Muslim democrats must learn to respect ‘others’

Erdogan’s goverment is often too keen to show people ‘the right way’

A Turkish couple walk in central Istanbul earlier this month. After the bruising experience of a contested penal code reform, the AKP went into a three-day retreat at a mountain resort yesterday to smooth over their differences and prepare the year ahead. The Turkish press speculated a Cabinet reshuffle was high on the agenda.

By Burak Bekdil - Kathimerini English Edition

It kept very important men in Ankara and Brussels busy for two weeks and cost the Turkish Treasury more than $100 million in increased bond yields before Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan proved he knows no limits in making bizarre U-turns.

Within the span of a few days, Erdogan changed his rhetoric so sharply that he even surprised anyone with plausible knowledge of his past performance. In Ankara, Erdogan bluntly said that the EU could not meddle in Turkey’s domestic affairs, and that he would go ahead with his plans to outlaw adultery. In Brussels, an entirely different Erdogan said that adultery would not be outlawed as long as he is in office.

After the handshake in Brussels, the pro-EU camp in Turkey cared more about how the nightmare ended, and less about the personality of Erdogan. Back home, Erdogan was given a hero’s welcome because “he had salvaged Turkey’s EU bid.” Has anyone ever wondered who is to blame for the fact that Turkey’s EU bid had to be salvaged?

If the analogy is to be permitted, the adultery story is like the commander of the Turkish army, out of the blue, declaring war on an EU member state only a fortnight before the Commission releases its report on Turkish membership, and then, after intensive lobbying, promising that the Turkish army would not declare war on any state as long as he is in office. Would the commander be praised for his retreat as much as Erdogan has been? Not really.

Valuable lessons must have been drawn from the crisis too. The EU bigwigs must have had an idea about the “other side” of their favorite Turkish reformer — that there may in the future be many more cases of “incompatibility.”

And Erdogan must have better understood the club rules and norms: that (a) he must share power with Brussels as long as he keeps knocking on doors there, and (b) the EU at any time may “impose” decisions on Turkey even on matters that are not explicitly required by the Copenhagen criteria. It may not always be sufficient to obey written rules; unwritten norms must be obeyed too. That’s where the potential danger lies. Last week, one of Erdogan’s mayors revived the usual suspicion about Turkey’s ruling party.

Every Turkish child is taught that the Black Sea port of Samsun is where Mustafa Kemal Ataturk began building a modern, secular republic. After some investigative reporter videotaped how the city’s municipal police treated young couples sitting on benches by the promenade, the city appeared like some Ottoman town in the 17th century.

The video shows groups of municipal police, on motorbikes, guarding the promenade and warning off couples who look “too friendly.” Those who prefer to sit on the rocks by the seashore or under the trees for a romantic conversation are “kindly invited” to sit on the benches so that the police can see whether they go as far as “embracing or kissing in public.”

Students are discouraged from being on the promenade by threats of calls to their parents. According to municipal officials, all Erdogan’s fellow party members, this is to encourage students to “go home and study.” Once again, the other side of Erdogan and his men…

Erdogan’s critics suspected he would attempt to introduce the Sharia (Islamic law) into Turkey’s official and social fiber. They were wrong. Erdogan labels himself and his party as “Muslim democrats,” an apparent inspiration from Europe’s Christian democrats. But his conservatism is different from that in Europe.

In Erdogan’s ideal world, all Turks must embrace the traditional Muslim-Turkish values derived mostly from the Koran. There is nothing wrong with such thinking. But that is not all.

Muslim democrats like Erdogan often not only wish the others lived like them, but tend to “show the others the right way.” That’s where the trouble begins. No matter how veiled, the true intention shows up in many different shapes — disapproving looks at ladies who do not wear the Islamic headscarves, secretly banning alcohol consumption on minor government premises, discrimination in government offices against those who do not go to Friday prayers, the hatred in a pair of eyes for those who eat during Ramadan and many more… The trouble is, Turkish Muslim democrats, out of mere instinct, cannot tolerate non-Muslim democratic living.