Turkish military commander warns against Islamization of society
General İlker Başbug defends military's traditional role to guard state secularity and refers to the threat of increased power among religious communities.
Ankara (AsiaNews) Turkish military commander, General İlker Başbug, speaks out strongly against the threat of Islamism in Turkey. In a speech to military academy cadets for the opening of the new academic year, the commander stated that the reactionary threat has reached alarming levels due to the increased power held by religious communities in economic and political fields. He also rejected criticism from Europe, defending the military's right to have a voice in the country's socio-political affairs.
As is known, with Turkey's request to become part of the European Union, there has been discussion in Europe on the role played by armed forces in Turkish social and political life. In fact, one condition for entry to the E.U. entry is the absence of influence or interference by the military in political and administrative questions of the state. Still valid is the warning made by the vice-president of the European Commission, Guenter Verheugen: "As long as it is military power through the National Security Council, which defines itself as bastion of the lay state and defender of Kemalist ideology controlling politics and not politics controlling the military, I cannot imagine how Turkey can become an E.U. member."
Just yesterday, in responding to criticisms made by E.U.'s envoy, Hanjoerg Kretschmer, who had said that military officials are in the habit of expressing their opinion on all matters, Başbug stated that the military has the right to have its say when it is a question of defending secularity and nationalism. "Turkish armed forces have always defended and will continue to defend the nation state, the unitary state and the lay state," he stated yesterday in Ankara.
The military's role as guarantor of Kemalist secularity has come at a high price for the country in terms of the formation of a very costly military bureaucracy and the systematic repression of any form of fanaticism. The military was called to defend nationalism and secularity and in defending these values has organized not less than four coups d'état. The first took place in 1960 and was followed by others in 1971, 1980 and 1997, each time to protect the state against both Islamic groups and against leftist parties that began to influence excessively the country's public life.
Thus, from the beginning, the military has been a pillar on which the republic was founded and it has subsequently defined, to a large extent, the norms of behaviour of the republic's political elites. This is the main reason for which elements and norms of military behaviour, such as heroism, authority and discipline, prevail in Turkish society today.
Leaders of the new Turkish Republic had, in fact, a military background and organized it as a homogenous nation state, at the expense of ethnic and religious minorities.
Turkey's father and founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk himself was a military general who had studied at the Istanbul War Academy and had served in the Ottoman army.
In creating the Turkish Republic, in 1925, from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, Atatürk sought to "cleanse and elevate Islamic faith, freeing it of its role as political instrument" and in 1937 cancelled the article of the Constitution that proclaimed Islam state religion.
His main objective was to give rise to a process for the construction of a national Turkish identity, together with a strong degree of Westernization which was considered to be indispensable for Turkey's survival. He wished to transform a downfallen country into a modern and civilized state: for him and other reformists, civilization meant "Western civilization." This was the line underpinning Atatürk's reforms which included the abolition of the Sultanate, the Caliphate, the Ulema, and Sharia, the adoption of a new civil code modelled after Switzerland's, the substitution of the Arabic alphabet with the Latin, the elimination of words of Arabic and Persian origin, the passage from the lunar to the solar calendar, the substitution of Friday with Sunday as the day of rest and the recognition of political rights for women. These measures were not thought up so much to eliminate Islam or Islamic values from Turkish society, but rather to put an end to the political functions of Islam and to the power of religious institutions in the Turkish legislation and justice systems, transforming religion into a question of individual conscience.
Without hesitation, General Başbug stated yesterday that Turkey is facing a serious threat from Islamic sects and that the presence of Muslims is greatly increasing in many vital areas, jeopardizing the achievements made by Atatürk's revolution, which had give life to a secular Turkey.
"I am sorry to say that, even if some circles do not accept it, the reactionary (Islamist) threat is reaching alarming proportions," Başbug said, in a warning to the nation and perhaps also Europe. And he added, "Intentional, constant and systematic attempts are being made to erode the achievements of the Kemalist revolution," warning also that "turning religion into an ideology will politicize it and religion will then be the biggest loser." Başbug's accusations would seem aimed at the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party which is rooted in political Islam.
But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government denies having an Islamist programme and the AKP party declares itself to be democratic and conservative. For this very reason, Faruk Çelik, a former AKP parliamentarian, said in reply to the General that it is up to the government to tackle any Islamist threat: "If there is a going backwards in Turkey, if there is (religious) reaction, I want everybody to know the government of the Turkish Republic is the leading force to counter this."
.png)
08/08/2018 13:11
28/10/2004
