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rfmcdonaldBelow is the conclusion of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Los Angeles Times commentary "Can secular Turkey survive democracy?".
Two observations.
1. Any country where the rule of law can be maintained only through the machinations of a deep state that controls the secret services and the military likely should abandon all hope as to the possibility of European Union membership. Neither Francoist Spain nor Titoist Yugoslavia recommended themselves as EEC candidates--why should Kemalist Turkey be different?
2. The assassination of Hrant Dink that refers to was carried out by a teenager who seems to have been motivated by a nationalist that combined Islamic fundamentalism with secular Turkish nationalism. Countries tend not to move beyond murderous narrow-mindedness if one gives the ideologies that undergird this narrow-mindedness control over society in general.
UPDATE (12:24 AM, 11 May 2007): Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
angel80 and optimussven for correcting me on the ideology of Dink's assassin, such as it was.
An important trait of liberalism, however, is the opportunity to learn by trial and error. Turkish secular liberals must start their own grass-roots movement, one with the message of individual freedom. They must restore the confidence of the electorate in entrusting Turkey's economy to them, and they must reconquer the institutions of education, information, police and justice.
They must also make EU leaders understand and respect the fact that the army and the Constitutional Court — besides defending the country and the constitution — are also, and maybe even more important, designed to protect Turkish democracy from Islam.
Bringing back true secularism does not mean just any secularism. It means secularism that protects individual freedoms and rights, not the ultra-nationalist kind that breeds an environment in which Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" is a bestseller, the Armenian genocide is denied and minorities are persecuted. Hrant Dink, the Armenian editor, was murdered by such a nationalist.
It is this mix of virulent nationalism and predatory Islam in Turkey that makes the challenge for Turkish secular liberals greater than for any other liberal movement today.
Two observations.
1. Any country where the rule of law can be maintained only through the machinations of a deep state that controls the secret services and the military likely should abandon all hope as to the possibility of European Union membership. Neither Francoist Spain nor Titoist Yugoslavia recommended themselves as EEC candidates--why should Kemalist Turkey be different?
2. The assassination of Hrant Dink that refers to was carried out by a teenager who seems to have been motivated by a nationalist that combined Islamic fundamentalism with secular Turkish nationalism. Countries tend not to move beyond murderous narrow-mindedness if one gives the ideologies that undergird this narrow-mindedness control over society in general.
UPDATE (12:24 AM, 11 May 2007): Thanks to
angel80 and optimussven for correcting me on the ideology of Dink's assassin, such as it was.
