Turkey: Is the AKP indispensable?

This article sums the current trends in Turkey up nicely ~ but the one thing it doesn't mention is that the pro-Islamic AKP have the support of the majority of Turks. Here is interestiong point on Wikipedia ~ during the 2009 elections the Kemalist Party [2nd largest] were trying to appeal to Islamic sentiment ~ which of course alienated their staunchly secular supporters ~ largely made up from an elite minority:

During the 2009 local elections, the party tried to attract the conservative and devout Muslims to the party by allowing women who wear the chador to become party members including promises to introduce Koran courses if requested in every district. However, the allowing of women wearing hijab into the party was received with a severe blow when a normally-non-headscarved member of CHP (Kıymet Özgür) committed a provocation by wearing a black hijab and trying to get into an election bus in Istanbul. The incident raised questions about CHP's initiatives in favor of religious freedoms. The new initiatives introduced were surprising inside and outside the party, including military leaders, which the party itself is a major defender of Kemalist principles.

The fact that Europe is having to deal with a pro-secular minority ~ is a big problem going forward. The 3rd largest party are nationalists ~ and believe like Erdogan in the restoration of the Ottoman Empire ~ and they also believe in the supremacy of the Turkish race or people. Slim pickings!

For a long time, the ruling Islam-rooted Justice and Development Party, or AKP, was presented in the West as the only Turkish party fully committed to the EU accession process. This image of the AKP as Turkey’s European champion is not only deceiving, but also harmful.

It is deceiving because the AKP’s commitment to Turkey’s EU membership is doubtful. And it is harmful because it risks alienating those numerous Turks who are pro-European, but oppose the AKP.

Since the initial wave of reforms in 2002-2005, the AKP has failed to deliver on major issues, such as the adoption of a new constitution befitting a country seeking EU membership. Instead of using its overwhelming victory in 2007 elections to promote a broad societal consensus to this end, it rushed through some ill-prepared and self-serving reforms, such as the popularly elected president and lifting the ban on headscarves in universities. This selective approach to reforms has resulted in widespread suspicion that the AKP merely uses the slogan of EU integration as a means to weaken its adversaries, namely the staunchly secularist military and judiciary. This is why even some necessary steps, like the law allowing trials of military officers in civil courts, are met with cynicism by many. The AKP’s consistent failure to reach out to the opposition in Parliament and in society also explains its current difficulties with pushing forward the judicial reform.

The government’s a la carte approach to liberalization is evident on many issues that are crucial in terms of Turkey’s progress toward the EU. For example, the government’s vaunted “Kurdish initiative” has come to naught after it arrested on flimsy charges hundreds of members of the now defunct pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, including its democratically elected representatives.

Gender equality is one of the fundamental values of the EU. But in terms of empowerment of women Turkey has suffered severe setbacks since 2002. According to the U.N. Human Development Program report released in October 2009, Turkey is ranked 101st out of 109 countries. The percentage of women in government executive positions decreased from the already low 15 percent in 1994 to 11 percent in 2009. Women have only 0.42 percent of seats on municipal councils, and out of Turkey’s 2,948 mayors, only 27 (0.9 percent) are women. For a country that once had a female prime minister and minister for foreign affairs this is a shame. But whenever the AKP and their supporters are confronted with this situation, they usually point to the headscarf ban as the “mother of all problems” of Turkish women, conveniently forgetting that for many the headscarf itself is a symbol of female submission. While the minister in charge finds time to criticize “erotic scenes” on TV, the government does nothing to reverse downward trends in women’s participation in public life.

Nor is it fighting other forms of inequality and discrimination. There is still no government body responsible for equality and non-discrimination, as required by the EU.

Another key area where the AKP government is failing to meet European standards is in social rights. The failure to approve for many years the trade unions’ law is a major impediment to the start of negotiations with the EU on the social and employment chapter, a part of the harmonization package. The government’s indifference to the plight of the striking workers of the now privatized former alcohol and tobacco monopoly known as Tekel illustrates its skewed understanding of economic liberalism. In line with this is the government’s failure to provide effective social protection in a country where 19 percent live below the poverty line, and the number of those covered by social security is merely 80 percent and decreasing.

In the field of foreign affairs the much vaunted “zero problems” policy of the AKP is fast becoming “zero results” policy. The rapprochement with Armenia has come to a halt, while the relations with Azerbaijan have also been damaged in the process. The high hopes of Turkey becoming the key actor in the South Caucasus are thus fast diminishing. Although this is not entirely the fault of the AKP government, there is no progress on Cyprus either. The improvement of Turkeys relations with Syria and other Arab countries is welcome, but it should not have come at the expense of Turkey’s ties with Israel. The damage done to the relations with Israel undermines Turkey’s ambitions to become a credible mediator in the Middle East conflict and will be difficult to repair. Erdogan’s embrace of leaders like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Omar al-Bashir of Sudan has fueled further suspicions about a pro-Islamist turn in AKP’s foreign policy.

Most worrying of all is the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s alarmingly low tolerance of criticism. A huge fine imposed on the Dogan Media Group for the supposed tax evasion was universally regarded as politically motivated. The prime minister’s recent threats to columnists who “create tension in the country” raise serious doubts about whether he understands the notion of the freedom of speech at all.

After almost eight years in power, the AKP looks increasingly tired, intolerant and incapable of delivering on the EU track. It is now a duty of the main opposition People’s Republican Party [CHP], and emerging forces, such as Mustafa Sarigul’s Movement for Change in Turkey, to provide a serious alternative to the AKP while reinvigorating the pro-EU agenda. This would be a healthy process. Most importantly, it would reconnect with the European project those Turks who are pro-European, but alienated by AKP policies. European progressive parties have a role to play in order to help this process.

* Eldar Mamedov is a political adviser to the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, but is writing in a personal capacity.

Hurriyet Daily News