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From: TADF@yahoogroups.com On Behalf Of Gusan7C@aol.comKuresel Elitleri Taniyalim (Video)
Kuresel Elitler:
(Elitler serisindeki yarinki konumuz, Turkiyeli elitler ve ABD’deki kontaklari.)
Gusan Yedic
From: TADF@yahoogroups.com On Behalf Of Gusan7C@aol.com
Günay Evinch: For me, it seemed natural and dutiful that as a second-generation Turkish American I should be helpful to my community Friday, 15 August 2008
Ikinci nesil Amerikali Türklerin öncülerinden olan Günay Evinch kendini ve Türk-Amerikan Dernekleri Asamblesi’ndeki gelismeleri anlatti.Uluslararasi Hukuk uzmani Avukat Günay Evinch Türk toplumu için bugüne dek yapmis oldugu çalismalarin tecrübesiyle daha iyi islere imza atacaginin isaretlerini veriyor.
Chicago’da dogan, San Francisco’da büyüyen ve ATAA’nin merkezinin bulundugu Washington DC’de yasayan ikinci jenerasyon bir Türk-Amerikali olan Günay Evinch, ATAA Baskan Yardimcisi görevinde bulunduktan sonra baskanlik görevine getirildi.
Turkishny’in Günay Evinch’le yaptigi ingilizce röportaji asagida bulabilirsiniz:
TurkishNY: You are the President-Elect of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) and will become President as early as this fall. Tell us about yourself.
Evinch: I am a second-generation Turkish American, was born in Chicago in 1963, grew up in San Francisco, and now reside and work in Washington DC where ATAA is headquartered. I have a Juris Doctor with an emphasis in international law, and Bachelors Degrees in Economics and Public Service. I am also a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in the Armenian matter and anti-terror. In 1993, I started my own law practice, Saltzman & Evinch, www.Turklaw.Net , with a Sephardic Jewish friend from law school.
I married a Turkish woman from Diyarbakir, Senem, who I met in Virginia. We have a wonder full three-year-old daughter, Lara. My wife is a designer of 11 years, but recently partnered to represent several high-end commercial furniture companies in the eastern United States region. My brother is an independent marketing specialist for companies such as Nestle, my sister selects GAP’s clothes collection from Turkey and Asia, and my brother-in-law is a project manager for a major American construction company.
TurkishNY: What is your ‘memleket’?
Evinch: The first time someone asked me this question, I responded, “Türkiye.” I soon realized it meant, “what part of Turkey are you from”, which underscored for me how equally important one’s hometown was to one’s homeland.
My family’s “memleket” is Manisa, a generally patriotic and conservative province of western Turkey. When the Greeks invaded Turkey in 1919 they ravaged Manisa, as they did the entire western Turkish region. When the Greeks fled Ataturk’s forces three years later, they burned Manisa to the ground, and in a grotesque show of hatred, drove stakes through young girls and women and erected their corpses along the roads. These pictures are vivid reminders for the Turks of the Aegean.
My parents grew up in Manisa as children of refugees from Ottoman Macedonia. My great-grand fathers had partnered with Macedonian Jews in trading leather between Kumanova and Vienna, and with Macedonian Christians in owning and operating Turkish coffee houses in Skopje. When European nationalism and WWI brought an end to Ottoman multiculturalism, hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Jews and Muslims fled ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Balkans, as they did in the Caucasus and Middle East. The Turkish Republic opened its arms to these refugees, and my family is forever grateful. We became loyal members of the Turkish citizenry. “Ne mutlu Türküm diyene.” We have a warm affinity for Macedonia, where now our distant relatives who still speak a form of Turkish, live peacefully.
TurkishNY: Your parents were second generation Turkish Republicans, and you are a second generation Turkish American. Tell us about the transition.
Evinch: My father remembers from his childhood that his family had a chest full of Austrian money. He made paper boats from the cash, as the money was worth nothing. Having lost everything, my grandfathers started from zero in Manisa, first farming, then selling produce and fish, and finally producing leather once again. Eventually, the leather business grew. Many leather goods say “Made in Italy”, but much of the leather is from Turkey.
Among ten uncles and aunts, my father was the only one who went to college; he won scholarships to Yildiz University and then the University of Michigan. My mother went to the Kiz Meslek Lisesi where she learned to be a seamstress. My parents immigrated to the United States in the 1950s. My father became an engineer and my mother a seamstress in a factory in Chicago. Eventually, my father obtained a good position with Bechtel, and we moved to the corporate headquarters in San Francisco.
TurkishNY: How was it growing up as a second generation Turkish American?
Evinch: In the 1970s, I grew up with Italian American sin the San Francisco Bay area. As much I learned from them, they learned from my Turkish heritage. For example, all the mothers in my neighborhood had their children and their children’s’ friends take off shoes before entering the house. Mothers knew where their kids were by the row of shoes in front of the house.
While my parents were trying to integrate with America, they were teaching me my Turkish heritage. Speaking Turkish at home was the law. Also, I had Turkish language lessons after school every day. On weekends, while my friends were at Church Sunday School, I was at “Saturday School”, learning the history and principles of the Muslim religion from three Tatar women Imams in an activity room of a synagogue, as we did not have a Turk Evi or mosque.
In 1986, on my first law case, I changed the spelling of our last name from its original “Övünç” to “Evinch”, to achieve a phonetic spelling, rather than a literal spelling, because how my last name sounded was more important to me than how it was spelled.
TurkishNY: How did you become involved in Turkish American leadership at the national level?
Evinch: I was active in Turkish American activism at a very young age, as my parents were the proud children of the Turkish Republic and eager to teach Americans about Turkey and Turkish culture.
Turkish Americans are at least two generations behind their Armenian and Greek counterparts in civic engagement and politics. For me, it seemed natural and dutiful that as a second-generation Turkish American I should be helpful to my community.
Thanks to the constant encouragement of my parents and the role model that Ataturk played in our family, I started at a young age to take in interest in community service. As small as it my sound, I was President of my junior high school, Men’s Sports Commissioner in high school, and Captain of the California U-14 and U-16 Soccer Teams. Eventually, I became Vice-President of my university and President of law school. My university had only one Turk – me – but I still started the Turkish Students Union there with my Italian American friend – Vice President Benvenuto.
After I came out to Washington DC in 1988, I volunteered for the ATAA, first as Sports Writer, and then as Legal Counsel. I was eventually elected Secretary General, and Capital Region Vice President of ATAA. I received the ATAA Meritorious Service Award.
Public service is a passion of mine, second to soccer! Just kidding, but I must admit that one of my favorite hobbies is keeping Turkish National Soccer Team statistics. I have a large video library of Turkish National soccer games.
TurkishNY: Congratulations on your election as President-Elect. Can you tell us about the controversy that surrounded your candidacy?
Evinch: It was the first time in ATAA history that two qualified candidates ran for the office of President-Elect. In the beginning, September 2006, the Board of Directors’ Nominations Committee told me that though I qualified to be a candidate, the Committee had promised the position to my opponent — that this practice of promising the high position of President-Elect, therefore President, to a pre-selected person and offering ATAA members only one candidate as their leader was an ATAA tradition. I had never heard of such an absurd tradition. I had always thought that the Nomination Committee did not have a sufficient pool of nominees from which to select candidates for the position of President-Elect.
Nevertheless, I responded that such a tradition was unethical, illegal under the bylaws, and undemocratic. I responded that I qualified under the bylaws and that I should at least be permitted to be a candidate. I also offered that Turkish Americans should be permitted to become members of the ATAA as late in the election cycle as possible so that more people can vote and in order to raise money for ATAA. I also offered that who ever loses shall assist the winner, as it is the mission, not the position, that matters. The Nomination Committee disagreed 3-2.
I expressed my disagreement to the Board of Directors and excused my self from all Board meetings that concerned me because I did not believe it would be ethical to use my Board Member voting power to my advantage. As a result, the Board of Directors overruled its Nomination Committee, and overwhelmingly decided that:(1) the “tradition” that three of the five Nomination Committee members defended was unethical, illegal, and undemocratic; and (2) I qualified to be a candidate under the two election criteria of the bylaws, which are that I had demonstrated my potential as an ATAA volunteer since 1988, and that my geographical location in Washington, DC was suitable.
So, I was placed on the election ballot in the last minute. As my opponent had been given a mailing list that she used to campaign to each member of the ATAA, I was provided the same mailing list, but with very little time remaining in the campaign cycle. With such little time, I was not able to campaign, but managed to win the October 2006 election for the office of President-Elect 91-83.
TurkishNY: But your victory was short-lived when the November 2006Delegates Meeting voided your election aweek later?
Evinch: For those who do not know, Delegates are representatives of ATAA’ s component organizations. Each component organization that is in good standing gets two delegate votes, plus one additional delegate vote for each additional 100 members. Delegates vote for bylaws and policy changes, but not on officer nominations and elections, as those powers are specifically granted to the Board of Directors and individual members under the bylaws.
Nevertheless, the November 2006 Delegates Meeting was quite a democracy by anarchy, or should I say, anarchy by democracy? First, delegates were mislead to void the popular vote that had elected me, arguing that the Board of Directors did not have the authority to correct the illegal decision of its Nominations Committee. Amazingly, the Delegates unanimously voted that I indeed did qualify to run for the office of President-Elect, ironically confirming the Board of Directors decision. But, rather than permit the membership to vote, the Delegates decided to vote in place of the membership – a severe violation of the bylaws. Thus, an election I had won 91-83 in the popular vote, I lost 78-30 in the illegal and elitist Delegates vote. Something smelled “fishy”, as the American saying goes.
TurkishNY: Well, your Delegates defeat was also short-lived?
Evinch: Before I get to that, I would like to express that the engineers of the Delegates meeting inflicted tremendous embarrassment and emotional hardship upon me. They maliciously, recklessly and deliberately took away from me an election that I had earned with hard work and honesty.
I shook hands with the supposed victor of the November 2006 Delegates meeting. But, deep inside, I was crushed and confused. I left the Delegates meeting knowing that a great wrong had been done. I thought that members should have been given a genuine choice of leadership and permitted to vote directly for their leaders. I also thought that I should have been given a fair chance, having volunteered so long and so hard for ATAA and the Turkish American community.
Before I departed the Delegates Meeting, I asked some of the more passionate supporters of my opponent, who were now drunk with victory, “Ok, now that I am gone, what does ATAA gain by placing me on the sideline?” One of them seemed to pity my naivety, “Günay, Günay – Can’t you see, the President is in Michigan, and now the President-Elect is in Texas. So – the ATAA is left to us.” I didn’t know what he was talking about. I separated my self from ATAA for the next two months, December of 2006 and January of 2007.
Meanwhile, ATAA hired a law firm, Miles & Stockbridge, who are experts on non-profit organizations. They determined that the November 2006 Delegates meeting was a fraud because:(1) Delegates have no authority over election matters;(2) Delegates have no authority to override the votes of the membership;(3) many of the Delegates and the component organizations which such Delegates claimed to represent were not certified; and, (4) the certification process was deliberately circumvented. Indeed, as it turned out, at least one of the component organizations by its own internal judicial proceeding determined that its chief delegate had committed election fraud and claimed false delegate votes to use in favor of my opponent.
Importantly, the Miles & Stockbridge law firm also determined that when the Nominations Committee initially voted 3-2 not to nominate me despite my qualifications, it had acted arbitrarily and for personal reasons.
TurkishNY: If the November 2006 Delegates elections were illegal, were the October 2006 elections therefore held valid?
Evinch: Miles & Stockbridge also determined that the October 2006 elections were illegal because insufficient time had been provided to the ATAA Members to consider its voting options. Miles & Stockbridge advised ATAA to re-hold proper elections in June 2007. Again, my opponent and I were nominated for the position of President-Elect, and again we ran against each other. This time, I campaigned with plenty of time, published a campaign website www.VoteEvinch.org , and wrote letters to each voting member of ATAA. This time, the ATAA Members voted in record numbers and elected me 183-60. I had doubled my votes, while my opponent had lost 25% of her support.
TurkishNY: So, there were a total of three elections: the October 2006 and November 2006 elections which were illegal; and the June 2007 elections which were advised by Miles & Stockbridge, and this time the losers sued ATAA?
Evinch: No, my opponent did not sue ATAA; six of her most ardent supporters sued ATAA. She is a simply a pawn in the peculiar crusade of the plaintiffs, as admitted to me by one of her supporters in the November 2006 Delegates Meeting, when he stated: “Can’t you see, the President is in Michigan, and now the President-Elect is in Texas. So – the ATAA is left to us.” Well, the ATAA membership can see much better now — much better.
The official name of the case, which was filed in the courts of Washington DC is, Açikalin v. ATAA. The plaintiffs are Tamer Açikalin, Turan Tombul, Mustafa Ercilasun, Mustafa Hatipoglu, Suzan Demircan, and Ece Akaydin. They sued to void the general elections of June 2007 and to install directors of their own choosing. They also sued to ask the court to validate what they call the “Interim Board of Directors (IBOD)” which they had gerry built in an make-shift meeting in February 2007. The “IBOD” is as imaginary, as its activities on behalf of the ATAA since are non-existent. The current Board is the real board of ATAA, and the current Board is who has taken ownership of the ATAA and the Turkish American cause.
While the plaintiffs have dragged ATAA through the courts, ATAA has defended the Turkish American community and U.S.-Turkish relations in very difficult times, against the Armenian Resolution, PKK propaganda, and Greek Cypriot violations against Turkish Cypriots in Washington, DC. The case of Açikalin v. ATAA continues to this date.
TurkishNY: The Armenian American press and some of the plaintiffs’ supporters have characterized Açikalin v. ATAA as a case by ATAA officers against each other. Is this true?
Evinch: No, it is a big fat lie. Açikalin v. ATAA is lawsuit by six persons acting in their individual capacities against the ATAA organization, for their personal claims.
The alarming part is that five of the plaintiffs also sit on the Board of Trustees of the ATAA, and have used their roles as Trustees as covers for their personal claims against ATAA. They have also used their Trustee powers to their personal advantage in their lawsuit by placing ATAA under financial duress. They have also deliberately prevented the ATAA Board of Trustees from functioning, by constituting a majority on of the Trustees and failing to carryout fundamental duties of the ATAA Board of Trustees, such as: (1) maintain and grow the Endowment Fund, which has fallen from $1 million to $850,000; (2) endorse and act upon the 2007 and 2008 budgets; and, (3) release earned interest income from the Endowment Fund to the ATAA Operations Account to fund the ATAA’s overhead costs. Each day the plaintiffs prevent the Board of Trustees from releasing operating costs to the ATAA, the choose to sink those hard-earned funds into the stock market loss.
On top of that, Açikalin v. ATAA, has cost the ATAA approximately $100,000, in legal defense costs. This is in addition to the $20,000 cost of Miles & Stockbridge’s services to run the June 2007 elections properly.
It is as if some one sues you and puts a hold on your checking account and paychecks; it is cowardice and evil. From the perspective of the Turkish American cause, it is treasonous. For this reason, the Armenian Press published and article titled, “The Perfect Time”, which stated that it was a perfect time to pass the Armenian resolution when the plaintiffs were suing ATAA. Well, as it turned out, both the Armenian lobby and the plaintiffs were proven wrong. But will we win again? The Armenian resolution promises to come back with even greater force after the Presidential elections in November.
For this reason, the ATAA has counter-sued the plaintiffs for the severe financial and operational damage they have inflicted upon the ATAA by abusing their Trustee powers to the advantage of their personal lawsuits against the ATAA.
TurkishNY: How has ATAA managed to keep the doors open and accomplish so much?
Evinch: What I call the “silent, mainstream, majority” has taken ownership of ATAA. First and foremost, ATAA members have contributed over $50,000 to the ATAA since January 2007. Secondly, ATAA has received grants of over $120,000 for non-operational purposes.
Importantly, members of the Board of Directors, office staff and volunteer have dedicated long, hard hours to the Turkish American cause at ATAA. I thank and commend my team of noble fighters.
Fourthly, political pressure and legal consequences have forced the plaintiffs to take off their plaintiff hats and put on their Trustee hats just for one day, and release funds to pay for ATAA’s rent, which had not been paid since January 2007.
The ATAA membership and Board of Directors will continue to demand that the plaintiffs act like Trustees first, and plaintiffs secondly, at least through the completion of their terms this November. I do not expect that the plaintiffs will want to run for ATAA office again and become Trustees of the organization they are suing. A Trustee is a person in whom a Member places his/her trust for the benefit, not the demise, of the organization.
TurkishNY: What is the big picture here?
Evinch: I have come to the conclusion that the vociferous few are attempting to hijack ATAA from the silent mainstream majority of Turkish Americans. Açikalin v. a ATAA is crude resistance to a necessary evolution which includes: (1) older generations conveying leadership to younger generations, and (2) enabling second and third-generation Turkish Americans to employ their language skills and American institutional knowledge and experience to the advantage of the Turkish American community. The Greeks and Armenians went through these two generations ago, we are going through it today.
But, the Turkish American community cannot afford to be sidetracked from within. Though the ATAA has achieved some amazing progress since the beginning of 2007, the case of Açikalin v. ATAA has forced ATAA to fight with one hand tied behind its back. I firmly believe we will break these chains and continue our mission with even more determination.
TurkishNY: Thank you for taking the time to speak to TurkishNY. We look forward to Part 2 (Defending ATAA in the Açikalin Lawsuit), and Part 3 (ATAA’s Vision and Mission in 2009-10).
Evinch: Thank you.
TurkishNY.com
meals.
Izmir-based Azerbaijan Culture Center began signature campaign demanding not to open the Turkish-Armenian border until the withdrawal of Armenian occupier forces from the Azerbaijani lands, APA reports with reference to CHA agency. (more…)
Turkey is more and more often lending expertise and instruction in combating illegal drug trafficking, sharing with other nations what it has learned in the course of its successful campaign against such illegal activities.
The Turkish Police Academy for Combating International Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime (TADOC) has provided courses to nearly 2,000 people from 58 countries on how to tackle drug-related crime.
A TADOC report says they trained 270 police from 26 countries in 2004; 280 police from 23 countries in 2005; and 446 police from 32 countries in 2007. In addition, over 400 foreign police officers attended TADOC training courses in the first half of 2008. Police officers who are trained in Turkey in turn go on to become trainers for officers in their countries.
TADOC courses have trained 121 Kosovars, 56 Afghans, 23 Azerbaijanis and many others, including participants from Germany, China, Guinea, Holland, Pakistan, Mongolia, Malta, Syria and Sudan.
Police departments from Asia, Africa, Europe and America send participants to TADOC courses, which are supported by the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) and other economic cooperation organizations. Upon Turkey’s success in tackling drug dealers of the Golden Triangle — centered in Afghanistan and where the largest amount and highest quality opium is produced and distributed — the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and NATO requested that Turkey organize another training program in 2008.
Turkey also organized four training programs for Afghan officers in cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in order to strengthen the capabilities of official Afghan bodies in combating drug trafficking. Later, Pakistani police officers were also trained in the programs. Police officers from another key part of the Golden Triangle, Tajikistan, have also received training in Turkey.
Courses on HIV/AIDS and officer exchanges
TADOC also organizes courses on HIV/AIDS, training representatives from Balkan countries such as Romania, Serbia and Macedonia.
In a capacity-building program in the western Balkans and Mediterranean region through the targeted drug law enforcement exchange (Lex-Pro), which was organized under the leadership of UNODC, police officers from countries like France, Belgium, Holland and Egypt came to Turkey for training programs. TADOC officers also traveled to those countries to take courses on drug trafficking.
In a recent report released by the Turkish Security General Directorate, Turkey was listed as the second most successful country, after China, in exposing illegal drug trade. Last year alone, the total volume of illegal drugs seized in Turkey exceeded the volume seized in all European countries.
The report states that in 444 operations conducted in 2007, 4,842 drug smugglers were caught while 2,067 kilograms of marijuana, 63 kilograms of heroin, 141 kilograms of opium, 11 kilograms of cocaine, 3,444 Captagon pills and 627,591 Ecstasy pills were found. The report also showed that the number of drug smugglers increased by 48 percent compared to statistics from 2006.
16 August 2008, Saturday
ERCAN YAVUZ ANKARA
Source: Today’s Zaman, 16 August 2008
By Emrullah Uslu
Friday, August 15, 2008
Two important political events have deeply influenced General Basbug’s political outlook. The first occurred from September 5 to 7, 1955, when a rumor that Ataturk’s home had been bombed in Greece led to violent demonstrations, which later tuned into a campaign against Turkish citizens of Greek and Armenian origin and their shops in Istanbul. After three days of chaos, one Turkish Armenian and 16 Turkish Greek citizens had been killed; and thousands of Turkish citizens of Greek origin, including Basbug’s neighbors in Kuzguncuk, were forced to flee from Turkey (Tempo, May 8).
The second event was the 1960 military coup. The events of 1960s left graduates of the Turkish Military Academy, including Basbug, unsympathetic toward military coups (Tempo, May 8). Perhaps because of the traumatic events of the 1960s, Basbug adopted a “survival-strategy” within the military bureaucracy, but this has by no means made him a naïve commander. He is very outspoken about the developments in northern Iraq and particularly the problem of Kirkuk. In June 2004 Basbug told reporters that “political attempts to change the demographics of Kirkuk in favor of one ethnic group [Kurds] have been continuing.” Such attempts to alter Kirkuk’s demographics would endanger the unity of Iraq and create a serious security problem for Turkey (www.tsk.mil.tr, July 8, 2004). The following November, General Basbug stated, “If the Kurds control the oil fields, it would lead to a civil war in Iraq.” In his inaugural speech as Commander of the Land Forces on August 25, 2006, Basbug hardened his tone: “given the fact that some states [the United States] and groups [the Kurdish leadership in northern Iraq] do not take effective measures against the PKK terror before finding a solution for the Kirkuk problem, we should develop strategies to force them” to do so (www.tsk.mil.tr, August 25, 2006). Basbug thinks that the developments in northern Iraq, including the Kirkuk problem, are more dangerous for Turkey’s security than the PKK threat (Hurriyet, September 27, 2007).
Another issue that Basbug is passionate about is Cyprus. In 2007 he said, “I was a junior officer when the events of 1963-1964 and 1967 were taking place in Cyprus. I was a captain at the operation center in Ankara during the Turkish military’s Cyprus operation in 1974. We consider the Cyprus problem a national problem. Our goal is to maintain the development of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), its sovereignty, and its peoples’ prosperity” (Sabah January 23, 2007). Political efforts have increased on both sides of the island to find a solution (www.bianet.org, May 13), but an eventual agreement might not be to Basbug’s liking.
Basbug is now in a firm position to maintain the durability of the nation-state. He thinks that “without maintaining the structure of nation-state, it is not possible to maintain the unity of the state (www.tsk.mil.tr. August 25, 2006). Like his predecessors, Basbug also believes that the Turkish nation-state has two challenges. The first is the Kurdish question. On this issue, Basbug, like the rest of the security establishment, is deeply committed to eradicating the PKK through any means possible, including harsh military repression (Sabah, October 5, 2007). Unlike many of his colleagues, however, he is realistic enough to acknowledge the social and economic aspects of the problem and engage in criticism toward former policies that “failed to prevent people from joining the PKK” (Sabah, October 5, 2007). Basbug is, however, by no means sympathetic to the idea of providing political rights to the Kurds (Milliyet, October 28, 2006).
Basbug’s thinks that the second challenge to the foundations of the nation-state is Islamic reactionarism, irtica. In an opening address at a ceremony of the Turkish Military Academy in 2006, Basbug made the irtica debate public, stating that there was a threat of irtica against the state. Since then, Basbug has been the foremost advocate of this view.
With regard to irtica, domestic developments are against Basbug’s position. An overwhelming majority of Turks are sympathetic toward moderate Islamic government and social networks and do not consider the networks a threat to the state. In that area, Basbug has no public support. Basbug, who has a Western orientation, recently found himself in a political environment led by neo-nationalist movements unsympathetic to the West. Under the influence of these movements, Basbug went so far as to suggest that Turkey needed a “local bourgeoisie” that subscribed to protecting and maintaining the Turkish revolution (Milliyet, December 1, 2006)
Political circumstances and international developments are not on Basbug’s side. If he insists on an isolationist political perspective and tries to use his power to replace the new middle class political figures with neo-nationalist politicians, he is likely to face political confrontation at best or political chaos at worst.
The new ’moderate’ Turkey
By Robert Ellis, August 15 2008
Under AKP rule Turkey has become a Big Brother state where critical journalists risk arrest.
Since the AKP (Justice and Development Party) came to power in 2002, and especially in the last year, Turkey’s development has taken an Orwellian turn.
For the first three years things went well and the AKP government continued with the reform program embarked on by the previous coalition government. But since Turkey started accession negotiations with the European Union in October 2005, the zeal for reform has lost momentum.
Together with the reform packages aimed at opening the gate to the Promised Land, there was a parallel development designed to secure the AKP’s grip on Turkey. The preamble to the Turkish constitution establishes that “there shall be no interference whatsoever by sacred religious feelings in state affairs and politics” but this is exactly what the AKP has done.
In Sepember 2006 General Ilter Basbug, who has just been appointed Chief of Staff, warned of “intentional, patient and systematic attempts” to erode what the Turkish republic has achieved since it was founded in 1923. At the same time the higher echelons of the state administration and particularly inside education have been replaced with the party faithful. For example, last year 4,500 people were appointed as principals and deputy principals, two-thirds of whom were affiliated with the governing party.
God’s will
The year after the AKP came to power its parliamentary majority voted to appoint 15,000 new imams instead of a proposed 1,500 for the country’s more than 77,000 mosques. But the move was blocked by the International Monetary Fund, which as a condition for a $16 billion loan had limited the total number of new jobs in the health, education, police and religious services to 34,000 that year.
Another move which has pleased the AKP’s grass roots has been to ease the restrictions on Koran courses, which have since almost doubled. One consequence was the recent gas explosion in a ramshackle building in Konya province, where an illegal Koran course was being held. As a result, 18 young girls were killed but this was ascribed by the parents to God’s will.
The government has also increased quotas for enrollment at religious high schools by 66 percent, compared to only 8 percent for standard high schools, but the AKP has not yet succeeded in gaining admission to the universities for these students on an equal footing with the others.
The question of whether female university students should be allowed to wear the Islamic headscarf has been at the root of the clash between the government and secular supporters in Turkey. The AKP’s attempt in February to change the constitution to make this possible was annulled by the Constitutional Court, and at the end of July the party’s state subsidy was halved as a punishment for becoming “the center of acts against the principle of secularism”. However, there is no reason to believe that the AKP intends to deviate from its present course.
The AKP has also laid its hand on the Higher Education Board, whose chairman was appointed by the government in March. President Gül, the AKP’s former foreign minister, has just chosen 21 new university rectors from lists prepared by the Board, and consequently bypassed a number of candidates chosen by the universities. This has been considered as yet another blow to the universities’ autonomy and tit for tat for the refusal by many rectors to allow the Islamic headscarf.
Ergenekon
A clear indication of the AKP’s mindset is the proposal put forward by the party’s deputy chairperson, Edibe Sözen, with the intention of protecting Turkey’s youth.
This includes compulsory prayer rooms at all schools, a ban on entering Internet cafes for young people under 18 and the registration of anyone buying pornography.
Edibe Sözen claims there is similar legislation in Germany but because of a strong reaction from different groups in society the proposal has been withdrawn.
At the same time as the Constitutional Court deliberated over the future of the AKP, the government launched a counter-offensive in the form of the so-called Ergenekon case, where the public prosecutor has in a 2,500-page indictment charged 86 people with being members of a terrorist organization opposed to the government. This allegedly includes a number of critical journalists, including the 84-year-old editor of a secular daily, who was dragged out of his sickbed at four in the morning.
Turkey has just marked the 100th anniversary of the lifting of press censorship but this has also been overshadowed by the Ergenekon case. In this connection the Turkish Journalists Association issued a written statement, deploring that the number of journalists taken into custody for alleged claims that they disrupt the government is increasing.
The AKP government has tightened its grip on the Turkish media through the controversial sale of the Sabah-ATV media group to Calik Holding, which is owned by a close friend of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, and where Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law is the general manager. The purchase sum of $1.1 billion was financed by two loans totalling $750 million from two state banks and the rest from a Qatar-based company. Moreover, KanalTurk, which was formerly anti-government, has been bought by an AKP associate.
An eery dimension is that Turkey is being transformed into a Big Brother society.
According to Soner Cagaptay from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Turkish journalists believe the AKP government has intercepted more than 1.5 million phone and email conversations involving its secular opponents. And Transport Minister Binali Yildirim has admitted: “It is not possible to prevent being listened to; the only way is not to talk [on the phone]. If there is nothing illegal in our actions, we should not be concerned about such things.”
An AKP deputy interviewed by The Economist claims Prime Minister Erdogan has become a tyrant and the editor of the Middle East Quarterly, Michael Rubin, has dubbed him “Turkey’s Putin”. Taking this into account, the question is how long Turkey can maintain its image as a spokesman for “moderate Islam”.
Robert Ellis is a frequent commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish press and since 2005 also in Turkish Daily News. However, after a critical article on the AKP in the Los Angeles Times in March, he was informed by TDN’s editor he was ‘persona non grata’.
