The Emperor's New Clothes In Turkey

New Europe 6 June 2010
By Robert Ellis

The Danish writer of fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen, has amused the world with his fable from 1837, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. The story tells of two weavers who persuade an emperor that they can weave him a set of clothes that are invisible to those who are either incompetent or hopelessly stupid. Everybody, of course, is duped by the illusion, except a small boy, who, when he sees the emperor parading his new suit, yells: “But he’s got nothing on!”

The present Turkish government, formed by the AK (Justice and Development) Party in 2002, could be said to have played the same trick on gullible American and European politicians, who have wanted so much to believe that the AKP has spun the stuff of democracy.

For example, the former US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, in May 2007 declared that the AKP is “a government dedicated to pulling Turkey west toward Europe”. And Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, pronounced in March 2008: “The AKP government is made up of profound European reformers.” However, an examination of the facts could lead one to draw a different conclusion.

In 1999 the European Union agreed on Turkey’s candidacy, which in the next five years led to a flurry of reforms. For example, under the Ecevit government there was a reform of the Civil Code, introducing gender equality in the family, which according to religious conservatives would “create anarchy and chaos in the family” and “threaten the foundations of the Turkish nation”.

The death penalty was abolished, the right to broadcast in languages other than Turkish was guaranteed, and the role of the military was reduced, which included the appointment of a civilian secretary-general to the National Security Council. As a result, and despite reservations about implementation, the EU Commission declared in October 2004 that “Turkey sufficiently fulfils the political criteria and recommends that accession negotiations be opened”.

“Sufficiently” was the ‘open sesame’ to Ali Baba’s cave, and once accession talks started a year later, there was a sudden loss of interest in the reform process. However, “the EU wills it” has been the AKP’s mantra to justify reforms which have been more concerned with implementing the party’s agenda than transforming Turkey into a liberal, democratic society.

The AKP’s electoral success in 2002 and 2007 gave the party a solid majority in Parliament but not the two-thirds necessary to bring about constitutional change.

However, through a policy of ‘kadrola?ma’ it has been able to fill most of the leading posts in state administration with the party faithful, particularly in the Ministry of Education. Independent boards, such as the Higher Education Board, inside banking, energy, and radio and tv, are no longer independent, and TÜBITAK (Turkey’s Scientific and Technological Research Council), Turkish Airlines and the state banks have come under party control. Despite Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s pre-election promises, there has been no limitation of deputies’ parliamentary immunity and an amendment of the Public Procurement Law in 2003 excluded energy, water, transportation and telecommunications contracts. A further amendment in 2008 rendered this “legal robbery enterprise” even more opaque.

A report published by the Open Society Foundation and Bosphorus University in 2009, “Being Different in Turkey”, confirms the efforts of the AKP government to transform Turkey into a conservative, religious society. Socially and professionally “neighbourhood pressure” is applied to ensure conformity to norms laid down by the party – attendance at Friday prayers, abstention from alcohol and wives being ‘covered’ i.e. wearing a headscarf.

The headscarf has played a major role on the AKP’s agenda, and as Necmettin Erbakan, leader of the Refah (Welfare) Party (the AKP’s precursor, which was banned in 1998) warned: “[University] chancellors are going to retreat before the headscarf when Refah comes to power.”

The European Court of Human Rights upheld the ban on the (Islamic) headscarf at universities in 2005, as it “appeared to be imposed on women by a religious precept that was hard to reconcile with the principle of gender equality”. According to Prime Minister Erdogan “On this issue, the court has no right to speak. That right belongs to the scholars of Islam (the ‘ulema’).” The AKP has made repeated efforts to ensure that graduates of the imam-hatip (religious) high schools are allowed to enter university on an equal footing with graduates from state high schools, but so far these attempts have been thwarted. The main obstacle to the AKP’s control of Turkish society has been opposition from the military and the judiciary. In July 2008 the Constitutional Court by 10 votes to one found the AKP guilty of being “the focal point of anti-secular activities” and its Treasury funding was halved. Prime Minister Erdogan is well known for his dislike of a critical press, and in 2007 Calik Holding, whose owner is a close friend of the Prime Minister’s, took over the Sabah-ATV media group, Turkey’s second largest, with the aid of loans from two state banks. The following year draconian tax fines totalling $3.2 billion were imposed on the Dogan Media Group, Turkey’s largest, after their exposure of corruption in government circles.

Since July 2007 hundreds of academics, journalists, politicians and officers have been detained and many charged with plotting to overthrow the AKP government in an alleged conspiracy known as the Ergenekon case. And the widespread wiretapping and surveillance of government opponents has created what Turkey’s Financial Times, Referans, last year in a headline called “The Republic of Fear”.

The recent constitutional amendments approved by Parliament and the President are primarily concerned with undermining the authority of the military, the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, the AKP government’s main opponents.

The main political opposition has come from the CHP, the Republican People’s Party, which under the leadership of Deniz Baykal has for the last 18 years been moribund. However, the election of a modest accountant and outspoken opponent of corruption, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, as leader could well spell the end of the AKP government’s hegemony.

This is an edited version of a presentation given at the inaugural meeting of the Turkey Assessment Group in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 19 May 2010. Robert Ellis is a regular commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish and international press.

Posted June 6th, 2010 by hrc