[A-List] Turkish Military Issues Threat as Voting Is Derailed

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/world/europe/28turkey.html>
April 28, 2007
Turkish Military Issues Threat as Voting Is Derailed
By SABRINA TAVERNISE

ANKARA, Turkey, Saturday, April 28 — A revolt by Turkey's secular
opposition on Friday derailed the first round of voting on a
presidential candidate with a background in political Islam, and in a
harsh warning, the military hinted that it might act against the
government if it strayed too far from secularism.

The growing tension over the candidate, Abdullah Gul, a close ally of
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has brought Turkey to a defining
moment. Since Mr. Gul's emergence as the sole candidate for president,
a powerful post chosen by parliamentary vote, the country's opposition
and military have warned that his selection would bring an end to the
era of secular modernism that began with the Ataturk revolution in
1923.

The action on Friday began on the floor of Turkey's Parliament, where
all of the country's secular political parties boycotted a vote for
Mr. Gul, a member of Mr. Erdogan's political movement, which has its
roots in Islam. Even with the absence of the opposition, Mr. Gul
received 357 votes, 10 votes short of the two-thirds mark he needed to
be confirmed.

After the boycott and during the voting, the main secular party
applied to the constitutional court to have the vote annulled, arguing
there were too few lawmakers present. If the party prevails and the
court intervenes, it could trigger early nationwide elections.

But more troubling was a statement released by the military shortly
before midnight. In it, the general staff invoked its responsibility
as the defender of Ataturk's legacy of secularism — a thinly veiled
threat, given that the armed forces have ousted four elected
governments in the past 50 years.

"In recent days, the problem during the presidential election has
focused on secularism discussions," the statement read. "This
situation has been anxiously followed by the Turkish Armed Forces. The
Turkish armed forces maintains its firm determination to carry out its
clearly specified duties to protect these principles and has absolute
loyalty and belief in this determination."

The one-and-a-half-page statement went on to list what it called
recent violations against secularism: a Koran class held on National
Day, school principals ordered to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad's
birthday and preaching organized in a public school.

"The fact that a large portion of such activities was conducted with
the consent and approval of local government offices intensifies the
gravity of the issue," the statement said.

It was not clear on Friday night whether the military was prepared to
oust Mr. Erdogan's government if he continued to push Mr. Gul's
candidacy, but the warning was the sharpest it has made in recent
years, and raised questions about whether Mr. Erdogan had stretched
the limits of the secular state too far.

The military issued a similar warning to the government of the
Islamist politician Necmettin Erbakan shortly before he was forced
from power in 1997; he remains under house arrest.

"They will create for the first time in Turkey a very dangerous
situation and upset all the balances," said Onur Oymen, a leader in
the main secular opposition party, of the prospect of Mr. Erdogan's
party controlling the presidency, prime minister's office and
Parliament. "In a country with a Muslim population, you can't have
democracy without secularism."

But in the paradox of modern Turkey, it has been political leaders
like Mr. Gul and Mr. Erdogan, both important thinkers in Turkey's
political Islam movements of the 1990s, who have proved most adept at
modernizing the state.

Mr. Gul, the country's foreign minister, has lobbied tirelessly for
Turkey's membership in the European Union. In the party's four years
in power, the Turkish economy has experienced unprecedented growth.

"This government has been in power for four years and they have done
nothing to put Islam in politics," said Metin Heper, a political
science professor at Bilkent University in Ankara.

European and American diplomats, initially skeptical of the party, now
have signaled no objection to Mr. Erdogan and his allies.

Mr. Gul's chances of being confirmed as president appear strong if the
constitutional court does not intervene or if Mr. Erdogan does not
withdraw him from consideration because of the military's threats. Mr.
Gul faces another round of voting next week. If a third round is
required, a simple majority endorsement by Parliament would be all he
needs — nearly assured, given that his party controls 353 of 554
seats.

Before the vote on Friday morning in the elegant stone Parliament
building here, Mr. Gul's party was trying hard to win over the
opposition. Small pots of rice pudding, Ataturk Forest Farm ice cream
and more than 100 pounds of Turkish delight were handed out. The
treats circulated, but the two camps remained separate: nearly half of
the inner chamber's seats were empty, their secular occupants in a
back room smoking, sipping tea and watching the proceedings on a
flat-screen television.

Turkish society has changed dramatically in the 80 years since the
state was founded, and in many ways the secular party leaders do not
seem to have changed with it.

Ali Bulac, a columnist for a conservative daily newspaper, Zaman, said
that the secular elite "are losing their status, their advantages. So
naturally they will react."

While much of Turkey's secular elite exaggerates the threat of
Islamism to suit their political needs, some secular Turks have strong
arguments for fearing a future in which the devout rank-and-file of
Mr. Erdogan's party enter midlevel government jobs.

Guldal Okutucu, the head of the women's branch of the main opposition
party, said she had documented instances of local officials separating
men from women in hotels and hospitals and at beaches.

"In every place that has life," she said, smoking a cigarette in the
opposition's back room, "we're trying to take action because tomorrow
it might be too late."

Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting.
--
Yoshie