Blocking militarism
The Turkish people are working hard to block the trigger-happy generals' intimated invasion of the country's corridors of political power. Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan of the Islamic Welfare Party has succumbed to military pressure to step down but his coalition partner and successor Tansu Ciller has told the generals to mind their own business.
The present civilian-military relationship, which has been severely criticized by the West, looks like little more than a thinly veiled military regime. The military has threatened to use force to stop Erbakan's attempts to adopt Islamic values in his government's policies, which it believes dangerous to the secular tradition, the 70-year-old legacy of Turkey's founding-father Kemal Attaturk.
Claiming to be the traditional defenders of secularism, the Turkish generals do not seem to care about the return to democracy which has swept the globe and the West's opposition to such a militaristic system.
They have also refused to admit that the three coups they have staged since 1960 not only pushed democracy further into the corner but also failed to heal the country's political and economic ills.
To be sure, Erbakan was too bold in celebrating his premiership by approaching Iran and Libya and promoting Islam at home, provoking suspicion from the military. He was frustrated by the painful reality that Islamic values in the predominantly Moslem country had been marginalized.
Although Attaturk did not oppose religion, his efforts to modernize Turkey distanced urban people from Islamic teachings. What is happening in Turkey now looks like what the Soviet dictators did not have the guts to do before it collapsed eight years ago.
Students in Turkey are discouraged from attending Friday prayers and the country has also made pornographic films which Hollywood was reluctant to touch.
The military's wrath reached its peak recently when Erbakan was about to authorize the construction of large mosques on Taksim Square in Istanbul and in the government quarters in Ankara, and to order that civil servants' working hours comply with those prescribed by religious leaders during the holy fasting month.
It is worth noting that any regime which believes that religion is the antithesis of secularism as the best political concept is heading for atheism.
Despite the secular legacy in Turkey, many people who live in the countryside still practice Islam and it was they, combined with those who had migrated to Ankara and Istanbul, who gave Erbakan's party victory in the last two polls.
Hopefully the Ciller government will be last until a general election when the Turkish people will be able to freely decide who they want to govern next. A democratic government would not only be a logical solution to the country's crisis but would also gain support from Turkey's allies in the West. Their aid will eventually boost the country's economy and the people's courage with it to demand their full civic rights.
In facing development, it would be wise for the Turkish generals to learn from the experiences of other countries: if you push moderate Moslem leaders into the corner the radical ones will emerge to turn your system upside down.