What we do not unanimously agree on is that while some of us, such as Radikal columnist Mehmet Ali Kışlalı, staunchly defend that it is the army’s duty to engage in such acts, many of us find these acts abhorringly antidemocratic and historically backward, even obscurantist. What bothers me is that several Western commentators, academics and politicians also give the impression that the Turkish case is exceptional in the sense that without the army’s constant intervention in politics, democracy cannot survive in the country. They are, of course, wrong. What is more, if the military minded its own business and let the civilians run the country, Turkish democracy would have been consolidated several decades ago and Turkey would be a more prosperous country with a better human rights record.The Western misconception of Turkish exceptionalism is well documented even in European Court of Human Rights documents. With regards to the draconian and inhumane headscarf ban at Turkish universities that unjustly discriminates against women, the European court has argued that Turkey is a unique case and thus the headscarf ban is justified. The court, of course, had to spell out hundreds of sentences to disguise what I summarized above, but the essence of their orientalist verdict is this. It argues that because Turkey is a predominantly Muslim country, some women who do not want to cover their head might feel intimidated, so women must not cover their heads. You cannot argue with this logic. You cannot talk about the universality of law, human rights, freedom of expression or ask for any evidence proving the existence of women who felt intimidated, and what would the court do if the headscarved ladies are the ones who feel intimidated and even oppressed by some so-called White Turkish women?
Anyway, the same Western and orientalist logic applies to Turkish military-civilian relations as well. As we Turks are undeveloped primitive species, democracy cannot work in the country. Thus, the enlightened soldiers should constantly make sure that we do not depart from the Western camp. Nevertheless, what we see today is that it is the military-backed ultranationalists who hate the Western camp, not because of its double standards and so on but because it has been unable to stop democratization in the country. In the good old days, our oligarchic elite would rule the country without any democratic checks and balances, and they would sheepishly obey their Western “colleagues” in total disregard of national interests, and Turkish exceptionalism would triumph over the ordinary citizens and taxpayers who are even today not allowed to ask where and how their money is spent.
Our oligarchic elite love to use terms and phrases such as obscurantism, reactionaryism, conservatism, lack of innovation, blind worship of mortals, darkness, hidden agenda, lack of transparency, financial irregularities, lack of democracy, oppressive hierarchy and so on when they refer to religion and practicing Muslims, but it’s odd that all these terms and phrases can now be legitimately applied to the Turkish military, judiciary and ultranationalist White Turks with a plethora of evidence. This may be the reason why our generals, İstanbul tycoons, the judiciary, undemocratic media and their political representatives, such as the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP), hate any kind of enlightenment and light that the EU accession process will bring.
One needs to ask at this point, come on, what kind of exceptionalism are you talking about? What we see in every Third World country is corrupt rulers trying to hide their intentions, corruption and wrongdoings under the pretext of imagined internal and external threats. Yet, they cannot explain their impotence of being unable to terminate these threats for the last 60-70 years. Even if they had bona fide intentions, is it not high time they let civilians, democrats, liberals and really enlightened people try some other methods, such us proper and consolidated democracy, transparency, human rights, the rule of law and trying to build bridges with our imaginary domestic and international threats so that we would not need to form juntas, to spend a huge chunk of our budget on weapons, to waste the state’s undercover funds to fight innocent civilians and to fund corrupt officials?
It is also high time to ask Westerners, are you with us or with the oligarchy? Do not repeat what the European court did, give us a concise answer. You can start with commenting on the Çiçek document. I am sure you will not hide behind the pretext of saying that the Çiçek document is now a matter for the courts as we all remember very well that several enthusiastic Doğan media supporters within EU circles commented on the Doğan tax evasion case, even though it is also a matter before the courts.
