmar Oehring of the German Catholic charity Missio
http://www.missio.de/dcms/sites/missio2/mis sio-ueber-sich/leitthemen/menschenrechte/index.htm l
notes. Turkish religious minorities Forum 18 News Service has spoken
to are highly concerned about the outcome of the elections. For,
as Dr Oehring observes in this personal commentary for Forum 18
http://www.forum18.org, Turks who want to see genuine freedom
of thought, conscience and religion have little expectation that
either the parliamentary or presidential election will bring any
improvement. No political party with any chance of gaining real power
wants either to tackle the dangerous media intolerance of religious
minorities or to take the dramatic changes necessary to usher in
genuine religious freedom.
No Turkish presidential candidate has been found who is acceptable to
both parliament and the "deep state," the nationalist circles in the
army, police, National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) secret police
and state administration which regard themselves as the custodians
of the Ataturkist legacy. Turkey is now due to hold parliamentary
elections on 22 July, which may have crucial impact on the presidential
election. A presidential election is due in autumn 2007, but no firm
date for this has been set. At the time of the failed presidential
election earlier this year, debate was fierce on what role Islam
should play in the state. This debate remains unresolved, with both
sides as far apart as ever.
Politicians have been preoccupied with the political crisis over the
failure of parliament and the "deep state" to agree a new president,
leaving President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to continue until a new candidate
is agreed, most probably in September. No senior politicians have
shown any interest in granting greater freedom of thought, conscience
and belief to non-Muslim religious minorities.
Debate has instead focused on whether the governing Justice and
Development Party (AKP) is a party in line with Turkey's interpretation
of secularism.
Religious minorities face increasing threats of physical violence.
Murders of religious minority leaders have been increasing
- one Catholic priest in 2006 (see F18News 26 July 2006
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =817) and three
Protestants in April 2007. Turkish Christians have told Forum 18 that
a key factor in these murders is the overt intolerance of non-Muslim
minorities promoted by the media - and that unless this is tackled,
more murders will take place. Politicians have made no serious attempt
to tackle this serious threat to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion (see forthcoming F18News article).
The one major religious minority that has not suffered violence or
been excluded from the political process are the Alevi Muslims, who
make up about 20 per cent of the population. However, they have faced
discrimination over recent years and their right to be accepted as a
religious community independent of the state-run Sunni Muslim majority
community has never been accepted by the Turkish state (see F18News
12 October 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=670
and 26 July 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=817) .
Several political parties of differing views are trying to recruit
Alevis as candidates in the forthcoming election. The governing AKP
has tried to entice leading members of the Cem Foundation, the Alevi
body closest to the government, to become candidates. Most of the
main parties view the Alevis not as a religious minority whose right
to religious freedom should be respected, but as a source of votes.
The optimism that many in Turkey and Europe had in 2006
and earlier that the political establishment was ready
to begin tackling the discrimination against non-Muslim
minorities has disappeared (see F18News 18 January 2007
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =901). Why has nothing
happened?
It could be because of the election campaign - no-one has the time or
the interest to promote the rights of people in religious minorities.
Even AKP politicians, who might be in favour of EU accession despite
the freedoms for non-Muslim communities this may bring, see EU
accession - if it happens - as taking place in the distant future.
During the election campaign the AKP has behaved as nationalistically
as other parties, so it will not commit itself to doing anything for
non-Muslim minorities. These are seen by many Turks - and are depicted
in the mass media - as traitors or as alien people in Turkey.
Religious minorities Forum 18 has spoken to are highly concerned about
what the outcome of the parliamentary elections will be - and about
who will also take over as President. This is because the outcome of
the elections will be a major factor in determining the chances of
greater freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Turkey. Opinion
polls currently put the AKP ahead of the other parties. Indeed,
all the major parties likely to get seats in the new parliament are
nationalistic, with varying levels of hostility to non-Muslims.
If the AKP wins the parliamentary elections, this could mean that it
held two-thirds of seats in parliament, which would give it the power
to pass changes to the Constitution in an Islamist direction. Whoever
becomes the President might veto these changes, which makes the
election of a new President another major factor in determining the
chances of greater freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Turkey.
The way the new President will be elected has proved highly
controversial. According to the law passed by parliament with AKP
backing on 31 May 2007, this should be by popular vote but President
Sezer rejected this. With parliament and president at a stand-off,
the issue is now to be put to a referendum, though no date has been
set. If the AKP wins the parliamentary elections, they will probably
present Abdullah Gul again as their candidate for President. If an AKP
candidate is elected President, this would allow the AKP to introduce
constitutional changes, in the knowledge that an AKP President would
not veto them. Nobody however knows what the army and wider "deep
state" would do, if that happened.
The "deep state" has a well-known commitment to "defending" the
Ataturkist "secularist" heritage, as it sees it. And in Turkey,
"secularism" means Islam being a branch of the state and no other
religious community - including Muslim minorities - having legal
status as a religious community (see F18News 22 November 2006
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =875).
When the army General Staff issued a statement in late April 2007
defending Turkey's "secular" system and describing itself as the
"absolute defender of secularism" this was interpreted as a "cold
coup". However, it was also a sign of its weakness - it seems the army
no longer felt able to launch a real coup. The AKP government led by
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan merely carried on as before. It
presents itself as no longer being afraid of anyone and ready to do
what it wants without looking over its shoulder.
In reality, Erdogan has shown that he has heard the army's warning
that it wants to decide on matters it considers vital for Turkey. On
two occasions Erdogan stated that politicians would not oppose the
army, if it decided to invade Iraq. After stating this for the first
time, he denied saying it - but then said it again. Erdogan has also
indicated that his fellow politicians would not oppose other decisions
of the army leadership.
The mass demonstrations against the AKP in April and May 2007 did not
necessarily show that large parts of the population wanted Turkey
to become more open and democratic. Many of the demonstrators were
supporters of rival parties, some of them just as nationalist in
outlook as the AKP. Indeed, it seems the Republican People's Party
(CHP) stirred up many of the protests. Party members see themselves
as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's heirs, even if it is doubtful that he
would recognise them as such.
Some of the protest organisers and demonstrators certainly did
want Turkey to be less nationalist and more open and democratic,
including the small minority who want Turkey to have genuine freedom of
thought, conscience and belief. But those who demonstrated consisted
of people who had no one unified goal: old Kemalists who are anti-EU
and xenophobic to varying degrees; secularists who are afraid of any
Islamist project; intellectuals who do not share a Kemalist worldview;
anti-AKP and anti-Islamist Westernisers.
Turkey's Western-oriented intellectuals think that if Turkey continues
with negotiations over EU accession, this will not only benefit them
but will help promote democratic change. However, they are acutely
aware that they are becoming an ever dwindling minority.
If the AKP does take over both the parliament and the presidency,
it is still unknown how it will behave. Will it go down the Islamist
road or carry on with the European project? It seems that Erdogan
and his current foreign minister (and AKP presidential candidate)
Abdullah Gul have both moved away from their Islamist background. Yet
this still remains unknown. And even if the AKP does not take over the
parliament and presidency, the majority of those who oppose the AKP
are - apart from the true democrats - mainly xenophobic nationalists.
If other parties come to power in the elections, the already tight
controls and restrictions on religious minorities (and indeed on
Islam) are highly unlikely to be loosened. The other parties are
more nationalistic than the AKP and so even less willing to do
anything to improve conditions for non-Muslim minorities. If they
were willing to ease the restrictions on non-Muslim minorities,
there would be pressure for them to also loosen the subordination in
law and practice of Islam to the state (see F18News 22 November 2006
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =875). These parties
certainly do not want this.
The AKP has done little practical to help non-Muslim
communities since it came to power (see F18News 18 January 2007
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =901). But some in Turkey,
including the head of the Armenian Church, Patriarch Mesrop, still
see a new AKP government - theoretically committed to pursuing the
EU application - as the only hope within Turkish politics for even
slight improvements.
Those Turks who want to see genuine freedom of thought, conscience
and religion have little expectation that either the parliamentary
or presidential election will bring any improvement. No political
party with any chance of gaining real power wants either to tackle
the dangerous media intolerance of religious minorities or to take
the dramatic changes necessary to usher in genuine religious freedom.
(END)
- Dr Otmar Oehring, head of the human rights office of Missio
http://www.missio.de/dcms/sites/missio2/mis sio-ueber-sich/leitthemen/menschenrechte/index.htm l,
a Catholic charity based in Germany, contributed this comment to
Forum 18 News Service. Commentaries are personal views and do not
necessarily represent the views of F18News or Forum 18.
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =983
By Dr. Otmar Oehring, Head of the Human Rights Office of Missio
Forum 18, Norway
http://www.missio.de
June 28 2007
Turkey is due to hold parliamentary elections on 22 July, which will
have a crucial impact on the presidential election due in autumn.
Both elections will strongly influence the chances
of greater freedom of thought, conscience and
belief, Otmar Oehring of the German Catholic charity Missio
http://www.missio.de/dcms/sites/missio2/mis sio-ueber-sich/leitthemen/menschenrechte/index.htm l
notes. Turkish religious minorities Forum 18 News Service has spoken
to are highly concerned about the outcome of the elections. For,
as Dr Oehring observes in this personal commentary for Forum 18
http://www.forum18.org, Turks who want to see genuine freedom
of thought, conscience and religion have little expectation that
either the parliamentary or presidential election will bring any
improvement. No political party with any chance of gaining real power
wants either to tackle the dangerous media intolerance of religious
minorities or to take the dramatic changes necessary to usher in
genuine religious freedom.
No Turkish presidential candidate has been found who is acceptable to
both parliament and the "deep state," the nationalist circles in the
army, police, National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) secret police
and state administration which regard themselves as the custodians
of the Ataturkist legacy. Turkey is now due to hold parliamentary
elections on 22 July, which may have crucial impact on the presidential
election. A presidential election is due in autumn 2007, but no firm
date for this has been set. At the time of the failed presidential
election earlier this year, debate was fierce on what role Islam
should play in the state. This debate remains unresolved, with both
sides as far apart as ever.
Politicians have been preoccupied with the political crisis over the
failure of parliament and the "deep state" to agree a new president,
leaving President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to continue until a new candidate
is agreed, most probably in September. No senior politicians have
shown any interest in granting greater freedom of thought, conscience
and belief to non-Muslim religious minorities.
Debate has instead focused on whether the governing Justice and
Development Party (AKP) is a party in line with Turkey's interpretation
of secularism.
Religious minorities face increasing threats of physical violence.
Murders of religious minority leaders have been increasing
- one Catholic priest in 2006 (see F18News 26 July 2006
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =817) and three
Protestants in April 2007. Turkish Christians have told Forum 18 that
a key factor in these murders is the overt intolerance of non-Muslim
minorities promoted by the media - and that unless this is tackled,
more murders will take place. Politicians have made no serious attempt
to tackle this serious threat to freedom of thought, conscience and
religion (see forthcoming F18News article).
The one major religious minority that has not suffered violence or
been excluded from the political process are the Alevi Muslims, who
make up about 20 per cent of the population. However, they have faced
discrimination over recent years and their right to be accepted as a
religious community independent of the state-run Sunni Muslim majority
community has never been accepted by the Turkish state (see F18News
12 October 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=670
and 26 July 2006 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=817) .
Several political parties of differing views are trying to recruit
Alevis as candidates in the forthcoming election. The governing AKP
has tried to entice leading members of the Cem Foundation, the Alevi
body closest to the government, to become candidates. Most of the
main parties view the Alevis not as a religious minority whose right
to religious freedom should be respected, but as a source of votes.
The optimism that many in Turkey and Europe had in 2006
and earlier that the political establishment was ready
to begin tackling the discrimination against non-Muslim
minorities has disappeared (see F18News 18 January 2007
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =901). Why has nothing
happened?
It could be because of the election campaign - no-one has the time or
the interest to promote the rights of people in religious minorities.
Even AKP politicians, who might be in favour of EU accession despite
the freedoms for non-Muslim communities this may bring, see EU
accession - if it happens - as taking place in the distant future.
During the election campaign the AKP has behaved as nationalistically
as other parties, so it will not commit itself to doing anything for
non-Muslim minorities. These are seen by many Turks - and are depicted
in the mass media - as traitors or as alien people in Turkey.
Religious minorities Forum 18 has spoken to are highly concerned about
what the outcome of the parliamentary elections will be - and about
who will also take over as President. This is because the outcome of
the elections will be a major factor in determining the chances of
greater freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Turkey. Opinion
polls currently put the AKP ahead of the other parties. Indeed,
all the major parties likely to get seats in the new parliament are
nationalistic, with varying levels of hostility to non-Muslims.
If the AKP wins the parliamentary elections, this could mean that it
held two-thirds of seats in parliament, which would give it the power
to pass changes to the Constitution in an Islamist direction. Whoever
becomes the President might veto these changes, which makes the
election of a new President another major factor in determining the
chances of greater freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Turkey.
The way the new President will be elected has proved highly
controversial. According to the law passed by parliament with AKP
backing on 31 May 2007, this should be by popular vote but President
Sezer rejected this. With parliament and president at a stand-off,
the issue is now to be put to a referendum, though no date has been
set. If the AKP wins the parliamentary elections, they will probably
present Abdullah Gul again as their candidate for President. If an AKP
candidate is elected President, this would allow the AKP to introduce
constitutional changes, in the knowledge that an AKP President would
not veto them. Nobody however knows what the army and wider "deep
state" would do, if that happened.
The "deep state" has a well-known commitment to "defending" the
Ataturkist "secularist" heritage, as it sees it. And in Turkey,
"secularism" means Islam being a branch of the state and no other
religious community - including Muslim minorities - having legal
status as a religious community (see F18News 22 November 2006
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =875).
When the army General Staff issued a statement in late April 2007
defending Turkey's "secular" system and describing itself as the
"absolute defender of secularism" this was interpreted as a "cold
coup". However, it was also a sign of its weakness - it seems the army
no longer felt able to launch a real coup. The AKP government led by
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan merely carried on as before. It
presents itself as no longer being afraid of anyone and ready to do
what it wants without looking over its shoulder.
In reality, Erdogan has shown that he has heard the army's warning
that it wants to decide on matters it considers vital for Turkey. On
two occasions Erdogan stated that politicians would not oppose the
army, if it decided to invade Iraq. After stating this for the first
time, he denied saying it - but then said it again. Erdogan has also
indicated that his fellow politicians would not oppose other decisions
of the army leadership.
The mass demonstrations against the AKP in April and May 2007 did not
necessarily show that large parts of the population wanted Turkey
to become more open and democratic. Many of the demonstrators were
supporters of rival parties, some of them just as nationalist in
outlook as the AKP. Indeed, it seems the Republican People's Party
(CHP) stirred up many of the protests. Party members see themselves
as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's heirs, even if it is doubtful that he
would recognise them as such.
Some of the protest organisers and demonstrators certainly did
want Turkey to be less nationalist and more open and democratic,
including the small minority who want Turkey to have genuine freedom of
thought, conscience and belief. But those who demonstrated consisted
of people who had no one unified goal: old Kemalists who are anti-EU
and xenophobic to varying degrees; secularists who are afraid of any
Islamist project; intellectuals who do not share a Kemalist worldview;
anti-AKP and anti-Islamist Westernisers.
Turkey's Western-oriented intellectuals think that if Turkey continues
with negotiations over EU accession, this will not only benefit them
but will help promote democratic change. However, they are acutely
aware that they are becoming an ever dwindling minority.
If the AKP does take over both the parliament and the presidency,
it is still unknown how it will behave. Will it go down the Islamist
road or carry on with the European project? It seems that Erdogan
and his current foreign minister (and AKP presidential candidate)
Abdullah Gul have both moved away from their Islamist background. Yet
this still remains unknown. And even if the AKP does not take over the
parliament and presidency, the majority of those who oppose the AKP
are - apart from the true democrats - mainly xenophobic nationalists.
If other parties come to power in the elections, the already tight
controls and restrictions on religious minorities (and indeed on
Islam) are highly unlikely to be loosened. The other parties are
more nationalistic than the AKP and so even less willing to do
anything to improve conditions for non-Muslim minorities. If they
were willing to ease the restrictions on non-Muslim minorities,
there would be pressure for them to also loosen the subordination in
law and practice of Islam to the state (see F18News 22 November 2006
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =875). These parties
certainly do not want this.
The AKP has done little practical to help non-Muslim
communities since it came to power (see F18News 18 January 2007
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =901). But some in Turkey,
including the head of the Armenian Church, Patriarch Mesrop, still
see a new AKP government - theoretically committed to pursuing the
EU application - as the only hope within Turkish politics for even
slight improvements.
Those Turks who want to see genuine freedom of thought, conscience
and religion have little expectation that either the parliamentary
or presidential election will bring any improvement. No political
party with any chance of gaining real power wants either to tackle
the dangerous media intolerance of religious minorities or to take
the dramatic changes necessary to usher in genuine religious freedom.
(END)
- Dr Otmar Oehring, head of the human rights office of Missio
http://www.missio.de/dcms/sites/missio2/mis sio-ueber-sich/leitthemen/menschenrechte/index.htm l,
a Catholic charity based in Germany, contributed this comment to
Forum 18 News Service. Commentaries are personal views and do not
necessarily represent the views of F18News or Forum 18.
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =983