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Guarding Ataturk's Legacy In the past two months, millions of Turkish men and women of all ages have been seen peacefully protesting in defence of secularism in cities across Turkey. It's a remarkable sight: massive demonstrations of Turkish Muslims publicly opposing the threat of creeping Islamization in their country. Turkey, with a population estimated at 75 million, is a state that arose from the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire following the First World War. Its modern history is largely the legacy of one man, Mustafa Kemal, who made a nation out of a defeated and demoralized people. Ataturk (Father of Turks), a surname Mustafa Kemal took for himself, was a revolutionary in an age of revolution that began with the Bolsheviks under Lenin seizing power in Moscow in October 1917. But unlike Lenin, Ataturk was a nationalist and his revolution was not for some imagined unknown future socialist utopia. Ataturk willed for Turkey a future whose shape and content had already been mapped out in Europe over the past two centuries of industrial revolutions and democratic reforms, preceded by the struggles of Reformation and Enlightenment that proved to be fatal for a decrepit Ottoman Empire. Ataturk died in 1938 at the relatively young age of 58. The Turkey he left behind was a republic and secular democracy. Ataturk's revolution came to be known as Kemalism, and its guardians became the senior generals of the Turkish military. Kemalism made Turkey the first Muslim country to unambiguously embrace the modern idea of secular democracy and reject the authority of Muslim clerics supervising the rule of sharia (Islamic laws). With the passage of time, Kemalism softened somewhat, and the majority of Turks who never entirely abandoned Islam sought political recognition of their faith tradition from the Kemalist state. In May 1999, however, conflict broke out between the military and Necmettin Erbakan's Virtue party. When Merve Kavakci, Erbakan's hand-picked female candidate, won a parliamentary seat and wore a head scarf into the chamber, she was greeted with outrage. Later she was stripped of her Turkish citizenship on a technicality (she was also a U.S. citizen, which hadn't been disclosed prior to her election), and was ousted from parliament. Suleyman Demirel, Turkey's president, commented that the Kavakci incident was "a symbol of bigger things, with its roots in fundamentalism." Turkey has been haunted since 1979 by the spectre of the Islamic revolution in Iran. And, ironically, once again the head scarf has ignited a constitutional crisis, bringing millions of Turks into the streets to defend secularism. The present government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his mildly Islamic-oriented Justice and Development party nominated Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul for the presidency. The wives of both Erdogan and Gul wear head scarves, and secularists read this nomination as a further encroachment--however mild in Turkey's closely monitored secular environment--of political Islam into the public sphere. Opposition to Gul's nomination carried the day and his nomination was withdrawn. The government then called for a parliamentary election four months ahead of schedule in July. Erdogan also proposed controversial constitutional amendments to have the state president elected by the public instead of by parliament, a move many fear would lead to further encroachment of religion into the affairs of the state. The amendments were vetoed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the retiring head of state. Existing laws forbid a second presidential veto; Erdogan has indicated he will resubmit his amendments to the new parliament. The military generals for their part have let it be known they will protect the secular nature of the state, and should Erdogan push ahead with his amendments, the probability of a confrontation between the military and politicians is real. A large segment of Turks, perhaps a majority, would likely stand behind military action to oust an elected government this time around. The present political crisis in Turkey underscores the principle that republican democracy is a system of rule based on constitutional arrangements, and not merely rule by a simple majority of elected representatives. Kemalism has assisted Turkey's transition into the modern world, and though Turkey still has some distance to go, its military guards Ataturk's most important legacy of strict separation of politics and religion. Turkey's Muslim neighbours are depressing examples of what occurs when religion and politics are joined together, or cannot be kept apart.
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