Republic of Turkey had been established after the collapse of Ottoman
Empire by the remaining fractions of Committee of Union and Progress (İttihat
ve Terrakki Cemiyeti) which dates back to 1889 and reformed into ‘Young
Turks’. 1 By the members of this party, political Islam, often received as a threat
and an obstacle for modernization, has been marginalized as a legacy. True or
not, this had worked until the new millennium.
The Turkish society had undergone a series of revolutions such as
removal of sultanate (1922), educational reform (1924), tax regulations (1925),
dress code regulation (1925), changing civil laws from micelle (a form of Sharia
law) to a Swiss-based, more secular civil law (1926), introduction of
secularism (1928), women’s suffrage (1930; before
Spain (1931), Portugal (1931), France (1945), Italy (1945), Greece (1952), and
Switzerland (1958 – 1990 on cantonal level)) 2 and countless reforms / regulations / revolutions.
The effort in order to create a modern society with a dominant,
daily-intervening religion from a highly religious and used-to-be-liege
population is a highly demanding job. This
social engineering had partly
succeeded (approximately 35% - 40%
of current Turkey) in creating a secular population composed of individuals with
different political perceptions. After the transition to multi-party system, the
conservative fractions have always been in the political arena, but oppression remained
as a legacy. After the removal of the highly authoritarian and intolerantly secular
military control over the politics, the conservative fraction had gained power
gradually by creating alliances with the liberal and leftist fragments of the
society. The conservative fragment holds a very strong resentment, which has
incrementally increased over the years, against the Republic and its components.
The last military coup in Turkey had happened in 1980 in a quite
polarized world. The western allies of Turkey had seen the conservative
fragment as a reliable ally in Turkey against Soviet Russia and Turkish left. Therefore, due to this strong alliance, the conservative right has moved
forward, and gained ground faster than any other fragment in Turkey.
Turkey and the world should not forget that the conservative fraction of
the Turkish population remains as Middle Eastern; vengeful. As one of the
opposition MP, Şafak Pavey, says ‘You (pointing MP’s of AKP) have to stop being
vengeful, and to learn to be fair”. This is a highly critical point to be
re-emphasized since the ruling of majority on minority is sustainable, and substantially
may lead to a tyranny3.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_Union_and_Progress
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women's_suffrage
- http://youtu.be/l7ejCGkGoSo
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