TURKEY BETWEEN ISLAM & ATARTURK

Aug 9 2002 - February 8, 1919 was a fateful date in the modern Islamic history. On that date, the French general Franchet d' Esperey entered Istanbul on a white horse, emulating Muhammad the Conqueror's entrance in 1453 and signifying that the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire over the city was over. The Muslims are still mourning the sad demise of the last Islamic Caliphate, after more than three centuries of high achievement.

When the Ottoman Empire was in decline it became known to its detractors as the Sick Man of Europe. The Treaty of Sevres would have divided modern Turkey between several countries, leaving the Turks themselves with only a rump state in central Anatolia.

By the end of the World War I, the adverse situation was aggravated in the Islamic world as a Turkish general named Mustafa Kamal was declared a president of the Turkish Republic in October 1923. Mustafa Kamal dedicated himself for a tough war against all aspects of Islam in Turkey. This man has contracted gonorrhea earlier which caused him constant kidney problems throughout his years as a president. It is well known that gonorrhea is a venereal disease resulting from having sex with prostitutes!

The new Turkey's ideology became "Kamalism", later known as "Ataturkism". Its basic principles stress secularism and nationalism as the only way to modernization, irrespective of the wishes of the vast Muslim majority. A clause retaining Islam as the state religion was removed from the Turkish constitution. Ataturk was determined to put his people in identity crisis by imposing the European lifestyle in his country. European hats replaced the fez; women were prevented from wearing the veil. Conservative female students, are not allowed to wear head scarves to school or university, if they do they are thrown out!

All citizens are forced to take surnames; and the Islamic calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar. State employees are forbidden to grow beards and are not allowed to wear "un-contemporary clothing," or traditional Islamic dress. Friday sermons in mosques have to be approved by the state's Ministry of Religious Affairs, and clerics are banned from wearing their ceremonial robes in public.

It can be said that few nations have ever experienced anything comparable to the social change imposed by Ataturk in Turkey. The entire educational system from the grade school to the university was made secular and co-educational. Ataturk transformed the University of Istanbul (founded in the mid-15th century) into a pure secular university. He gave impetus to the study of pre-Islamic ancient cultures and arts of earlier civilizations of Anatolia merely to prove that, long before their Islamic Seljuk and Ottoman Empire, the Turks had already created a civilization of their own. Western music, opera and ballet as well as the theater made impressive strides.

The most difficult change in any society is probably a language change. Most nations never attempt it; those who do, usually prefer a gradual approach. Under Ataturk's leadership, Turkey undertook the world's toughest and most extensive language change. In 1928, when he decided that the Arabic script, which had been used by the Turks for a thousand years, should be replaced with the Latin alphabet, he asked the experts: " How long would it take ?" Most of them replied: " At least five years." " We shall do it," Ataturk said," within five months" The language change was made so as to enable the Turks to study Western languages with greater effectiveness.

Between 1926 and 1930, Mustafa Kamal made a legal transformation which might have required decades in most other countries. The new Civil Code, adopted in 1926, contrary to the Islamic teachings abolished polygamy and gave equal rights to women in divorce, custody, and inheritance. Religious laws were abolished, and a secular system of jurisprudence introduced. The new Civil Code, Penal Code, and Business Law, were based on the Swiss, Italian and German models respectively. The concepts, the texts and contexts of the laws were made harmonious with the progressive thrust of Ataturkism.

In 1934, when the surname law was adopted, the Turkish parliament gave him the name "Ataturk" (Father of the Turks). On November 10, 1938, Mustafa Kamal died. But his legacy of hostility to Islam endures. It is a matter of protocol in Turkey that foreign dignitaries or VVIP while visiting Turkey, are taken to the mausoleum of Kamal Ataturk.

Turkey is overwhelmingly a Muslim country, but the military high command and other staunch anti-religious groups are still not pleased with the Islamization of Turkey and intervene whenever they feel that Turkey's secular system is threatened.
The modernization or Europeanization plans made by Ataturk and his followers had forged the Islamic identity of the Turks but no properly working economy is established in a country with its currency plummeting so far. The corruption in high places plagues Turkish politics and economy, and the country is still looked upon as the Sick Man of Europe.

Ataturk and his followers can never erase Islam from the hearts and minds of more than sixty million Turks. "It is ridiculous. Turkey is 98 percent Muslim, yet we are less free to practice our traditions than Muslims in Paris or London or Berlin," says murat Yalcintas, the US-educated deputy head of the AK Party's powerful Instanbul branch.

Ataturkism Today:

For the United States and the West, Turkey is a key ally, providing support for any war operations in the region. As the only Muslim member of the NATO, and a country on the border of East and West, Turkey has played an important role in the US military action against Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite the government's pro-US position, opinion polls suggest that Turkish people are against Turkish involvement in military actions against any of Turkey's Muslim neighbors. Washington wants to see a government in power that it can do business with, and which has the authority to take decisions which may not be popular!

Turkey became an official candidate for EU membership in 1999. In December 4, 2000, the European Union agreed on a document setting out terms on which Turkey could begin negotiating its membership of the EU. Accordingly, on August 3, 2002, the Turkish parliament voted in favour of a reform package aimed at preparing the country for the long waited European Union membership. The package includes lifiting the death penalty except in times of war and for acts of terrorism etc� The package has been hailed as a success by many, especially considering the unfavourable climate for human rights issues, in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks in the United States.

However, such amendments in the constitution will never satisfy the EU Turkey's bid to join the EU. These reforms are challenged in the courts by the leader of parliament's largest group. "They are cosmetic changes and won't fool anyone," said Oya Akgonenc from the pro-Islamic Felicity Party.

The European Union has given a cautious welcome to Turkey's programme of political, social and economic reforms. Ankara still needs to prove the practical implementation of these reforms and improve its political and human rights record.. In May, 2001, the human rights group, Amnesty International, has singled out Turkey in its annual report, for widespread torture, rape and sexual assault by the security forces. The organisation said the perpetrators were rarely brought to justice. About thirty-five thousand prisoners have been in the Turkish jails and need to be freed under a controversial limited amnesty law. The amnesty, doesn't cover those convicted of offences against the state.

Nevertheless, the military generals are the country's de facto behind the scene rulers and are playing a decisive role in politics. No solid evidence is needed to close down a political party because of alleged anti-constitutional activities. Islamists are identified by the military as serious threats to Turkish stability. Four previous Islam-based parties have been closed down in Turkey.

The decision came only a month after Turkey's highest court also banned the Welfare Party's de facto successor, the Virtue Party, saying it had become a focus of anti-secular activities. The decision to ban the party in 1998 for unconstitutional behaviour prompted international criticism that Turkey was acting undemocratically. A truly democratic country should not shut down a political party because of what it believes and this is a grave violation of democratic principles and international human rights.

However, the West may think that upholding the country's secular constitution is more important than democracy. In this context, Turkey is rewarded by the International Momentary Fund and the World Bank . They have already agreed to lend Turkey 16 billion dollars to help it recover after its currency, the lira, lost some 40% of its value.

The Turkish Islamists were angered by a European Court of Human Rights decision to uphold Ankara's ban on the Islamist Welfare Party in 1998. The court ruled that Turkey had not violated human rights with the ban. It seems that the Europeans are not concerned or troubled if the largest opposition party in parliament is closed down.

CREDIT : Peret @ mforum