The news that 1.5 million people took the streets of downtown Izmir, Turkey's third largest city, yesterday is making headlines around the world. People even came in from boats to the harbor, and several others flew or bused in from other cities, even Istanbul and Ankara. Zeki Fuat Gencpinar, a shopkeeper in Izmir, told the Turkish newspaper "Hurriyet" that he quickly sold out of all Turkish flags in stock. Protestors waved Turkish flags to symbolize that Turkey must remain secular in accordiance with the republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
I was startled to see western journalists and intellectuals actually defend Muslim conservative P.M. Tayyip Recep Erdogan and foreign minister Abdullah Gul. While neither men are dangerous in the Teheran sense, they do not represent a progressive agenda for Turkey's future and could harpoon efforts for Turkish entry into the European Union. But, both Claire Berlinski in "The Washington Post" (sunday edition) and Dilip Hipo in the liberal online journal "TomDispatch," criticized efforts by the military and the civilian populous to stand up to these arch conservative figures in Ankara!
I will be the first to admit that Turkey is a very complicated country. And, in fact, it is a bit awkward for a political liberal like me to support nationalist secularists. But, unlike this country where nationalist conservatives and religious conservatives are united that is NOT the case in Turkey. Thus, I can guarantee that MANY people with my political views joined in the protests, which have also occured not only in Istanbul and Ankara, but also smaller cities like the Aegean port of Channakkale. "Huriyet" said that even former Greek PM Konstantins Michotakis has verbally said that he would like to see a secularist take the presidency as opposed to Gul, the most likely candidate to replace current outgoing president Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
One of the major issues is the fact that both Gul and Erdogan's wife wear headscarves, and in Turkey that is viewed as a political statement. As strange as that may seem, I fully understand this viewpoint all too well. Historically, it goes back to the 1920s when Ataturk said that women should no longer wear headscarves in public. It may seem like an imposition for Ankara to want women not to wear headscarves (the law actually prohibits women from wearing headscarves in govt. offices and universities), but assuredly if hard line Muslims have their way then women could be forced to wear headscarves and/or veils in Turkey. It is thus an issue.
A BBC comment site had viewpoints from all over the world. Musafa Cankart of Izmir said he and his wife participated in the protests. He added that his wife was concerned about what a president with a conservative Muslim agenda could mean for the women of Turkey. Ceyhun Ozturk of Istanbul added the current Erdogan govt. has tried to sneak in Islamic rule to secularism. And, Ismail Tepedag of Bursa, gave another perspective as he said that the PM was no threat to secularism and that the protestors did not represent the majority of Turkish people- a view I personally disagree with.
Arthur Pomer of Milwaukee, Wi., said the following:
"It is heart-warming that so many people are willing to demonstrate in favor of a political mandate."
I do sympathize with religious conservatives in Turkey on some issues. I think Ataturk's desires to change Turkey overnight between 1920 and 1923 caused a tremendous sense of political and cultural oppression for those who did not fit in with his cause. This not only included religious Muslims, but also ethnic Kurds_ a group with which there is still considerable tension in Turkey. He was also a bit shortsighted on his long-term plans for Turkey which quickly fell apart after his death. As a result, the first of three political coups occured some 25 years after Ataturk's death in 1960.
Of course, the War in Iraq and the Cheney/Bush administration's unholy alliance with the Kurds in northern Iraq hasn't helped matters, and of course, it is doing nothing to 'protect our freedoms and liberties' here, nor is it bringing democracy to Baghdad, or any sense of comfort to 'our friends' the Kurds.
There was sad news out of Turkey today as well. Journalist and documentary filmmaker Turan Yavuz died at the age of 50. Yavuz's film "Exile in Buyukada" about Russian intellectual/opposition leader Leon Trotsky's surreal political deportation to Turkey and how he ended up on the island of Buyukada near Istanbul in the 1930s is one of the very few Turkish documentary films available in this country. It was released through Facets Home Video, out of Chicago. I saw the film two years ago, and I highly recommend it.
Useful links:
(For Pictures and Video of the Demonstration)
Turkish Tork Blog:
http://tork.blogspot.com
Hurriyet (English version)
http://www.hurriyet.com/english
Facets Home Video:
http://www.facets.org
Post-script (Clarification): I wanted to add that both Berlinski and Hipo made good points about Turkey, even though I had many major disagreements with the points they presented. Berlinski said that the secular establishment has consistently failed to produce reliable political candidates. Sadly, this is a valid point and there is no better example of that than the failed leadership of former PM Tansu Ciller (Turkey's first female PM), but this does not mean that the country is ready for a president whose wife wears a head scarf. It is simply unacceptable, and surely 1.5 million people can't be wrong.....
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