With the empire gone, the republic in 1923, the Caliphate gone in 1924, and the capital moved to Ankara, this was indeed A New Beginning. From there came the nation building, and this is where he set his foot wrong. Turkey did not become a family of nations, but a state of, for, and by Turks. Like so many in Europe.
[There is a message for the USA: when your century-old empire falls, reinvent yourself. The USA bestowed “A New Beginning” generously on millions of immigrants; now be equally generous to yourselves. Secularize, you are no more “under god” than anybody else. Go beyond modernization and state building, revive the local, regionalize with neighbors, globalize but equitably, not imperially, move the capital out of Washington, closer to real people; the place has acquired a bad name. Learn from Turkey].
But Turkey then got itself into a quagmire of problems. Military dictatorship. Greek vs. Turkish Cypriots. Kurds vs. Turks. Armenians vs. Turks. Secularism vs. Islam. The Western liberal-capitalist vs. marxist-socialist models. Turkey vs. EU. And more recently Turkey vs. USA over nuclear arms, invasion of Iraq, war in Afghanistan, and Turkey vs. Israel over the Gaza massacre; all of them partly internal divisions, partly with foreign policy implications. All with their Ottoman shadows.
Such unsolved contradictions zap enormous amounts of resources that could go into the livelihood of the population. Military expenses in a war nobody can win, with PKK since 5 August 1984, 40,000 killed and wasted emotional and cognitive energies have paralyzed this great country. A Turkey stuck in Cyprus, Kurdish and Armenian issues (1) can easily be manipulated by the USA as an alliance pawn, and humiliated in the EU waiting room.
A kemalist secular army in a majority Muslim country, seeking past, present and future military outcomes to all these problems was not the answer. To submit them to civilian control meant not only democracy, but also an audible voice to the Muslim majority. The AKP, justice and development, with an exceptional leadership – president Gül, prime minister Erdögan, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu – masters balancing over a heavily mined landscape, giving kemalism that of kemalism, and Islam that of Islam.
A major breakthrough in Turkey-Armenia inter-state relations has just happened, supervised by the big powers that gave Turkey so many of its problems: USA, England (the border to Turkey is where there is no oil!), France (the Sarkozy line against Turkey in the EU) and Russia. How and when inter-state will spread to inter-nation, with reconciliation and cooperation in a complex issue, building a future together, is to be seen.
The Kurdish issue is on the horizon, even beyond human rights for Kurds inside Turkey, with the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in his one-person-prison on the Imrali Island playing a role.
Beyond the rationality of secularism the Turks, like many nations, are seeking a spirituality. Maybe the once banned Sufism?
Beyond the nation-state is the region. Turkey is not limited to the EU, and many Turks are already cooling to the prospect as pointed out by Professor Sahin Alpay in his excellent columns in Today’s Zaman. Relations to Russia are opening up beyond oil and nuclear energy. Then there is the RCD, the Regional Cooperation for Development, from Turkey to Afghanistan, dead but a deep structure of some importance; ten countries.
Turkey and Syria just dropped visa rules; and Ankara talks with Iran, Hizbollah and Hamas, the blind spots in US “diplomacy”. Opening to neighbors was the policy of the Founding Father, a Nobel Peace Prize candidate, but being against the English empire with no chance, like Gandhi.
At the same time relations to USA and Israel are hardening. Imagine, the hidden nuclear power-holders in Washington had not even informed President Kennedy that nuclear arms were deployed in Turkey till the brutal awakening of the 1962 Cuba crisis.
Turkey did not let US troops through to attack Iraq in 2003, and has only non-combat troops in Afghanistan – as opposed to stuck Norway where a girl soldier recently pulled a trigger and killed 20-25 Afghans – saying the parliament said so. Democracy at work.
Erdögan – deeply critical of the Gaza massacre – walked out on Shimon Perez in Davos. And the Goldstone report will probably be firmly supported, as it massively deserves. In short, a country getting unstuck, yet keeping friendship in all directions.
Bosporus lights shine on a glass veranda, that transcendence of inside-outside contradictions. May others be equally enlightened.
Johan Galtung
19 October 2009
Note
(1) TRANSCEND has worked on those, from 1964, 1991 and 2006, 50 Years: 100 Peace & Conflict Perspectives, TRANSCEND University Press 2008, chapters 15, 23 and 89; see www.transcend.org/tup.
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Les réformes sécularistes de la Turquie Kémalis
Il faut souvent se référer au passé pour comprendre le présent. La Turquie semble être une énigme difficile à déchiffrer pour le profane, et il n’est pas à plaindre.
Je voulais seulement ajouter, si je puis me permettre, les éléments historiques suivants à l’excellent article du Professeur Galtung (en souhaitant qu’ils puissent orienter le lecteur à jeun d’histoire).
1. Abolition du Sultanat en 1922 par décret de la Grande Assemblée Nationale (et cela avant même l’établissement de la République de Turquie, proclamée l’année suivante).
2. Abolition en 1924 du Califat qui a symbolisé l’unité de la Oumma. L’origine du Califat remonte à l’époque du Prophète Muhammad (Que le Salut et la bénédiction d’Allah l’accompagnent). Les Ottomans ont préservé fidèlement ce titre pendant 407 ans. (1516-1924)
3. Abolition en 1924 de la position du Cheikh el Islam, la plus haute autorité dans l’administration de l’Empire Ottoman.
4. Abolition en 1924 du Ministère des Affaires Religieuses et des Fondations Pieuses.
5. Abolition des courts de Justice religieuses, basées sur le droit musulman (la Shari’ah)
6. Abolition en 1924 des Medersas, qui ont été d’importants centres d’enseignement religieux durant l’époque ottomane
7. Interdiction des confréries religieuses ou Tarikats en 1925 ainsi que l’interdiction de toutes leurs activités.
8. Vote de la loi interdisant le port du fez, remplacé par le chapeau européen ; le régime républicain décourageant également le port du voile pour les femmes sans toutefois aller jusqu’à l’interdire.
9. Adoption du calendrier grégorien en 1925, remplaçant ainsi le calendrier lunaire (Hidjri) et le calendrier solaire (Roumi).
10. Adoption du code civil suisse en 1926 (16 février), accordant les mêmes droits aux hommes et aux femmes.
11. Adoption du code pénal italien le 1ier mars 1926
12. Adoption des nombres européens en 1928
13. En 1928 il y eut un changement de script, de l’alphabet arabe à l’alphabet latin.
14. Modification de l’article 2 de la constitution de 1924, où l’Islam figurait comme la religion de l’Etat.
15. Fondation en 1930 de l’Association Historique Turque (Türk Tarih Kurumu)
16. Garantie des droits politiques des femmes, d’abord aux élections municipales en 1930, ensuite aux élections nationales en 1934.
17. Création de la Société de la Langue Turque (Türk Dil Kurumu) en 1931, dont le but était l’élimination progressive des mots arabes et persans de la langue turque.
18. Adoption du Système métrique en 1931
19. Adoption de noms de famille en 1934.
20. Substitution du repos hebdomadaire du vendredi au dimanche en 1935
21. En 1935 la Mosquée Aya Sofia est transformée en musée.
22. A partir de 1937 La République Turque est constitutionnellement laïque.
23. Adoption du droit commercial allemand.
24. Atatürk meurt en 1938 d’une cirrhose de foie
Nul n’est éternel