However, the process is slow and erratic because even those who are more change-oriented are not sufficiently democratic and in tune with international standards. That is why Turkish modernization and democratization will take longer. This time span will also determine Turkey's European Union membership.When one looks at those who claim to be modern, secular and worldly, one can hardly believe that they are not pleased with more democratization, an increase in the power of civil society and the eradication of bureaucratic tutelage. They want a state apparatus that is omnipotent and omnipresent but one that is under their control. Once it was true; they had the power to decide about what was right and wrong and about the fate of the nation. Politics (the electoral system in particular), and money earned through private initiatives became their antithesis because they drew their power from the control of state institutions and state funds. Popular preference through politics and private entrepreneurship for livelihood was viewed as anti-establishment and a danger to the regime.
Realized and attempted coups and a whole series of laws to keep the system under bureaucratic control dwarfed society and pauperized a nation that is living on one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the world. Unfortunately this scheme is not just a bureaucratic caper but is internalized by a considerable part of society through education, the legal system and state employment. However, the most important reason for the support of bureaucratic tutelage is the fear of losing public space and the associated lifestyle that is commonly called secular.
One can roughly put the percentage of people who value secularism over anything else --democracy and the rule of law -- at 20 percent. This is the percentage of the national vote that the Republican People's Party (CHP) get in national elections. The party program of the CHP is simple: Oppose anything and everything that the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AK Party) does or proposes for the AK Party is obscurantist and threatens secularism.
For the secularist front, secularism is not a state of being, an attitudinal or philosophical position, it is a political statement and authoritarian stance that implies state control of the cultural realm including belief(s). So there is little difference between politicized religion and politicized secularism. Both are disrespectful of individual freedoms and fundamental human rights as well as democratic choice.
Lately, the AK Party has led the passage of a resolution through Parliament concerning the litigation of military personnel in civilian courts on issues other than purely military. The obvious reason is to curb the military's appetite to intervene in politics and bring down legally elected governments. It is only natural that the military would resist losing its omnipotence and being sent to the barracks, where it will be put under civilian control. But the CHP has made a gallant effort to abort the law that has since gone into effect following the president's approval. Now the Constitutional Court, considered to be a reliable institution in the bureaucratic establishment, will decide the fate of the law in spite of the fact that the court can legally only deal with the form of the law and not the substance. But the court is on record for breaching the law it is obliged to uphold.
The prime minister and the president argue that this legal change was necessary on the way to get into tune with the EU acquis. The CHP chairman and its sole spokesperson, Mr. Deniz Baykal, claims that the EU has no such expectations. And the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which represents the more moderate echelons of society who are apprehensive of change that can upset their meager status, is behaving as opportunistically as ever. The party's general secretary, Mr. Cihan Paçacı, has issued a statement saying that they endorse the CHP's appeal to the Constitutional Court, but they do not deem it necessary to support the appeal with their signatures. What an unprincipled stance! You want military tutelage to continue, but on the other hand you are a political party and are afraid of popular reaction to an anti-democratic position. This is the state in which the Turkish Parliament finds itself. Yet, change is coming in leaps and bounds through a party that is claimed to be the representative of the most conservative and regressive elements of society. This is indeed an anomaly. The supposedly modern, secular and urban elements oppose change and democratization, and those who are accused of being the opposite support these qualities and are trying to change society through which they change as well.
The traditional power bloc composed of the military, intellectuals (middle class professionals and white collar) and the bureaucracy is giving way to a new power bloc that owes little to the state for their power and material wealth. Politics and entrepreneurship are their ways of ascending to power and prominence rather than through instruments of the state. They want more rights, more freedom and more human-related standards than the state prerogative, contrary to the values and principles of the waning system. If this is crisis, let it be!
