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| Volume XIV, Fall 2007, Number 3 |
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EXCERPT
Crisis in Turkey: The Conflict Of Political Languages
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| M. Hakan Yavuz / Nihat Ali Özcan |
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Dr. Yavuz is an associate professor at the University of Utah. Dr. Özcan is
a senior researcher at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey
(TEPAV) and a lecturer at the TOBB University of Economics and
Technology in Ankara.
Turkish democracy continues to
fluctuate between contending
poles. This includes conflict
between republicanism and
democracy, majoritarian and consensual
democracy, French and American versions
of secularism, and civic and ethnic nationalism. The conflict is over not only the
principles of the Turkish Republic, but also
two competing definitions of nation, state,
secularism and democracy. Indeed, this
conflict of political norms, values and
symbols has the potential to stop the
consolidation of Turkish democracy.
Although there is a powerful class dimension
to the current crisis, the politics of
lifestyle (or cultural confrontation) has
become the main axis of the conflict; and
this, in turn, prevents the analysis of intraclass
conflict within each cultural sector of
society. Even though the Islamic movement
under the political leadership of the Adalet
ve Kalkinma Partisi, Justice and Development
party (AKP), presents itself as the
champion of the poor and needy, its
leadership shares more with the secular
bourgeoisies pattern of consumerism.
The main problem in Turkey is the
radical polarization of society, which is an
outcome of Turkeys political ethos of
creating a secular and national society
through the means of the state. This ethos
was established over the last century, and
any potential drift towards a more religious
state (or society) causes waves of concern
throughout the secular establishment. The
presidential election process once more has
revealed these deep-seated fears and
ethno-religious cleavages. One may call
the secular establishments fears exaggerated;
however, the AKP government must
take them seriously and deal with them. If
the Turkish experience of democratic
evolution into a moderate Islamic movement
fails, it will be a setback for modern
Islamic movements in the whole Middle
East region. Moreover, Turkish experiments
in secularism, democracy, nation
building and the transformation of Islamic
movements are becoming globalized.
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