Turkey Military and Islamists - Research Paper Example

It is the second time that a politician has successfully retained the leadership for three consecutive terms without being overthrown by the military or being removed through the intervention of a constitutional court since multipart in 1946. The fight between the constitution and the Muslim religion has characterized the politics of Turkey. Turkey is officially a secular state as per the provisions of the constitution and its traditions.

The constitution governs the activities of the political parties; it provides that any anti-secular political party can be banned by the constitutional court. An Islamic movement started finding its way into the country’s politics in the 1980s in an effort to fight for the economic inequality in the country. The movement has stood in favor of Islamic democracy based on Islamic Sharia law and has attempted to bring these aspects into Turkish politics. The military has intervened severally to bring down the extremism by some of these parties.

The current leadership by the Justice and Development Party has veered off from the stands that were upheld by the previous regimes. The party has Islamic roots but its ideologies have helped it in retaining leadership in the country that has seen intensive military confrontation with the Islamic parties. Erdogan has been pro-west and has distanced his party from any religious inclination, an aspect that has helped the party remain in harmony with the constitutional provisions. The history of the rise of Islamic politics and military engagements dates way back to the early 20th Century.

Kemalism is an ideology that has been developed by the founder of the country, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. In the process of its development, the country made a number of changes including an education system that focussed on the pre-Islamic civilizations of the Turkish people. The reforms that were made did not deter the people from embracing Kemalism from all quarters apart from rural Anatolia. 

In addition, the military and the urban bourgeoisie also embraced the Kemalism ideology. The disparity created between the Islamists in Anatolia and the Kemalists developed a severe cultural difference between them. The opposition went too far when the religious conservatives and the ethnic Kurds passionately opposed the secularization and westernization of Turkey. This called for the intervention of the government using the military to bring into the calm the rising Muslim extremism. The reforms Kurdish were also part of the rebellion; they too were part of the group targeted by the military in their endeavor to stabilize the divided country. A landmark development in 1946 was experienced in Turkey where the existing divisions took a new turn. The Cold War fostered the development of further differences between the left socialist alignments comprising of Kurdish and the right made up of the political Islam that embraced an anticommunism ideology.

The 1980 military coup was aggravated by the Muslim insurgencies through the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis. Various reforms were advanced that helped the nationalization of Islam in Turkey, such developments as the introduction of religious studies in all public schools and the introduction and the use of Diyanet that would take care of the country’s religious aspects. After the coup, Sunni Islam was awarded a stake in the country’s politics. After the collapse of communism especially by the fall of the Soviet Union, Turkey started faced challenges in the identification of the ideologies that could guide the country. In 1991, the divisions were between not only the Kurdish and the Turkish but also the identity of the country as either as a secular state or a Muslim state took the centre stage. The Welfare Party, a pro-Islamic party surfaced in 1994 and it emerged so successful in the local and national elections taking control of the major cities in Turkey, this changed the situation in the country and the trend was seen to be changing in favor of the nationalization of Islam in the country. To stamp their authority further, the party came out more strongly in the 1995 parliamentary elections hence elevating the Muslim ideology.

It was not long before the Welfare Party was brought to its knees due to its Islamic stand. The military was forced to intervene fearing that the new regime under Necmettin Erbakan could cut off the existing relationship with the west as well as introduce Islamic dressing in schools and suppression of secularism mainly upheld by the opposition. The landmark ousting of Erbakan took place in the February of 1997 by the military, the prime minister was forced to resign and his powerful party was brought completely out of power. The coup was peaceful but the Islamists were left divided at the center, an aspect that is still evident to date. The current prime minister was also a member of the Welfare Party where he served as a mayor for Istanbul. The coup was very significant in defining the influence of Muslims in the country, it was preceded by what has been termed as a violation of religious rights. Reacting to the incident, the Justice and development party was formed but it provided a lot of doubt since its leaders were party members of the overthrown party including Erdogan who was the party leader. The end of the 1990s characterized the integration of political Islam into the country’s politics under the Kemalist ideology.