AKP Watch

AKP Watch August 28th, 2007

 A devout Muslim with a background in political Islam won the Turkish presidency on Tuesday, in a major triumph for the Islamic-rooted government after months of confrontation with the secular establishment.

Turkey: Back to the Past 

“A person who has defied the (secular) republic, who has said he finds it to be wrong, is about to move to the top of the state. This is a contradiction,” said Deniz Baykal, leader of the secular opposition. His party boycotted the vote on Tuesday and has said it would not take part in some state occasions, including presidential ceremonies.

Islamist Takeover Completed 

Now Islamofascist AK Party (aka AKP) has completed the takeover of Turkey’s top posts, allowing it to move ahead with an Islamisation programme. AK Party already working on a more islamic constitution proposal which removes all references to founding principles of Turkish Republic set by Atatürk. On the hand, a new draft of education reform appeared in newspapers which removes headscarfe ban and Islamise curriculum in the schools.

Secular Turkey is under thread 

Meanwhile Army forces issued a warning in eve of Gül’s presidency: “Our nation has been watching the behavior of those separatists who can’t embrace Turkey’s unitary nature, and centers of evil that systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish republic,” General Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the military, said in a statement posted to the military’s Web site Monday.

Turkey’s First Islamofascist Führer

Recently, Bekir Coskun, a prominent secular-minded columnist, wrote that he would not feel comfortable calling Mr. Gul “my president.” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would not tolerate such criticism. “Some say that [Mr. Gul] cannot be their president,” he said. “If they can say such things, first, they need to have their Turkish citizenship revoked. They can go wherever they want, and elect whomever they want.” Soon, Mr. Coskun received death threats.

• AK Party , AKP , Erdogan , Gül , Islamofascism , Secularism , Turkey
• Comments(0)

AKP Watch August 27th, 2007

America’s prominent weekly Newsweek’s International Edition covered raising Islamisation in Turkey. The article “The End of Secularism” written by Soner Cagaptay, a leading scholar in Turkish Politics and a senior fellow in Washington Institute.

In his article, Dr. Cagaptay expressed a deeply concern about the future of secularism in Turkey and wrote on his article:

But given the direction in which Turkey’s headed, it [secularism] could well become a history

For after some 80 years, Turkish secularism is withering away.

According to Dr. Cagaptay, election of Islamist Gul as President, Islamisation shall accelerate:

Now the AKP, a party with an Islamist pedigree, seems set to elect its foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, as president. Once marginal, Turkey’s Islamists have become mainstream, and the consequences could prove enormous.

Dr. Capaptay concludes his article with a dim outlook :

The AKP is unlikely to end Turkish secularism overnight. Gradually, however, religion will assume a larger and larger place in the country’s politics and society. Turkey will become a more Islamic society in its foreign-policy outlook and culture. Anti-Western sentiments will grow. Headscarves, religious education and the rejection of alcohol will become more common. The Turkey of old will slowly disappear, leaving in its place a profoundly different—and potentially much more unstable—nation.

• AK Party , AKP , Gül , Islamisation , Secularism , Turkey
• Comments(0)

AKP Watch August 20th, 2007

“This is the end of the republican period,” Mr Gül says flatly. “If 60 per cent of Ankara’s population is living in shacks, then the secular system has failed and we definitely want to change it.”

These are the words of the next to-be president, Abdullah Gül, of Turkey during an interview with The Guardian journalist Jonathan Rugman, and it was published on November 27, 1995.

After having run three Islamist political parties that were shutdown by the secular judicial system (those decisions were also approved by European Human Rights Court in response to appeals by Abdullah Gül and others), the current Islamist ruling party, AKP, is the fourth attempt, and it has developed a completely different strategy in order to be able to survive in secular democratic system by hiding its ultimate Islamist, anti Atatürk agenda.

With the lessons learned from previous three unsuccessful Islamist parties, AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (RTE) and other younger generation Islamist politicians have adopted a much smarter strategy to gain the power and execute their agenda to transform Turkey into an Islamist state while not being shut down again.

RTE and his company founded AKP in 2001, and won the general election one year later by loudly stating that they had changed and they were not followers of the three previous Islamist parties although they were all founders and high-ranking managers of those previous parties as well.

Not long time ago did they express their long lasting pro radical Islamist thoughts about various subjects, while they would soon, two or three years later, be adopting the new language of change, which is completely contrary to their almost three decades of political standing.

We want to put here some of these words that, in addition to Mr. Gül’s statement above, they said just before the new strategy has been adopted under the roof of the new Islamist party:

“Mosques are our barracks, domes our helmets, minarets our bayonets, believers our soldiers.” – RTE, 6 December 1997

“Democracy is not an aim but a means to an end.” – RTE

“We will turn all our schools into İmam Hatips [religious schools]” — RTE, Sept. 9, 1994

“Thank God Almighty, I am a servant of the Shari‘a.”— RTE, Nov. 21, 1994

“I am the imam of Istanbul.” — RTE, Jan. 8, 1995

“Democracy is like a train, we shall get out when we arrive at the station we want.” – RTE

Defying European Human Rights Court Decision on Headscarf Ban; PM RTE:
“Ulema, Not Courts, Have Right to Speak on Headscarf”
(Ulema: the arbiters of shari‘a law)

Defying Turkish Higher Court Decision on Headscraft Ban; PM RTE:
“Gentleman, what do you think who you’re? mecelle (shari’a law) may decide.”

There are many other these kinds of expressions against the spirit of the separation of the state and religion. It would be very naive to expect anybody to believe that they have changed and they now truly believe in democracy and its fundamentals such as secularism. They generally take subtle steps to undermine secular system but they in some occasions push for big steps up until there become significant public opposition and presidential veto.

One of such steps was to change the education system in the favor of religion. In May 2004, PM Erdoğan pushed an educational-reform bill that would have eased entry of religious-school graduates into Turkey’s university system. After the veto of President Sezer, the Turkish general staff — which has constitutional rights as defenders of secularism and the constitution — balked, forcing the AKP to shelve in order to prevent RTE from being sent the same bill to President again in which case President Sezer would have had to sign it into law since President cannot veto the same bill if the congress passes it without any change.

With the accumulation of significant power after the July 22nd general election, RTE have the chance to have his close friend elected as the next President of Turkey so that he can turn his power into an unchecked one, and he can get bills like education-reform bill signed into law without any difficulty and public debate. Unfortunately, Turkey’s absence of checks and balances is going to be observed dramatically in coming years. It may cause either significant diversion from Atatürk’s reforms or ending up with another military intervention since armed forces has constitutional rights to protect Atatürk’s reforms, especially secularism.

• AKP , Gül , Islamist , Islamofascism , Turkey
• Comments(0)

AKP Watch August 13th, 2007

Turkey’s ruling Islamic-oriented AK Party decided on Monday to re-submit Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, an Islamist, as its candidate for president, party sources said.

Modernists oppose Gül because of his Islamist views and the fact his wife wears the Muslim head scarf. Gül, who denies any Islamist agenda as a part of Islamic-leaning AK Party’s Takiyye strategy, has already signaled he wants to run again.

 The leader of the modernist-secularist opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) reiterated his objections to Gul’s candidacy, based upon Gül Islamic hidden agenda: “Gul is a conscious member of an ideological circle [of islamofascism],” opposition leader Deniz Baykal told CNN Turk television.

“Turkey would become a country in which the political balances were changing very fast, in which the Middle East identity would become more pronounced.” “It is not appropriate to have a president who has problems with the founding philosophy of the Modern Turkish Republic,” said Baykal.

The job of president is critical to overall control of the state. The post is largely ceremonial, but the incumbent has the power to veto legislative bills and government appointments. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the current president, often frustrated the government by blocking its initiatives.

Onur Oymen, a senior member of the Republican People’s Party (aka CHP), said Gul’s candidacy amounted to a serious threat to the secular principles of the country.

“Gul’s candidacy was not expected to contribute to peace and stability in the country,” Oymen told private NTV television after the decision was announced.

Gul’s wife wears an Islamic style headscarf, which many secular Turks regard as a symbol of political Islam and use as a reason why he should not become president.

Baykal, however, said the outfit of Gul’s wife was not the real problem.

“In my opinion, the outfits of his wife is not an issue. Any one who can give confidence about the inside of his head can be” a candidate, Baykal said.

PS: Takkiye, Turkish form of the Arabic taqīya: “fear, caution, prudence; (in Shiitic Islam) dissimulation of one’s religion (under duress or in the face of threatening damage).”

• AKP , Gül , Islamofascism , Turkey
• Comments(0)