Meet Turkey

[Anonymouse]

Modern Turkey as founded by Mustafa Kemal is a grand example of how far myth making and nationalism go, and often leading to the destruction of others in order to establish your own nation-state. The "grandeur" that is the Turkish Republic is not what it seems. From afar it may seem like a 'successful democracy', but upon closer examination it is a big web of contradictions. It's pending status to join the EU is nothing more than political mood swings on behalf of both parties. Notions of Turkish "democracy" are simply a pipe dream within a pipe dream. It's "secular" nature is held by a thread. If Istanbul is the most "European" in its effrontery, other parts of Turkey still thinks they live in an Islamic state.

 

The notions of Turkish "democracy" are a myth for many reasons, not the least of which involves laws against those who mention genocide. For if truth is on your side, why must there be laws to criminalize those who dare question conventional wisdom? In Europe, there are laws in place to fine, persecute, and jail people who question the veracity of the Holocaust. Europeans self consciously pass themselves off as "democracies", yet free speech is not allowed. Turkey calls itself a democracy yet free speech is not allowed. You will find that they have more in common than they think.

 

Often times, we hear arguments in favor for the "success" of the Turkish nation-state in its ability to adopt democracy. This viewpoint rests on faulty assumptions such as Mustafa Kemal had popular support in a war of national liberation. It has become the mythologized event by which Turks see themselves. And ever since there has been a Turkish cult of personality which has developed around Mustafa Kemal. So the supposed success of modern Turkish "democracy" is that Ataturk established a state where non had existed before. Contrary to the Ottoman Empire, this new state limited itself to the Anatolian peninsula and had no imperial rule. It's people redefined themselves as Turks and Turkish citizens, as opposed to Ottomans or Ottoman citizens.

 

Mustafa Kemal abolished Islamic courts, the caliphate, and other religious endowments, and established turkey as a 'secular' state in which private beliefs were tolerated. However, this notion of secularism and democracy is misleading. The treatment of Kurds in its country has been a taint on the Turkish government. Furthermore, in 1950 the Democratic Party surrounded itself in Islamic imagery. In 2002, the Justice and Development Party, which has Islamic roots, won two thirds of the seats in parliament. The other notion that Kemal had popular support is unfounded. In fact, from its inception of the war for "national liberation" it has had opposition, both from Turks and non Turks. Turks, because many of them didn't want to abandon Islamic roots; non-Turks because, well let's face it, non-Turks and Turks have no love lost between them.

 

So because Mustafa Kemal's efforts to make modern Turkey into a "democratic" and "secular" state met with opposition, it has been enforced and maintained by repression and so Turkish democracy works until it doesnt, which is why the Turkish military took emergency powers in 1960, 1971, 1980, and recently in 1997. So roughly every 10 years or so, the Turkish military has to purge certain elements to maintain its secular image, a precedent no doubt established by the founder Mustafa Kemal. Oh joy to Turkish democracy and its ascension into the EU, may they have many parties celebrating their contradictions.

[gamavor]

Turkey is one big lie. The biggest lie the West ever produced. A never ending "Midnight Express"....tu, tuuuu