THE NYTIMES TODAY: Turkey Court Takes Politically Explosive Case
Turkey’s highest court said Monday it had decided to take a case on closing Turkey’s governing party and banning its top political leaders, moving the country closer to a final confrontation between religious and secular Turks over who will rule Turkey.
Alifeyyaz Paksut, deputy chairman of the court, known as the Constitutional Court, said its justices had voted unanimously to hear the case, which was filed by Turkey’s top prosecutor on March 14.
The case calls for the closure of the Justice and Development Party, and the banning from politics of 71 party members, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodgan and his ally, President Abdullah Gul, from politics.
Turkey has shut down other parties in the past. In 1998, it banned the Welfare Party, an openly Islamist group that claimed Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Gul as members, and has also banned Kurdish parties. But Mr. Erdogan’s current party maintains that it is secular, having moved away from its earlier involvement with political Islam.
The court’s acceptance of the case significantly increases the chances that the party, which was elected to power in 2002 and remains highly popular, could be closed.
Erdogan and his islamicist comrades screwed us big-time just before the Iraq War - they failed to give us permission to invade Iraq from the north. And Iran ships weapons to Hizballah via Turkey.Turkey had been a good ally until he and his islamicist comrades took over. MANY Turks see this and want it to stop; they fear what may become of turkey if Erdogan keeps doing what he's been doing - like making the hijab legal.
- MY PREVIOUS POSTS ON THIS MATTER HERE AND HERE.
- I HOPE THE COURT DOES THE RIGHT THING: CLOSES DOWN THE PARTY.
3 comments:
Reliapundit - I would suggest that you read up on the history of Turkey, or perhaps just read up in more detail than you may have already done.
The Ottoman Empire was an expressly Muslim state, and ruled Turkey and adjacent peoples until 1918. The Sultan was also the Caliph. Religious minority populations were treated as 2nd class Dhimmis, and when they revolted, were put down ruthlessly.
But interestingly, the notorious Armenian genocide and massacre/expulsion of the Greek Christians from Asia Minor did not occur under the old Ottoman Empire. They occurred after the Empire had been taken over, and then overthrown, by the "young Turk" movement, a group of secular-minded nationalists who rejected Islam. Ataturk was one of their members, and after the fall of the empire he became virtual dictator of Turkey. Along with setting up the secular state, he also expelled the remaining Greeks and Armenians and promoted an aggressive Turkish nationalism which continues to infect the secular parties opposed to Erdogan and Gul.
The secular nationalist Turks ran Turkey for 80 years, and, especially toward the end, they didn't do a very good job of it. They are responsible for the intervention in Cyprus in 1974 (although I think the Greek extremists on the island and the vicious military junta on Greece, who were conspiring to unite Cyprus with Greece under a military dictatorship, are more to blame for that fiasco). They were responsible for the increased corruption and misrule that infected Turkey and led to economic collapses in the 1990's.
By contrast, the Turkish Islamists are not as nationalistic in their outlook - Islam gives them a more world-cosmopolitan view. Even though eventual entry is doubtful, they have taken steps to liberalize the economy, under strict state control by their secular nationalist predecessors. As local government officials in the 1980's and 1990's they earned a reputation for clean and efficient government, a noted contrast to the shambles the secular nationalists were making at the national level.
Their Islamism is worrying, and needs to be watched. However, to date, they have proposed only measures that allow religious expression, such as wearing the hijab, rather than outlawing things they don't like, or requiring wearing the hijab. How would you like it if you were an orthodox Jewish woman and there was a state law that prohibited you from wearing a wig and headscarf? Or a Christian car driver prohibited from putting the fish symbol on the back of your car? That's the equivalent of the Turkish hijab ban.
And now you, who I'm sure would be appalled that anyone would be prohibited from participating in politics because of their religious views in our great nation, are openly advocating banning individuals from Turkish politics because of their religious views. Do you see any hypocrisy in that point of view?
u - "- Islam gives them a more world-cosmopolitan view."
me - bhwahahahahahaha! that's a good one!
u - "they earned a reputation for clean and efficient government"
me - the trains are running on time!
u - "And now you, who I'm sure would be appalled that anyone would be prohibited from participating in politics because of their religious views in our great nation, are openly advocating banning individuals from Turkish politics because of their religious views. Do you see any hypocrisy in that point of view?"
me - and i means tis in a NICE way: fuck you. i am no hypocrite.
hamas should have been OFF the ballot in the so-called OT's. the ira is not allowed on the ballot in the UK or ireland.
the nazi party and moin kampf are banned in germ,any.
democracy doesn't mean "ANYTHING GOES", and a constitution isn't a suicide pact.
lincoln revoked habeus corpus, correctly.
and islamicist parties - who really advocate sharia - whether all at once or bit by bit - should also be banned.
BTW: BANNING ERDOGAN'S SECOND ATTEMPT AT AN ISLAMIC PARTY WOULD BE ENTIRELY CONSTITUTIONAL.
ADDENDUM: the party would be banned not persons.
erdogan's last party was banned, he regrouped and tried a KINDLER GENTLER form of islamicism and got further.
but turkey will not let him go to far, and they will invoke a ban on his new party if necessary.
ASIDE: i take issue with your slight of my knowledge: i have a b.a.(earned in 3 years - tho i stayed at college for 4!) and an m.a. (earned in a year an a half) from major universities. i was a member of the national historical honors society, too.
i suggest you read up more on the relevant facts.
ALL THE BEST!
please: come back, anytime!
blogrolled you gordon...
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