Politics and Religion in Turkey - Case Study Example

Politics and Religion in Turkey Introduction Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was later honored with the title Ataturk or "Father of the Turks." Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms (Turkey, 2009) Turkey has continued the one party rule till 1950 and the multi-party system was introduced in Turkey in the 1950’s. But even the multi-party system failed to establish a true democracy in Turkey and as a result of it, military has captured the control of Turkey many times in between 1950 to 1997. But thereafter Turkey seems to be settling down even though it has witnessed the emergence of lot of Islamic parties into the political spectrum of Turkey. Because of its location astride Europe and Asia, Turkey is a country of immense strategic importance. It is commonly referred as a Eurasian country. Geographically, Turkey is located in between Southeastern Europe and Southwestern Asia (that portion of Turkey west of the Bosporus is geographically part of Europe), bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria(Turkey, 2009) Turks and Kurds are the major ethnic groups in Turkey. Turkey is a parliamentary democratic even since the country became a republic in 1923. More than 99% of Turkish population is Muslims. Sunnis are majority in number whereas Shias community is also constitutes a significant portion of the Turkish population. Different types of Christian communities and Judaism are also there in Turkey, but small in number. Another interesting aspect of Turkey is that even with such a huge Muslim domination in population, still Turkey is a secular state with no official religion and treating all religions equally. Even though some of the Islamic group has started some agitation in order to make Turkey a Muslim state, the government was able to control and calm down such agitations at the beginning of the twenty first century. Turkey has tried to join the European Union (EU), but some of the members of EU has expressed their concern over giving Turkey the membership, because of the Christian domination in the EU community. The claim of Turkey as a secular state has been criticized by some of the members of the EU community because of Turkey’s bias towards Sunnis and discrimination towards all other religions. This paper briefly analyses the history of Islamic parties in Turkey, the connection between religion and politics in Turkey, the difficulties of Turkey government in joining the EU etc. The history of Islamic parties in Turkey Most of the political parties in Turkey even though, they functioned in a democratic manner were corrupted which made the way clear for the entry of Islamic parties. Islamic parties have acquired strength in Turkey at the later stages of twentieth century. Since 1990 onwards Turkey has witnessed the strengthening of Islamic parties over the traditional parties and the military establishments. Islamist Refah (Welfare) is one of the prominent Islamic parties in Turkey at present even though they failed to achieve majority in the parliament elections single handedly. ‘At national elections in October 1991, the Islamist Refah (Welfare) was returned as the largest party, though lacking an overall majority. This caused some consternation both inside and outside the country. The other major political parties at present are Dogru Yol Partisi (DYP, True Path), Anavatan Partisi (AP, Motherland) and Demokratik Sol Partisi (DSP, Democratic Left). Compared to other political parties Refah, was notable for its relative probity and administrative competence. It drew substantial support from both the urban and rural poor’ (Turkey History, 2009) Apart from Refah, another major Islamic party is turkey is Felicity party. It represents the conservative Muslim population in Turkey which argues strongly in favor of making turkey an Islamic country. It was founded in 2001. The independent Turkey party is another Islamic political party in Turkey founded again in 2001. Even though this party enjoys only a minimum percentage of votes in the political elections, it has caught the attention of the public because of their ideologies and views about making Turkey an Islamic state. Islamic party of Kurdistan is supposed to be the oldest Islamic parties in Turkey. It was formed in 1979 and their operations are watched suspiciously by others. Even though not listed yet among active terrorist organizations, this party’s actions are indigestible to external political observers. One of the major differences between Turkish Islamic parties and that of the other Islamic parties in other countries is the difference in their political views. Turkish people are more civilized compared to other Islamic societies and hence their views have significant differences to that of their counterparts in other Islamic states. Even though Turkey is a country which is dominated by Muslims, most of the Islamic parties are not engaged in any sort of anti-social behaviors. The state’s interests have given top priority over their religious interests by most of these parties even though there are certain exceptions. The changing of Turkey's religions in the political way In order to safeguard the political and economical interests, Turkey has realized that they need to implement major changes in their religious activities. As everybody knows, the Muslim dominated Turkish culture is keen in shaping the future of Turkey with respect to Islamic perspectives. But such changes may severely affect the growth prospects of Turkey. Most of the Muslim perspectives with respect to growth and developments of a country are traditional and needs drastic changes in order to accommodate the needs of the changing world. “The more Turkey is becoming attractive globally, with its proactive foreign policy, soft power, cultural identity, a secular regime in a dominantly Muslim population, achieving the coexistence of Islam with modernity, democracy and free market norms, the more it is also becoming a socially and politically polarized country, facing the problem of institutional and middle-class based conflicts and clashes” (Changing Turkey, 2009) Turkey is trying to polish their face through Islamic resurgence, in order to achieve a place in EU. They are trying desperately to achieve a balance between religion and secularism. Political analysts have still doubts about the co-existence of democracy and Islam. The reason is that history has not supported the coexistence of Islam and democracy yet. In most of the Islamic countries, still true democracy is a distant dream. Middle East countries are best examples for this. Even in the case of Pakistan, the above fact is true; democracy is prevailing for name sake alone in Pakistan. “Turkey offers an excellent example of a case study for those seeking answers to the following questions: Can Islam and democracy coexist? How far can religion and secularism be reconciled? To what extent can religious liberty, particularly freedom of religious expression, be extended in a secular state with a majority Muslim population? How does a Muslim majority address the problems of non-Muslim minorities? (Understanding state, society and religion in Turkey, 2006) “Despite the secularization efforts and the restrictions on religious practices, Islam has remained one of the major identity references in Turkey and it continues to be an influential social reality, shaping the fabric of Turkish society. The equation between being a Turk and being a Muslim is a hallmark of Turkish identity” (Understanding state, society and religion in Turkey, 2006) It is impossible to isolate Islam from Turkish culture even if they engage in face saving measures to convince the EU community for the membership. Even after a century of westernization process, though Turkey has changed a lot compared to other Islamic states, still the roots of Islamic culture and traditions are prevailing in Turkish community. It is a fact that Turkish public has lot of changes compared to their counterparts in either the Middle Eastern Islamic countries or Pakistan like countries. These changes can be attributed to the close proximity of Turkey to other civilized European countries and also their strong desire to achieve a membership in EU. Modern Western societies are generally recognized as secular. Generally, there is near- freedom of religion; religion does not dictate political decisions. Religious influence is also largely minimized in the public sphere, and religion no longer holds the same importance in people's lives as it used to. Today Muslim countries and societies are in the focal point of political observations as the religion seems to be the main obstacle on the way to a sustainable democracy and promotion of human rights. Turkey is the only democratic country among the Muslim countries which prescribes laicité in its constitution. The word laicité implies secularism in French. (The Role of Religion in Law and Politics: Turkish Secularism, n.d) The difficulties of Turkey government in joining the EU Since 1963, Turkey is working as an associate member of the European community even though they are working hard for attaining full membership. “Membership talks were symbolically opened in October 2005 but a number of stumbling blocks remain on the road to Turkey's EU accession, in particular concerning trade links with Cyprus, freedom of expression and the rights of the Kurdish minority” (EU-Turkey relations, 2004) Turkey is very much interested in joining European Union (EU) because of the immense benefits such a membership can provide to the development of Turkish economy. But some of their domestic and foreign policies are serving as major obstacles in their path towards attaining an EU membership. Moreover, some of the EU member states were not much interested in granting membership to Turkey because of their strong concerns over what is going on in Turkey. EU community is a Christian dominated club and the entry of Turkey, even though it is proclaimed as a secular democratic state, is not acceptable to some the member states. They believe that Turkey will become an Islamic state in near future itself and it might be difficult for Turkey to keep its secular ideologies intact. These states which protest against the entry of Turkey in EU, argue that Turkey need to implement more reformation in the country in order to respect human right issues and freedom of expression right. “The European Commission's annual progress report on Turkey's bid to join the European Union will have been welcome reading for the Turkish government. It was largely positive, stressing important steps on reforms to improve freedom of expression, efforts to resolve the conflict with Kurdish rebels and significant diplomatic initiatives, like improving relations with Armenia” (Turkey sees growing reservations over EU bid, 2009) ‘Two human rights monitoring organizations supported by the EU, Amnesty International and Helsinki Watch, have reported the persistence of practices such as arbitrary arrests, disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture in prisons, and censorship in Turkey. Even the Turkish Human Rights Association, itself is accused Turkey for the harassment and intimidation tactics. It has prepared detailed lists of human rights abuses, including the destruction of entire villages without due process, and has circulated these reports widely in Europe. The documented reports of human rights abuses, has raised major questions about Turkey's qualifications to join a collective body of countries that have striven to achieve uniform standards for protecting citizen rights’ (European Union, n.d) “Currently, various EU members are blocking 15 of the 35 chapters - areas where reforms may be necessary to bring a country in line with EU legislation - that Turkey must complete to achieve membership. With only a handful of chapters remaining, the entire process is threatening to grind to a halt” (Turkey sees growing reservations over EU bid, 2009). EU has some well defined norms and regulations for admitting a country into their community. They are so particular about keeping the stature of European Union. They don’t want any of their member state to be accused for human right violations in their country. Turkey on the other hand, though very much interested in joining EU, has not done any significant actions yet to convince the EU for the membership. Another major problem on the way of Turkey’s entry into EU is their growing population rate. At present Germany holds the number one spot in EU as far as population is concerned and their population has started to decline also because of the family planning measures taken. On the other hand Turkey’s population is increasing and at a time when Turkey would fulfill all the norms required for the EU entry, their population may surpass the German population and they will become the number one spot in EU with respect to population which is indigestible to the EU members. ‘Turkey's current population is 71 million, and demographers project it to increase to 80-85 million in the next 20 years whereas Germany, which has 83 million people today, may have a population of around 80 million by 2020’(EU-Turkey relations, 2004).Moreover, because of the increasing population rate Turkey’s economic developments have caused major setbacks. Compared to other EU members, Turkey has a weaker economy and their failure in controlling the population made the problem even worst. The most important barrier for Turkey’s entry into EU is the cultural difference Turkey has with their European counterparts. Even though many of the EU member states are secular in nature, most of them are dominated by Christian community. On the other hand Turkey is dominated by Muslim people even though it is a secular state. Culturally and communally there are lot of differences between Christians and Muslims and many of the member states have concerns over the success of establishing a strong tie up with Turkey through European community. As per the norms of EU community, the citizens of member states can freely travel in any of the member countries for employment or other requirements. Unemployment is a major problem for Turkey because of their under developed economy and growing population rate. The entry into EU community will help the unemployed youths to exploit the employment opportunities in other member states which are indigestible to such states. The concern of too many Turkish workers for too few jobs is the social problem of integrating those workers into European culture. (European Union, n.d) “Throughout Western Europe, the early 1990s witnessed a rise in anti-immigrant feeling directed primarily against Muslim workers from North Africa and Turkey” (European Union, n.d). The 9/11 World trade centre attack by Al Qaida militant group has created a strong concern over the immigration issues all over the world. In America like countries the entry of Muslims is accompanied by strict security checkups in the airports. Moreover, in most of the other Christian dominated western countries also the activities of Muslim community is watched suspiciously at present. In short, the integration of Turkey into EU may grant the license to the Muslim people to travel freely in Europe without any barriers or security check ups. Moreover, terrorists can forge their passports and can enter into European countries easily as Turkish citizens in order to execute their missions. These concerns are forcing EU members to argue against the entry of Turkey into EU. It is widely accepted that Turkey holds an important place strategically because of their geographic location. Its boundaries are located in both Europe and Asia which prevent the EU members in considering Turkey as a European country. It is difficult to define the boundaries of Europe considering Turkey as a European state. The future of the divided island of Cyprus has also been a major sticking point. The Council's December 2004 decision entailed a compromise formula on the Cyprus issue, under which the affected sides were expected to work towards a solution to the conflict before the scheduled 3 October 2005 launch of membership talks with Ankara, however conflict still remains unresolved. Cyprus is a decisive factor in the negotiation process. Cyprus demands official recognition by Turkey and access to Turkish harbors and airports. Turkey demands putting an end to the isolation of Northern Cyprus and emphasizes that it was the Greek side of the island that rejected the UN’s plan in 2004(EU-Turkey relations, 2004). The Turkey’s relationship with Cyprus is another obstacle in the Turkish path towards securing a place in EU. Turkey has not recognized Cyprus yet and it is difficult for the EU to function with two members who failed to recognize each other. Conclusions Turkey is a Eurasian country of strategic importance because of its geographic location in between Asia and Europe. Even though, Turkey is a secular democratic state, the prominence of Islamic religion forced outsiders to be suspicious about the nature of democracy prevailing in Turkey. Human right violation issues and censorship over freedom of expression like problems are reported from Turkey which is causing immense harm to Turkey’s strong ambitions of acquiring a full membership status in EU. The problems with Cyprus, underdevelopment of economy, increased population rate and unemployment, cultural differences with other European countries etc are other factors which causing hindrance in the way of Turkey to attain a full membership in EU. Turkey is perhaps the best country to cite for the coexistence of Islamic religion and democracy. Even amidst great challenges from fundamentalists, Turkey was able to keep its secular nature and the westernization process has helped them to remove lot of social evils which may come as part of religious beliefs. Turkey is one of the most civilized countries in the world as far as Muslim dominated countries are concerned. Turkey was able to keep a balance between religion and politics and the careful blend of religion and politics helped them to create a better image about them in the external world. References 1. Changing Turkey, (2009), Changing Turkey in a Changing World, Retrieved 16 October 2009 from http://changingturkey.wordpress.com/page/2/ 2. EU-Turkey relations, (2004), Retrieved 16 October 2009 from http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargement/eu-turkey-relations/article-129678 3. European Union, (n.d), Retrieved 16 October 2009 from http://countrystudies.us/turkey/89.htm 4. The Role of Religion in Law and Politics: Turkish Secularism, (n.d), Retrieved 16 October 2009 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/2/1/1/2/p121122_index.html 5. Turkey, (2009), Retrieved 16 October 2009 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tu.html 6. Turkey History, (2009), Retrieved 16 October 2009 from http://www.iexplore.com/dmap/Turkey/History 7. Turkey sees growing reservations over EU bid, (2009), Retrieved 16 October 2009 from http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4790731,00.html 8. Understanding state, society and religion in Turkey, (2006), Retrieved 16 October 2009 from http://www.setav.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=125&Itemid=29 Read More