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One Festival, Two Celebrations: Novruz Highlights Political Tensions in Turkey

One Festival, Two Celebrations: Novruz Highlights Political Tensions in Turkey

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 55

March 23, 2009

By: Saban Kardas

Novruz, marking the arrival of spring and beginning of a new year, is being celebrated in Turkey between March 20 and 24, along with other Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries. This year’s celebrations in Turkey showed that this cultural event still remains highly contested politically, and reflects Turkey’s challenges over the Kurdish question.

Although its origins are disputed, various cultures and religious groups, including Persians, Zoroastrians, Kurds and Turkish communities in Central Asia and the Caucasus, observe Novruz, though seen as a local tradition mostly among the Kurds in Turkey. During the height of the PKK insurgency in the 1980s and 1990s, the PKK sought to politicize Novruz by organizing large-scale demonstrations, as part of its overall strategy of mobilizing Kurds against the Turkish state which, in turn, forbade Novruz celebrations. There were annual demonstrations and clashes between security forces and PKK supporters and sympathizers, trying to celebrate Novruz illegally in Istanbul and in Kurdish populated cities in Southeastern Turkey. The period preceding Novruz would often hijack the country’s agenda, caused by, in some cases, militants’ provocation of peaceful demonstrators and an overreaction by security forces resulting in violence.

The Turkish state tried to avoid this accelerating cycle of violence, by capitalizing on growing cultural ties between Turkey and the new Turkish-speaking states in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. In the mid-1990s, Turkish government officials embraced Novruz as a “Turkish festival,” emphasizing its roots in ancient Central Asian culture, and pre-Islamic Turkish mythology. Since then, state authorities have organized official gatherings, and Turkish statesmen have attended festivities, in an attempt to turn the Novruz into a national event. Recently, cabinet members indicated that they would support a parliamentary motion to declare Novruz as an official holiday (Radikal, March 4).

Consequently the Turkish state, helped by improvements in the conditions of the Kurds, has restored the reputation of Novruz. Indeed, Turkey has taken significant steps to allow greater Kurdish minority rights, such as setting up a TV channel broadcasting in Kurdish on the state-run TRT network. Nonetheless, Novruz still remains a politically significant event for Turkey’s Kurdish population, and Kurdish nationalists resist attempts by the state to co-opt Novruz. Therefore, although scenes of violent clashes are largely absent, the political atmosphere remains tense on the eve of Novruz. This year’s celebrations took place against a similar background. Moreover, the ongoing local election campaigns increased the political importance of Novruz.

President Abdullah Gul issued a message wishing happy Novruz to Turkey and the Turkic world. Although emphasizing Novruz as a shared tradition within the wider Turkish-speaking community, Gul noted, “Turkey is a country where people of different beliefs, languages, ethnic roots and cultures live together in peace, and which is home to different sociological realities and traditions. Our differences and diversity are our country’s greatest source of richness. Therefore, everyone will celebrate Novruz according to his own traditions” (www.cankaya.gov.tr, March 20).

Indeed, proving Gul’s point, Novruz was celebrated “differently” across Turkey. On the one hand, public authorities including ministers and governors attended official Novruz ceremonies in major cities. Minister of Culture, Ertugrul Gunay, hosted the festivities in Ankara, where he called on the Turkish people to forget the bad memories of the past and celebrate such festivals in a spirit of tolerance. Gunay and his guests, including U.S. Ambassador James Jeffrey, performed Novruz rituals and jumped over bonfires (www.ntvmsnbc.com, March 21).

On the other hand, the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) organized activities in around fifty cities, and turned the celebrations into political rallies ahead of local elections. The party leader Ahmet Turk and other party officials travelled to different cities to attend these meetings. The DTP staged a demonstration in Diyarbakir on March 21, which it claimed to be the largest-scale Novruz celebration in the Middle East. Although Kurdish news sources claimed that around one million people attended the meeting (ANF News Agency, March 21), Diyarbakir governorship reported that only 75,000 participated (www.tempo24.com, March 22). During the demonstrations participants carried pictures of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the outlawed PKK, and chanted his name.

On March 21, Novruz was celebrated across Turkey through several gatherings organized either by the state or the DTP. Yet, the risk of violence at these demonstrations may have forced the police to increase security measures. Since pressures increased on the PKK to seek a peaceful solution to the Kurdish problem, the PKK has disavowed the use of violence during these celebrations (ANF News Agency, March 20). Some feared that splinter groups within the PKK not wanting to end the armed struggle might seek to incite violence (Bugun, March 19). Indeed, Turkish police in Istanbul caught a group of PKK militants with plastic explosives, allegedly plotting attacks aimed at igniting social unrest (Cihan Haber Ajansi, March 31). In many celebrations, the authorities did not interfere with either speeches or songs in Kurdish. Security forces arrested some people for carrying emblems of Ocalan and the PKK, but overall the festivities were relatively peaceful.

Turkey’s handling of Novruz with relative calm marks an improvement on previous years. But this also conceals two underlying political tensions. First, despite the Turkish state’s attempts to make Novruz a national festivity, two parallel sets of celebrations in fact reflected continued divisions within Turkish society. Second, the calm revealed ongoing uncertainty about the future of the Kurdish problem. Turkey is currently debating how a peaceful solution to this question might be achieved (EDM, March 17). Novruz demonstrations showed once again that Kurdish nationalists avoid accepting any solution to the Kurdish problem which excludes the PKK and Ocalan. Nor is it clear to what extent Turkey can accommodate these demands. For now, these issues are in abeyance, but such tensions could resurface after the local elections on March 29.

https://jamestown.org/program/one-festival-two-celebrations-novruz-highlights-political-tensions-in-turkey/

March 24, 2009
Another Crossroads for Turkey

In all probability the Turkish ruling party, AKP (Justice and Development Party), will experience another victory at the local elections on March 29. Since November 2002, when the AKP came to power with 34 percent of the votes, the party has noted a growing success with 42 percent of the votes in the 2004 local elections and 47 percent at the general election in 2007.

The AKP government has used its six years in power to create a new elite centred around Istanbul, Ankara and industrial cities like Konya, Kayseri and Gaziantep in Anatolia. At the same time the party has replaced the top echelons inside state administration, education, the judiciary and independent boards with supporterswho share the government’s conservative, Islamic values.

By Robert Ellis

For example, last October 600 leading staff from TRT (Turkish Radio and Television) were transferred to posts as “researchers” as part of a process of “restructuring”. And the March edition of the prestigious journal “Bilim ve Teknik” (Science and Technology) was subject to censorship. There was a picture of Darwin on the cover and a 16-page article celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth. But TÜBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council) intervened and the cover picture, article and editor were removed.

The editor of Bilim ve Teknik, Dr. Cigdem Atakuman, and the offending cover
Darwin’s theory of evolution is at odds with creationism, which the government supports and which has been introduced into school textbooks. According to Riza Türmen, a former judge at the European Court of Human Rights, this move indicates that what the Turkish government is attempting to achieve is “social engineering, a radical transformation of society”. Incidentally, Riza Türmen’s appointment at the Human Rights Court was not renewed, as he upheld the headscarf ban at Turkish universities in the landmark legal decision in Sahin v. Turkey in 2005.

The secret of the AKP’s success as a political party is that it is a grassroots movement built up on a local level, and therefore a convincing victory on March 29 will mean a consolidation of the AKP’s power base. The fact that now only 19 out of Turkey’s 81 provinces do not have an ban on alcohol consumption at municipal and public restaurants is a good example of how extensive the AKP’s influence is.

Davos
Some days before Israel’s invasion of Gaza the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan confided to Israeli premier Ehud Olmert that he needed a high-profile international diplomatic success to deflect domestic criticism and gain legitimacy from Turkey’s secular opposition. For that reason Erdogan set as a precondition for his participation in the World Economic Forum’s meeting in Davos that there was to be a panel discussion on Gaza, preferably where Israeli president Shimon Peres would be present.

Seen in this light, Erdogan’s outburst at Peres appears to be a well-planned PR stunt calculated at legitimizing his government on the home front and establishing Turkey as a regional power in the Middle East. The reaction was not long coming. At Istanbul airport Erdogan was greeted as “the conqueror of Davos” and the Lebanese newspaper Dar Al-Hayat suggested that Erdogan should restore the Ottoman empire and be the Caliph of all Muslims. Considering that Turkish foreign policy under the AKP has been dubbed “neo-Ottoman” and that one of Erdogan’s nicknames is “The Imam of Istanbul”, this proposal must have tied in with Erdogan’s ambitions.

But his outburst has also backfired. According to a senior Israeli diplomatic official Erdogan has with his support of Hamas “lost all credibility as an honest broker in peace discussions”. And the official added: “As long as he is the prime minister of the country, Turkey has no place in peace negotiations or discussions. It is not a trustworthy diplomatic partner anymore.”

At the same time Erdogan has painted himself into a corner. His defence of Hamas as a legitimate political party hardly fits in with the ongoing closure case against the Kurdish political party DTP (Democratic Society Party) because of alleged connections with the PKK. The Kurdish vote is decisive for the AKP’s control of eastern and southeastern Turkey, where the party won over half the votes in 2007.

Financial crisis
Erdogan’s heroic status after Davos is, of course, a vote catcher, but the AKP has also resorted to other methods. Local authorities receive most of their funding from the central government, and the Minister of Justice has threatened voters that if they vote for the opposition, it is unlikely those municipalities will receive government help in the future.

In Tunceli province in southeastern Turkey, where the mayor of Tunceli, Ms. Songül Erol Abdi, is from the DTP, the state social aid and solidarity fund (the “Fak-Fuk Fon”) has distributed household appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers, and even computers to the local population. The only problem is that some of the villages are without electricity or running water. The Supreme Election Board has ruled against the distribution of aid but the provincial governor has continued with Prime Minister Erdogan’s support.

Turkey has also been hit by the global financial crisis and there has been a marked rise in unemployment. This year Turkish public and private institutions will need $100 billion in external funding, which is why a new accord with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is imperative. However, as the IMF has demanded cuts in public spending, talks have been suspended until after the March 29 local elections.

Another sensitive issue in connection with the local elections is the underrepresentation of women among the candidates. There are at present 18 female mayors out of 3,225 in Turkey and only 834 out of 34,477 local administrators are women. No significant change can be expected, as there are only 400 women out of 14,000 nominated for local office.

Women constitute 26 percent of the labour force, but last July the AKP passed a social security law which cut maternity leave from six months to one . On Wednesday Economy Minister Mehmet Simsek, who himself comes from a poor Kurdish family, also blamed the rising unemployment rate on housewives looking for jobs.

Columnist Burak Bekdil has criticized Turkey’s new elite for their conspicuous consumption and called them “display Muslims”. Nevertheless, many Turks link their hopes for a better future to the rise of the AK party. As they say in Turkish: Keci can derdinde, kasap et derdinde. The goat fears for its life and the butcher fears for his meat.

Robert Ellis is a regular commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish press and from 2005 to 2008 he was a frequent contributor to Turkish Daily News. However, after a critical article on the AKP in the Los Angeles Times last March, he was informed by the American editor-in-chief of TDN (now Hürriyet Daily News) he was persona non grata.

This post first appeared on PoliGazette

March 23, 2009
Good News From Mozambique

The balance and imbalance experiences that affected the world in the last century, seems to maintain its effect in the future as it is doing at the moment. The impressions and the observations we obtained reveal that after a time, the impressions carried on in the “Black Continent” had exploded and the native people wanted to present a way out and to do something about this.

Mozambique is a mistreated country which had his share of the colonialism like the other African countries. We know that Portugal is also active in that geography of which Europe profit every inch. Portugal kept his effect up for a long time until the Mozambicans drove them away from this region 30 years ago.

In the county governed with capitalist economic system, all the balances that would be useful for Portugal were ready. But all the development plans disappeared when the native people drove them away. The communist system which tried hard to rule the country after the capitalism managed to continue ruling even by force. Occident who didn’t have his profits lost, caused to the civil war in the country. The conflicts between the government and the people came to an end with efforts of Anglican Church to bring together the representatives of the people and the governments. The country obtained nothing more than harm at the end of the civil war. At the end of that agreement the campaign, “collecting weapons from people”, was started and until that time 600.000 weapons has been able to collected. When we look at the weapons collected it surprises us that they come from Russia, England, and USA. Shortly, it can be called a civil war supported outwardly. A tableau of the people who doesn’t know for what they fight and who obtained the greatest harm.

The development of the country becomes slowly. Having harm more than a profit of the communism is also a factor to this. This system wasn’t accepted in this area because of the fact that the people have a mentality that consists of a leader and forming group. And the government is being effected by the collapse lived in 1991. After that the commerce of the country has been brought to a moderate atmosphere. One of the biggest postwar problems of Mozambique in which a person working in an average job earns 40 $, is the sweeping of the mines in the north region. Mine Research Commission states that the mine maps belonging to that time are lost and extensive mine researches are stopped because the attention of worldly public opinion is attracted to Iraq and Afghanistan. Henceforth, there, the mortal weapons are used to make a work of art. Messages on the useless of these weapons are being given to the people. The authorities, who say that even for the children imitation weapons shouldn’t be bought, state that people can go forward if they take their lesson from the history. Today, even in British Museum the work of art called “the Life Tree” that the people made from the weapons takes part. In the country in which ideological fixed ideas will disappear in time, in some of the streets the names of the ex-communist-leaders take part. But people’s longing to democracy and endeavoring for realizing this makes us happy.

Fishing has the greatest part for people’s making their life. In Mozambique which is a port country, a small Turkish educator group takes part. We don’t have any economical activity there yet. We want to keep our expansionist policy up there too and we thank to Sezai Kara and the other Turks who represent us there after Ottoman. The main after all is the conflict between people and systems has continued during centuries. The thing that changes the movement of happenings: exterior forces, methods that the people applied, geographical features and events lived. Today Africa is changing and becoming conscious. It is enough that it is set free. External effects having lasted too many years wore them out but they believe that they will have the required strength for rising. It is enough at least. These people lived under slavery for centuries but the ones who have lived under slavery for too many years, haven’t wanted to rise and who misses the times under slavery astonish us.

These are the situations rooting from unconsciousness. The ones who have gained the consciousness are being assimilated to the other ways. The only thing to do is to remind the past and to supply national consciousness. To state that the dialogue is more important than the conflict.

Mehmet Fatih ÖZTARSU

March 22, 2009
Turkey’s Party Closure Laws

European Criticism of Turkey’s Party Closure Laws Reignites Debate on Constitutional Reforms

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 52

March 18, 2009

By: Saban Kardas

Two recent reports by European institutions reignited the debate over political reforms that Turkey needs to undertake to bring its democratic practices up to European standards. The European Parliament (EP) and the Venice Commission criticized Turkey’s reluctance to continue with constitutional reforms, in particular its failure to amend the law on political party closures. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, in response, signaled that it would introduce a new constitutional reform package following the local elections.

On March 12 the EP adopted a resolution on Turkey’s progress toward EU accession. After acknowledging Turkey’s efforts to reform the political system, the EP members expressed their concern about the “continuing slowdown of the reform process” since 2005. The report noted various areas in which further political reforms were needed, especially stressing the laws on closing down political parties. It called on the government to resume efforts to write a new civilian constitution (www.europarl.europa.eu, March 12).

On March 13 the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe held a plenary session, during which it reviewed whether Turkish laws on the dissolution of political parties complied with European democratic standards. The commission concluded that “the general threshold is too low, both for initiating procedures and for prohibiting or dissolving parties. This is in itself in abstracto deviating from common European democratic standards.” The Commission praised the 2001 constitutional revisions, yet found them inadequate for protecting political parties. It too advised Turkey to seek a new constitutional reform that would amend legal provisions on regulating party closures (www.venice.coe.int; March 13).

Both reports expressed concern about the fact that the Turkish judiciary frequently filed lawsuits for the closure of political parties, in some cases even against parties represented in parliament. Two major cases are significant. Last year, the AKP faced dissolution on the grounds that it had become the center of anti-secular activities. By a narrow vote the Constitutional Court decided not to shut down the party but nevertheless punished it by cutting in half the aid it received from the treasury. Since the fate of the incumbent party was at stake, the entire case posed a major threat to the stability of the Turkish political system. Similarly, the Constitutional Court is reviewing whether to shut down the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) on charges of separatism. The DTP’s predecessors were closed down by the court, which heightened tension in the country and posed major setbacks to a democratic resolution of the Kurdish issue. If the court rules in favor of closure in the case against the DTP, the exclusion of the party from the parliamentary processes is likely to avert a democratic presentation of Kurdish demands and undermine Turkey’s achievements in solving the Kurdish question.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose party suffered from closure threats and has been considering changing the constitution, capitalized on these reports during the local election campaign. He announced that the AKP would return to the issue of constitutional reform after the elections. Rather than proposing a new constitution, he said, the government would introduce a package of partial amendments in four areas. If the amendments are accepted, individuals will be granted the right to apply to the Constitutional Court to challenge the constitutionality of laws, a post of ombudsman will be created to monitor state activities, and laws on political parties and elections will be changed (ANKA, March 13; Hurriyet Daily News, March 17). With regard to party closures, Erdogan later explained that the government would seek to bring Turkish regulations in line with the criteria established by the Venice Commission. He specifically stressed that parties not engaged in violence should function freely and not be punished for crimes committed by individual members (Sabah, March 15; Zaman, March 17).

This was not the first time Erdogan had raised the issue of constitutional changes. Earlier, he had said that the government would start talks with the opposition parties to discuss a new civilian constitution following local elections. Representatives of the opposition did not, however, find Erdogan’s proposal sincere and refused to cooperate with the AKP (www.haber3.com, February 14).

Herein lies the main obstacle to constitutional amendments: how to build the necessary political coalition for reforms. Not only European institutions but also most Turkish political observers agree that both the 1982 constitution, a leftover of the 1980 coup, and party closure practices are in need of revision; but without the support of the opposition, particularly the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the government is not in a position to go ahead with political reform and be sure that any changes will not be revoked by the Constitutional Court. The real question, therefore, is whether political parties can find consensus on a process for introducing new constitutional changes.

Following the AKP’s landslide victory in the 2007 parliamentary elections, Erdogan promised that it would embrace all of Turkey and change the constitution in order to reduce growing polarization in the country. The AKP has failed, however, to generate trust among different segments of society. Nor could it find common ground with the opposition parties to introduce a new constitution. An attempt by the AKP to revise the constitution ended up in a dispute over the headscarf issue and sparked the closure case against the party. Since then, the chances for reforming the constitution have diminished even further. Democratic reforms have been given a lower priority on the AKP’s agenda, while polarization in society and among political parties has continued. The aggressive campaigns of the party leaders in the run-up to the local elections have increasingly pitted them against each other and undermined mutual trust.

Delivering on constitutional reforms might indeed help Erdogan revitalize the EU membership process and gain him political support at home; but he appears to have lost credibility in the eyes of the opposition for embarking on such a move and will have a hard time building bridges. At this juncture, a “reconciliation commission” proposed by the parliamentary speaker, Koksal Toptan, could provide a possible strategy (www.cnnturk.com, March 13). The success of a new constitutional amendment package might hinge on Toptan’s ability to convince party leaders to put aside their differences and continue work on the necessary reforms.

https://jamestown.org/program/european-criticism-of-turkeys-party-closure-laws-reignites-debate-on-constitutional-reforms/

March 18, 2009
Science gives way to religious dogma in Turkey

By Ferruh Demirmen

The recent censorship of the Darwin story in the “Science and Technology Journal,” published by The Scientific and Technological Research Council (Tübitak) of Turkey, caused consternation in the scientific community in Turkey and beyond. Tübitak is the leading government agency established to advance science and technology in Turkey.

The censorship, first time of its kind in Tübitak’s 46-year history, was an event that would shame any respectful scientific organization.

The making of a scandal

The event started innocuously enough when the chief editor of the journal, Dr. Çiğdem Atakuman, decided to commemorate Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday by running a 16-page cover story on the scientist’s life and his theory of evolution in its March edition. Unesco, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, had declared 2009 as the Year of Darwin.

By established protocol in Tübitak, Atakuman had the authority to decide on the contents of the journal. But when Prof. Dr. Ömer Cebeci, a vice-president and member of the governing Science Board, found out about the Darwin article while it was at the press, the article and the photograph of Darwin on the cover page were peremptorily removed.

A revised March edition, missing 16 pages and one week late, was issued, and Atakuman was verbally fired from her editorial position (“re-assigned”). The cover page was replaced with one dealing with global climate change.

What Tübitak did not realize was that its actions were a recipe for a scandal.

Condemnation

The reaction from various quarters in Turkey and abroad was swift. Academics and students from various universities in Turkey gathered in front of the Tübitak building in Ankara to protest the censorship. Amid calls for the resignation of the Science Board, other academics, journalists, nongovernmental organizations and opposition politicians condemned Tübitak’s action. Turkish media gave wide coverage to the incident, and newspapers abroad weighed in.

Tübitak was caught in a storm it had not expected.

Voices of concern came from the Royal Society in London, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), EU politicians, and other foreign sources. Bloggers wasted no time on the Internet to chime in.

Science versus dogma

What lay at the core of these criticisms, and rightly so, was that science was being subjugated to the dictates of religious dogma. Darwin’s theory of evolution, while it forms one of the building stones of modern science, is incompatible with Islamic faith that man was created by God.

Data suggest that only 25 percent of Turks believe in evolution, some, including the education minister Hüseyin Çelik, associating it with atheism. Turkish theologians generally reject the idea that man evolved from lower beings.

There is, of course, a similar quandary with the Christian and Jewish faiths, but in the Turkish case Islamic teachings never stood in the way of evolutionary science. The academics and scientists managed to separate or reconcile evolution and Islamic faith, and the government did not interfere. They were free to practice and teach science including the theory of evolution.

That was in keeping with the secular fabric of the republic as established by Kemal Atatürk.

Tübitak itself featured Darwin many times in its journal in the past, and the event passed without any incident.

Islamic wind

The changeover in Tübitak’s stance on science, in particular the theory of evolution, is no accident. After the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002, the government has undertaken a relentless campaign to undermine secular education in Turkey. Elements of Islam have been injected into the educational system in various degrees, and religious schools have been promoted. Evolution has been relegated to second status in favor of creationism.

The government has implemented its Islamic policy through laws, regulations and partisan appointments (in some cases in “acting capacity’). The result is a highly politicized educational system from bottom up, including the Council of Higher Education (YÖK).

The shift in Tübitak is part of this politicization process. Beginning in January 2004, when the current president of the Science Board, Prof. Dr. Nüket Yetiş, was appointed in acting capacity, most members in senior administration resigned or were forced out. Amendments made to Tübitak’s charter in August 2008 gave the government substantial control over the institution.

Also in August 2008 Yetiş, whose appointment had previously been vetoed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, was appointed as the president of Tübitak by President Abdullah Gül. Yetiş reportedly has ties to Islamists.

Of the 12 members of the Science Board, 10 received their appointments during the AKP government.

So, at the core of the Darwin scandal was political pressure coming from the AKP.

Damage control

To remedy the embarrassment, Tübitak issued a statement denying censorship of the Darwin article and attributing the incident to “miscommunication.” It said there would be a special issue of the magazine later in 2009 covering Darwin.

A press release issued by Atakuman in reply, giving a detailed account of the events, however, left no doubt that censorship had taken place. Atakuman noted that after the incident she was reprimanded by Cebeci, her boss, in his office for pursuing a “provocative” subject in a “sensitive environment” – meaning the AKP rule.

Tübitak would be hard put to explain why the Darwin article was provocative.

Stung by criticism, the government, despite its well-known opposition to evolution, claimed it had played no role in the incident. Surprisingly – and perhaps not surprisingly – YÖK, the council overseeing higher education, declined to comment.

More fallout

What is most disconcerting about the Darwin incident is that it may stunt independent thinking and hinder science in Turkey. Science can only advance if it is free of ideology and religious dogma. Darwin’s theory of evolution is an integral part of science, and it must be disseminated, argued and researched without outside interference. Tübitak should promote, not hinder, such efforts.

It is no surprise that Prof. Dr. Tahsin Yeşildere, Head of the Association for University Lecturers, commented that “Turkish science is in the hands of anachronistic brains who hold it in contempt,” while Lord Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society, called the Darwin incident an example of “cultural corruption and . . . intellectual dishonesty.”

Nor is it a surprise that some EU politicians expressed disquiet, pointing out that the incident was a blatant violation of freedom of thought and scientific independence. Le Monde commented that Islamic groups in Turkey were waging war against Darwin.

Turkey’s prospect to join the EU, already shaky, will no doubt be affected.

What is also ironic, and disturbing, is that the Darwin censorship has taken place in a country that had benefited from Atatürk’s vision. Atatürk observed, eloquently, that “Science is the true guide in life.”

A disquieting thought

It has been 84 years since America had its bizarre “Scopes Trial” (“Monkey Trial”) in a Tennessee court. The trial was portrayed by some as a titanic struggle between good and evil, when in fact it was about truth and ignorance, or about light and dark.

Is it possible that Turkey may soon have its own “Scopes Trial”? That would be most unfortunate. But if the AKP, with its Islamic agenda, continues to meddle with science, it may come to that.

ferruh@demirmen.com

March 17, 2009
Turkish Economic Stimulus Package Foresees Temporary Tax Cuts in Automotive and Other Sectors

Turkish Economic Stimulus Package Foresees Temporary Tax Cuts in Automotive and Other Sectors

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 50

March 16, 2009 12:49 PM

By: Saban Kardas

The Turkish government announced a comprehensive economic stimulus package on Friday. The decision comes against the background of deteriorating economic indicators that signal a serious recession and mounting pressure from market players for the government to act swiftly to alleviate the crisis. Industrial production showed a record decline in January, falling 21.3 percent from the previous year (www.tuik.gov.tr, March 9). Accompanying drops in capacity utilization and growth figures and the rapid devaluation of the Turkish lira further exacerbated concerns about the economy.

The International Investors Association of Turkey (YASED) published the results of a recent survey conducted among its members. Investors shared pessimistic expectations for the Turkish economy in 2009 and anticipated a recovery only in 2010. Among the measures they expected to be taken were the introduction of an urgent economic package and the conclusion of a loan agreement with the IMF (www.yased.org.tr, March 11).

The government previously had maintained that the Turkish economy was better equipped than that of other countries to deal with the global financial crisis and would be able to survive the storm. The government therefore adopted a reluctant attitude toward negotiations with the IMF and sought to address the crisis with its own methods. It previously introduced three smaller packages, which did not satisfy expectations. Until now the most serious measure adopted by Ankara to avoid a recession was the decision made by the Central Bank in February to lower its benchmark interest rates to a record low of 11.5 percent. This move, however, was not sufficient enough to address the mounting economic problems in Turkey (Hurriyet Daily News, March 12).

The government appears to have acknowledged that irrespective of the Turkish economy’s strengths, shrinking world markets and the resulting contraction in foreign and domestic demand remain the main challenges and that more serious measures are needed to stimulate the economy. On March 13 the government announced a package of economic measures amounting to 5.5 billion Turkish liras ($3.2 billion). The package will introduce temporary tax cuts for three months in the housing, home appliances, and automotive sectors. The new regulations will lower the private consumption tax rates (OTV) on the automotive sector and remove the OTV completely on home appliances, while the value added tax (VAT) on apartments over 150 square meters (1,614 square feet) in size will be lowered from 18 to 8 percent. The package also foresees measures to boost exports by allocating an additional 500 million liras ($296 million) to Eximbank, a state-owned bank geared to supporting exporters (Anadolu Ajansi, March 13). Pending cabinet approval, the package is expected to be put into force within the week (Anadolu Ajansi, March 15).

The new tax regulations seek to stimulate domestic demand in Turkey’s leading industries. Industry Minister Zafer Caglayan explained the details of the reduction of the OTV on motor vehicles and said that it might be implemented as early as Monday. For automobiles with engines of up to 1,600 cubic centimeters, OTV will be reduced from 37 percent to 18 percent, and for vehicles with engines of between 1,600 and 2,000 cubic centimeters, it will be reduced from 6o percent to 40 percent (Anadolu Ajansi, March 15).

The representatives of major automobile producers had been expecting the government to make such a decision for some time, and overall they welcomed this development. They noted, however, that although the package might relieve the sector’s problems temporarily by helping reduce the current inventory, it would be insufficient alone to solve the structural demand-side problems of the sector. Representatives from other economic areas also pointed out that given the three-month time limit on the tax cuts, the package would fall short of expectations and fail to stimulate the economy in the long run. Representatives of the housing sector noted that since only 5 percent of Turkey’s total real estate consisted of homes of more than 150 square meters, reducing the VAT on property was not likely to have a major effect. The VAT on houses with fewer than 150 square meters is already 1 percent (www.ntvmsnbc.com, March 13).

In a related development, Turkey held direct talks with the IMF after a long break. Although the market players believe that an agreement with the IMF is urgently needed to restore confidence in the Turkish economy and reduce the volatility in financial markets, the government balked at such an accord. Turkey maintained that the conditions set forth by the IMF were “unacceptable” and against the country’s national interests, and indefinitely suspended direct talks with the IMF (EDM, January 29; February 18).

The IMF announced last week that it had forwarded new proposals to Turkey regarding three issues that had caused disagreements, and Economy Minister Mehmet Simsek said that the IMF had acted more flexibly toward Turkish sensitivities. The reports boosted the markets, helping the lira regain its strength after hitting an all-time low against the dollar (www.yurthaber.com, March 12). A Turkish delegation led by Simsek attended the G-20 Summit in London, where they met with IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsk. Upon his return to Turkey, Simsek told reporters that Turkey and the IMF had agreed on consultations and to exchange opinions on the new offer. Noting that Turkey and the IMF had an agreement of principle, Simsek stated that Turkey had taken the IMF’s benchmarks into account in introducing its own package and would be mindful of the medium-term financial implications of such short-term measures (Cihan Haber Ajansi, March 15).

It remains unclear how Turkey will finance the stimulus package, especially with further tax cuts; and a growing budget deficit set to increase this year. Nor is it clear at this stage whether incentives on consumption alone can really boost the economy without complementary measures to improve consumers’ income or decrease unemployment. Following local elections at the end of March, Turkey might finally go ahead and conclude the IMF loan agreement. With the IMF concerned about maintaining budgetary discipline and business circles seeking a more comprehensive economic recovery package, it is difficult to see how the government will find a middle road that will satisfy both parties.

https://jamestown.org/program/turkish-economic-stimulus-package-foresees-temporary-tax-cuts-in-automotive-and-other-sectors/

March 17, 2009