TURKEY
The recent riots and ongoing civil unrest in Turkey should act as a
reminder that the British ruling class, along with the EU hierarchy too, are
keen to admit Turkey into the EU, despite Turkey being Muslim and despite the
vast bulk of its territory and population being in Asia and not Europe.
Occasional discontent is not unusual in any state. But the schism that
has been shown in Turkish society is relevant to the desirability of Turkish
admission into the EU and is relevant in assessing the wisdom of the mantra of
the British ruling class that Turkey must join.
Turkey has been a Western ally since the Second World War. Following
the end of the Ottoman Empire after the
First World War, Turkey was keen to develop its Western status, adopting
'western culture, nationalism, secularism and republicanism'. Kemel Ataturk
introduced sweeping reforms including the abolishment of the Islamic caliphate,
legal reforms, women's rights, the Latin alphabet, and new dress codes [such as
the banning of the fez and headscarves] as well as educational, political and
economic reforms including a firm commitment to being a secular state despite
97% of the population being Muslim. The view was that: 'Civilization is
European civilization. There is no other one'. The Kemalist version of
secularism is one in which Islam is subject to state control.
This strategy needs to be properly evaluated. As the Austrian
politician Franz Fischler stated:
'The role of religion in a society is fundamental in a democratic state. A vast majority in Europe support the division between church and state and believe secularization to be a part of modern Europe, with no religion enjoying public preference. This is not the case in Turkey. Despite Ataturk's legacy, secularism is not engrained in Turkish culture. Islam enjoys public preference and secularism has to be and will continue to have to be (imperfectly) enforced. While there is no formal freedom of religion, there are implementation difficulties and lack of representation of religious minorities in state apparatus. It is a fact that the role of religion is not settled in Turkey, and will not be for a long time.'
The Kemalists managed to enforce secularism via a Constitutional Court
which was established in 1962 and backed by the military. In the last resort,
the military would mount a coup to take control, implement whatever measures
were necessary to restore order, before returning the country back to the
control of an elected government [there have been coups in 1960, 1980, a 'post
modern' coup in 1997 when the military orchestrated opposition to the Islamist
government and brought it down, and in alleged 'e-coup' in 2007 with the
publication by the military of an online manifesto].
The military has conducted several purges of the armed forces and
between January 1995 and August 2000 745 officers were expelled for ideological
reasons. When the mayor of Sincan called for the reintroduction of Sharia at an
anti-Israeli demonstration attended by the Iranian ambassador who gave an
anti-Western speech, the army responded by sending an armoured column through
the centre of Sincan. The mayor was arrested and the Iranian ambassador was
deported.
The Constitutional Court has more recently been reformed with many new
members appointed by both parliament and the president, and its powers have
been amended. The military has been subordinated to the control of elected
politicians as part of the process of EU accession. Paradoxically, the
Kemalists who had originally favoured membership of the EU as part of their
Europeanization ideals, have become sceptical given that membership requires
the removal of the military control and that of the Constitutional Court which
have guaranteed Turkish secularism; meanwhile, the Islamists have become keener
on membership, to which they had originally been hostile, as a means of
removing the power of the military and that of the Constitutional Court, and
thus enable them to pursue their Islamist objectives unfettered. In EU circles,
the Kemalist elite are seen as an obstacle to Turkey's admission into the EU.
More than 20 political parties have been banned since the 1960s. In
1998, the Welfare Party was banned for
failing to respect secularist principles. The party leader and five other lost
their political rights for a period of five years. The successor Islamist Party
of Virtuousness, which had won 15.4% of the votes in the following general
election, was likewise banned with several more parliamentarians losing their
rights and the party's assets being seized. It was out of this ban that the
current Turkish prime minister, Erdogan and Gul [now prime minister and
president respectively], having served 4 months in prison, split and formed the
Justice and Development Party [AKP], which was defined as a 'republican Muslim
party'. The AKP members styled themselves as 'Muslim Democrats' to mirror the
Christian Democrats in European countries. The AKP won an absolute majority in
a general election of 2002 following an economic crisis in which 2million
people had lost their jobs. This
majority enabled the AKP to change the constitution.
Erdogan himself is a committed Islamist, although a reformer too. He
has made anti-Semitic comments. When mayor of Istanbul he tried to ban alcohol
and also tried to segregate men and women on public transport. He has further
previously stated that it is impossible to be secular and a Muslim. The AKP has
been subject to investigation by the Constitutional Court, but escaped a ban
due to an insufficient majority. The Constitutional Court overturned the AKP's
attempt to lift the ban on headscarves at universities.
50% of the Turkish workforce is employed in agriculture. There are more
than 3million farms, the overwhelming majority of which are small with many
barely able to support their owners. The admission of Turkey into the EU would
increase the number of farms in the EU by 41% and almost double the
agricultural workforce. If Turkey's agriculture were to be modernized under the
CAP then there would be a major release of workers from agriculture who would
seek employment elsewhere and would need to exploit the EU's free movement
rules.
In 2003, in 3 regions in eastern Anatolia incomes ranged from between
7% and 16% of the EU average. Living standards in eastern and southeastern
Anatolia, roughly 20million people, are comparable to Africa with an annual
income of $400-500 per capita and in 2007 it was estimated that 539,000 people
were close to starvation.
In the period 1995-2000, GDP per capita in terms of purchasing power
parity remained at around 28% of the EU average. In 2003, 20% of households
received only 6% of the total disposable income, while the richest 20% received
48%. The income level in the eastern part of Turkey was only 53% of national
average, and between 20% and 50% of national average for 3 regions in eastern
Anatolia.
On admission to the EU, Turkey would be the largest country
geographically and with a population of 75million would be the largest after
Germany in population size. 10% of the EU's population would be Turkish on
accession. The high birth rate means that the Turkish population would become
the largest in the foreseeable future and is forecast to reach 99-106million by
2050.
In rural areas, 44% of women are illiterate and in urban areas the
figure is 76%. Arranged marriages are the norm in rural areas and it is not
uncommon that the couples do not even know each other before their wedding. One
of Erdogan's reforms is that changes to the penal code mean that rapists can no
longer escape prosecution by marrying their victims. Up until 2005 those who
committed gang rape would not be prosecuted if one of them married their
victim. Rape is now designated a violation of personal rights and not simply as
an offence against social morality. In 2012, Turkey ratified the Council of
Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and
domestic violence.
Nevertheless, Erdogan remains an Islamist. He has condemned abortion as
'murder'. He has stated that Turkish women should have 5 children each. He is
opposed to caesarean operations as they limit women to 2 children only. There
have been demonstrations in response with women chanting: 'AKP, keep your hands
off my body'. AKP supporters are promoted in preference to secularists, for
example in the judiciary.
The present unrest in Turkey should be viewed sympathetically as that
country tries to reconcile its Kemalist urban sections of its population with
the fundamentalist and poorer rural population, during a period of
constitutional change. One century after Kemal Ataturk began the process of
trying to transform Turkey into being a secular European country, the country
is still riven by its Islamist instincts.
The policy, keenly advanced by the Tories, to get Turkey into the EU is
grossly irresponsible and is not in the interests of this country. The Tory
policy to supposedly control immigration is completely irreconcilable with the
determination to bring Turkey into the EU and keep Britain a member of the EU.
In truth, Tory policy is not only to maintain mass immigration but to increase
it dramatically.
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