Turkey suffers from clash between secularists and Islamists

By Riza Sihbudi

JAKARTA (JP): Turkey is a country with a host of unique characteristics. It is reckoned that 99 percent of its citizens are Moslem. However, in general they see religion as a private matter in that religious practices are, except for in a few regions, kept in the background. This is perhaps the result of the notion of secularism developed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, more than 70 years ago.

Turkey covers 779,452 square kilometers, of which only three percent is in Europe. The remainder is in Asia, separated from the European part by the Bosporus strait that flows through the city of Istanbul.

Turkey takes greater pride in being part of Europe than of Asia. The people's daily lifestyle reflects the European heritage more than the Asian. Young men and women flirt freely in public and pictures of naked women in dailies and magazines are an integrated part of Turkish life.

When you fly by Turkish Airlines you notice how European the Turks are. All of them, old and young, men and women, love to drink wine. They are also generally heavy smokers.

In such a sociocultural context, the emergence of a leader from the pro-Islam Refah Partisi (welfare party), Dr. Necmettin Erbakan, as prime minister in June 1996 was certainly surprising, for most Turks as well as for the international community, and in particular the country's close allies in the West.

These Western countries, especially the U.S., are worried about having Erbakan as Turkish prime minister, at least because of the NATO military base in Turkey. The U.S. is anxious that Erbakan may suddenly close it down. The problem is that as Iran is now in the hands of the mullahs who are not on friendly terms with the U.S., and on account of the uncertain situation in Afghanistan, Turkey seems to have become the last Western fortress in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Erbakan's fate is in the balance. What might prove to be his fall from grace started with a controversy in the wake of his visit to Libya in October 1996. The visit itself did not pose any great problem but it was followed by a diplomatic crisis which shook Erbakan's position.

The crisis was linked to a statement made by Libya's leader, Moammar Qaddafi, when receiving Erbakan in Tripoli. Qaddafi said that Turkey should sever relations with Israel, and that the Kurds should be given freedom to establish their own country.

Qaddafi's remarks aroused great anger in senior military circles and the secular political elite. Both were irked not only by Qaddafi but also by Erbakan whose visit to Libya was seen as a mistake. This is understandable considering that the Kurdish question is one of the most sensitive issues in Turkey. As Kurdish expert Dr. Martin van Bruinessen says, Turkish authorities tend to ignore the existence of the Kurdish ethnic group. Whoever tries to defend the Kurds must be prepared to be thrown in jail.

However, the criticism directed against Erbakan is apparently not due to the diplomatic incident. The Turkish military, self- avowed defenders of Kemal Ataturk's heritage, secularism and "democracy", have for a long time disliked Erbakan. Therefore, the generals -- who have now forged an alliance with politicians on the left -- are now watching Erbakan's every step. They seize on every error, however small, committed by Erbakan, to topple the 70-year-old man who is referred to as modern Turkey's first Islamist leader.

It is therefore not surprising that -- after the motion of no- confidence lodged by the opposition in support of the military was rejected by Erbakan's supporters recently -- including coalition partner Tansu Ciller and her party -- the military has tried again to test Erbakan. It fears that the prime minister is planning the destruction of Turkey's secularist foundations.

An example of this was when Erbakan was planning to revoke the law which bans Moslem women wearing a headscarf in universities and government offices. He also intended to increase the dissemination of Islam on television. Tension came to a head when thousands of Erbakan supporters poured onto the streets, followed by a show of force by the military who sent dozens of tanks to Refah party strongholds.

Erbakan finally, albeit temporarily, bowed to the pressure coordinated by Deputy Armed Forces Commander General Cevik Bir, after Bir threatened a fourth military coup d'etat in modern Turkish history. (The three previous ones took place in 1960, 1971 and 1980). On March 6, Erbakan was forced to sign an agreement of 20 articles submitted by the National Security Council, a very powerful military institution.

These included banning the dissemination of Islam in the electronic media, restrictions on the wearing of Moslem headscarves and preventing Islamic fundamentalists from infiltrating the Turkish political elite.

But the conflict between the secularists and Islamists appears to be anything but over. Refah's success at the ballot box in 1995 clearly showed, particularly at the grassroots level, a growing dissatisfaction with Turkish secularism and the ideology of Kemal Ataturk.

After their 70-year reign, the secularists have shown they have failed in their obsessive efforts to raise Turkey up onto the same level as Western countries. Corruption is noticeably on the increase, and Turkey -- despite utmost efforts to implement secularism -- is still a developing country.

Secondly, secularism, "democracy", and Western-style liberalism, the pride of secularists, have not succeeded in making Turkey a member of the European Union (EU). Early in March the EU again rejected Turkey's application for membership. This is ironical. Turkey has been a staunch ally of Western countries, but to borrow a phrase from The Economist (March 8, 1997) -- "They see the Turks as too poor, too numerous and too Moslem."

For that reason, Erbakan and his supporters are becoming more determined to "forget the West, and return to the Islam world", according to the same Economist article. Moreover, many Turks are disappointed over the attitude of Western countries for allowing the massacre of Bosnian Moslems, with whom the Turks have very close historical and cultural links.

For Erbakan, Turkey's roots are Islamic, and therefore in his eyes it is useless attempting to Westernize Turkey. On the other hand, the generals and secularists still wish to realize their dream.

It seems to be becoming ever harder to narrow the differences between the two groups. It may turn out that the recent Erbakan- military conflict is only the initial stage of a series of hard- to-avoid long-term hostilities.

And there may be some truth in the prediction of a prominent member of the True Path Party -- an associate of the Refah coalition -- that Erbakan may fall because of the disappointment of Turkish Moslems, not because of pressure from the military.

The writer is a researcher at the Indonesian Scientific Institute who had spent time recently in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey.

Window: After their 70-year reign, the secularists have shown they have failed in their obsessive efforts to raise Turkey up onto the same level as Western countries.