FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
========================================== ======
Thursday 28 June 2007
TURKEY: WHAT CHANCE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN TURKEY’S ELECTIONS?
Turkey is due to hold parliamentary elections on 22 July, which will have
a crucial impact on the presidential election due in autumn. Both elections
will strongly influence the chances of greater freedom of thought,
conscience and belief, Otmar Oehring of the German Catholic charity Missio
< /missio-ueber-sich/leitthemen/menschenrechte/index .html>
notes. Turkish religious minorities Forum 18 News Service has spoken to are
highly concerned about the outcome of the elections. For, as Dr Oehring
observes in this personal commentary for Forum 18 <;,
Turks who want to see genuine freedom of thought, conscience and religion
have little expectation that either the parliamentary or presidential
election will bring any improvement. No political party with any chance of
gaining real power wants either to tackle the dangerous media intolerance
of religious minorities or to take the dramatic changes necessary to usher
in genuine religious freedom.
TURKEY: WHAT CHANCE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN TURKEY’S ELECTIONS?
By Otmar Oehring, Head of the Human Rights Office of Missio
<;
No Turkish presidential candidate has been found who is acceptable to both
parliament and the "deep state," the nationalist circles in the army,
police, National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) secret police and state
administration which regard themselves as the custodians of the Ataturkist
legacy. Turkey is now due to hold parliamentary elections on 22 July, which
may have crucial impact on the presidential election. A presidential
election is due in autumn 2007, but no firm date for this has been set. At
the time of the failed presidential election earlier this year, debate was
fierce on what role Islam should play in the state. This debate remains
unresolved, with both sides as far apart as ever.
Politicians have been preoccupied with the political crisis over the
failure of parliament and the "deep state" to agree a new president,
leaving President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to continue until a new candidate is
agreed, most probably in September. No senior politicians have shown any
interest in granting greater freedom of thought, conscience and belief to
non-Muslim religious minorities. Debate has instead focused on whether the
governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) is a party in line with
Turkey’s interpretation of secularism.
Religious minorities face increasing threats of physical violence. Murders
of religious minority leaders have been increasing – one Catholic priest in
2006 (see F18News 26 July 2006
< e_id=817>) and three Protestants
in April 2007. Turkish Christians have told Forum 18 that a key factor in
these murders is the overt intolerance of non-Muslim minorities promoted by
the media – and that unless this is tackled, more murders will take place.
Politicians have made no serious attempt to tackle this serious threat to
freedom of thought, conscience and religion (see forthcoming F18News
article).
The one major religious minority that has not suffered violence or been
excluded from the political process are the Alevi Muslims, who make up
about 20 per cent of the population. However, they have faced
discrimination over recent years and their right to be accepted as a
religious community independent of the state-run Sunni Muslim majority
community has never been accepted by the Turkish state (see F18News 12
October 2005 < 670> and 26
July 2006 < 817>).
Several political parties of differing views are trying to recruit Alevis
as candidates in the forthcoming election. The governing AKP has tried to
entice leading members of the Cem Foundation, the Alevi body closest to the
government, to become candidates. Most of the main parties view the Alevis
not as a religious minority whose right to religious freedom should be
respected, but as a source of votes.
The optimism that many in Turkey and Europe had in 2006 and earlier that
the political establishment was ready to begin tackling the discrimination
against non-Muslim minorities has disappeared (see F18News 18 January 2007
< e_id=901>). Why has nothing
happened?
It could be because of the election campaign – no-one has the time or the
interest to promote the rights of people in religious minorities. Even AKP
politicians, who might be in favour of EU accession despite the freedoms
for non-Muslim communities this may bring, see EU accession – if it happens
– as taking place in the distant future. During the election campaign the
AKP has behaved as nationalistically as other parties, so it will not
commit itself to doing anything for non-Muslim minorities. These are seen
by many Turks – and are depicted in the mass media – as traitors or as
alien people in Turkey.
Religious minorities Forum 18 has spoken to are highly concerned about
what the outcome of the parliamentary elections will be – and about who
will also take over as President. This is because the outcome of the
elections will be a major factor in determining the chances of greater
freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Turkey. Opinion polls
currently put the AKP ahead of the other parties. Indeed, all the major
parties likely to get seats in the new parliament are nationalistic, with
varying levels of hostility to non-Muslims.
If the AKP wins the parliamentary elections, this could mean that it held
two-thirds of seats in parliament, which would give it the power to pass
changes to the Constitution in an Islamist direction. Whoever becomes the
President might veto these changes, which makes the election of a new
President another major factor in determining the chances of greater
freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Turkey.
The way the new President will be elected has proved highly controversial.
According to the law passed by parliament with AKP backing on 31 May 2007,
this should be by popular vote but President Sezer rejected this. With
parliament and president at a stand-off, the issue is now to be put to a
referendum, though no date has been set. If the AKP wins the parliamentary
elections, they will probably present Abdullah Gül again as their candidate
for President. If an AKP candidate is elected President, this would allow
the AKP to introduce constitutional changes, in the knowledge that an AKP
President would not veto them. Nobody however knows what the army and wider
"deep state" would do, if that happened.
The "deep state" has a well-known commitment to "defending" the Ataturkist
"secularist" heritage, as it sees it. And in Turkey, "secularism" means
Islam being a branch of the state and no other religious community –
including Muslim minorities – having legal status as a religious community
(see F18News 22 November 2006
< e_id=875>).
When the army General Staff issued a statement in late April 2007
defending Turkey’s "secular" system and describing itself as the "absolute
defender of secularism" this was interpreted as a "cold coup". However, it
was also a sign of its weakness – it seems the army no longer felt able to
launch a real coup. The AKP government led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan merely carried on as before. It presents itself as no longer being
afraid of anyone and ready to do what it wants without looking over its
shoulder.
In reality, Erdogan has shown that he has heard the army’s warning that it
wants to decide on matters it considers vital for Turkey. On two occasions
Erdogan stated that politicians would not oppose the army, if it decided to
invade Iraq. After stating this for the first time, he denied saying it –
but then said it again. Erdogan has also indicated that his fellow
politicians would not oppose other decisions of the army leadership.
The mass demonstrations against the AKP in April and May 2007 did not
necessarily show that large parts of the population wanted Turkey to become
more open and democratic. Many of the demonstrators were supporters of
rival parties, some of them just as nationalist in outlook as the AKP.
Indeed, it seems the Republican People’s Party (CHP) stirred up many of the
protests. Party members see themselves as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s heirs,
even if it is doubtful that he would recognise them as such.
Some of the protest organisers and demonstrators certainly did want Turkey
to be less nationalist and more open and democratic, including the small
minority who want Turkey to have genuine freedom of thought, conscience and
belief. But those who demonstrated consisted of people who had no one
unified goal: old Kemalists who are anti-EU and xenophobic to varying
degrees; secularists who are afraid of any Islamist project; intellectuals
who do not share a Kemalist worldview; anti-AKP and anti-Islamist
Westernisers.
Turkey’s Western-oriented intellectuals think that if Turkey continues
with negotiations over EU accession, this will not only benefit them but
will help promote democratic change. However, they are acutely aware that
they are becoming an ever dwindling minority.
If the AKP does take over both the parliament and the presidency, it is
still unknown how it will behave. Will it go down the Islamist road or
carry on with the European project? It seems that Erdogan and his current
foreign minister (and AKP presidential candidate) Abdullah Gul have both
moved away from their Islamist background. Yet this still remains unknown.
And even if the AKP does not take over the parliament and presidency, the
majority of those who oppose the AKP are – apart from the true democrats –
mainly xenophobic nationalists.
If other parties come to power in the elections, the already tight
controls and restrictions on religious minorities (and indeed on Islam) are
highly unlikely to be loosened. The other parties are more nationalistic
than the AKP and so even less willing to do anything to improve conditions
for non-Muslim minorities. If they were willing to ease the restrictions on
non-Muslim minorities, there would be pressure for them to also loosen the
subordination in law and practice of Islam to the state (see F18News 22
November 2006 < 875>). These
parties certainly do not want this.
The AKP has done little practical to help non-Muslim communities since it
came to power (see F18News 18 January 2007
< e_id=901>). But some in Turkey,
including the head of the Armenian Church, Patriarch Mesrop, still see a
new AKP government – theoretically committed to pursuing the EU application
– as the only hope within Turkish politics for even slight improvements.
Those Turks who want to see genuine freedom of thought, conscience and
religion have little expectation that either the parliamentary or
presidential election will bring any improvement. No political party with
any chance of gaining real power wants either to tackle the dangerous media
intolerance of religious minorities or to take the dramatic changes
necessary to usher in genuine religious freedom. (END)
– Dr Otmar Oehring, head of the human rights office of Missio
< /missio-ueber-sich/leitthemen/menschenrechte/index .html>,
a Catholic charity based in Germany, contributed this comment to Forum 18
News Service. Commentaries are personal views and do not necessarily
represent the views of F18News or Forum 18.
More analyses and commentaries on religious freedom in Turkey can be found
at <; religion=all&country=68>
A printer-friendly map of Turkey is available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=mideast&Rootmap=turk ey>
(END)
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