Posted on 5/24/2007, 2:28:31 PM by Kenny Bunk
For the AKP, democracy is merely a means to a higher Islamic goal,
If you thought Turkey was no threat to the West, think again. A new generation of politicians is aiming to Islamise the state by stealth. The AKP - Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, or Justice and Development Party - has a stranglehold on Turkey for the foreseeable future.
The AKP was founded to replace a previous Islamic party banned for extremism. It benefited hugely from the corruption scandals that dragged down the previous government, taking two-thirds of parliament in the 2002 general election (on a third of the vote).
Ex-foreign secretary, and AKP Stalwart, Abdullah Gul narrowly failed to win a victory in the first round of presidential elections. The result was close enough to prompt public demonstrations by secularists ahead of the second round voting on May 2, and a statement from the military - long the guardians of Turkey's secular traditions - warning against a pro-Islam political agenda. Since coming to power, the AKP has done nothing revolutionary, but it does have a revolutionary agenda. For all their suavity, its leaders seek to transform the country into a Sunni Muslim republic. This collides with institutions and laws strictly limiting Islam's role in public life, and with a long-standing security alliance with Israel.
It also collides with democracy itself, for no Koranic state can have a sovereign parliament free to legalise such abominations as equal rights for women and homosexuals or the drinking of alcohol.
A sinister slogan attributed to the AKP is that democracy is 'a bus we can ride until we reach our station'. Under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his foreign secretary Abdullah Gul, the party has been cautious until now.
But abroad the AKP has been more strident. Turkey has stepped up relations with Muslim countries and cooled them with Israel. They have capitalised on public suspicion of the Western war on terror and yet have pursued Turkey's application to join the EU.
There is no inconsistency. The AKP's apparent ambitions in Europe are its most strategic deceptions. Ostensibly, the aim is simply to accelerate Turkey's climb to prosperity.However, a key condition imposed by the EU is the army's abrogation of political authority - which suits the AKP just fine, for the military is the greatest barrier to Islamisation. Moreover, the party shares the Islamist belief that Europe will inevitably be conquered by the high birthrates of its Muslim inhabitants - and Turkey's entry would immediately add some 70 million.
Then there's the media. There are three major groups in Turkey, compared to which any Islamist operations are small. However, the government now has a hold over all of them because of contested tax liabilities, and because the government-controlled Savings Deposits Insurance Fund can seize their associated banks at any time without even having to go to court. The results are manifest in coverage that mostly reflects the AKP agenda - and duly affects public opinion. Why else would Valley of the Wolves, whose cast includes US actors Billy Zane and Gary Busey, become the most successful Turkish film ever? The story includes American army officers selling body parts from captured Iraqis - with Jewish surgeons removing them! No wonder the AKP cabinet took their wives to the opening gala.
The party has also done its best to Islamise the bureaucracy. Even in Istanbul, post-office employees now stop work for Friday prayers, and civil servants are no longer expected to work a full day during Ramadan.
And just to make sure, the AKP has literally bought public opinion in poor urban areas by distributing food packages, paid for by contributions from big business.
Although the wind is blowing their way, I doubt if more than 15 per cent of the population really want a full-blown Sunni republic. But the AKP is being patient. Gul and Erdogan are clearly willing to defer Turkey's Islamisation if they can advance Europe's.
Keep up with Luttwak. His take on the ME and Islam is always enlightening.
ping
I like Luttwak a lot. He’s the guy who blew the lid off grotesquely inflated prices of toilet seats and hammers in the military in the 1980s, as well as the military’s general incompetence in joint warfare after the Carter years.
It’s only a matter of time before they are fully allied with Iran - either by politics, upheavel or conflict. Couple years I would estimate.
Your 40 years of anti-baby practices at work. To paraphrase the ‘field of dreams’, if your economic system needs them, they will come. [so don’t complain that they will also vote]
Spengler, anyone?
They don't need no steenkin WMD to wipe out the West, the pill, abortion and gay marriage are the seeds of our own demise.
They are plotting to establish an Islamic reich..
Correct, and taken into consideration when Islam established the 2010 Plan for Europe which is well under way, ...the next step is the 2020 Plan for America. 13 years away...think about it.
I’ve always liked Luttwak, even before I had the opportunity to take a class that he taught at Georgetown in 1980. But that first day of class was the clincher - he told us that the best thing that any President could do to improve the operation of our foreign policy would be to order the Corp of Engineers to dig a tunnel that terminated under the State Dept., create a large hole at that point, fill the hole with high explosives, seal the tunnel and then light off the explosives.
I think that he’s still right.
You are aware that the AKP receives a great amount of support from the US aren’t you. The US is against a nationalist secularist government in Turkey and sees a “moderate Islamic” government beneficial to its purposes in the Mid-East. Before you slam Turkey for becoming Islamist 24/7, you should pressure your politicians into lifting their support from the AKP. The people will do the rest and root out the Islamist vermin once and for all.
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