Turkey takes pride in its place among the world's emerging democracies and as an important example of how democracy can flourish in a Muslim society. Yet Turkey's democratic character is continuously tested by deep divisions over fundamental values that complicate progress toward democratic consolidation and provide democratic-sounding rationales for resistance to reform.
A recent report just released by Freedom House, a Washington-based democracy advocacy group, illuminates the two steps forward, one step back nature of the process.
Since its electoral victory in November 2002 and re-election last July, the current moderately-Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has pursued EU membership while advancing significant constitutional and legal reforms, though the public remains divided. The 2006 Eurobarometer public opinion survey reveals that the percentage of Turks that see EU membership as a "good thing" declined from 55 percent in 2005 to 44 percent in 2006, while 25 percent were opposed and 23 percent were undecided.
International obstacles to EU membership loom even larger. A gradual slow-down in the integration process is due to tensions within the EU regarding its potential membership. Mixed messages and increasingly negative reactions from European political leaders have put many Turks on the defensive. Shortcomings in public involvement in the reform process have made the implementation of reforms and their absorption into the culture very difficult. Despite changes allowing for increased minority rights, human rights, and freer media, violations of rights recur and few are punished.
Threats to democratic consolidation in Turkey come from many different quarters. The dynamics between civilian and military rule, the tension between Islamic and secularist political inclinations and the effort to reconcile European political standards with deeply-rooted Turkish traditions create barriers that need to be chipped away on many levels.
Changes are occurring on many levels in Turkey, though they are not necessarily heading in the same direction. Both the reforms that exist on paper and AKP's discourse portray a Turkey moving closer to the democratic norms of Europe. Yet a great many Turks fear that more rapid social transformation will, somewhat counter-intuitively, open the door for greater Islamic influence on the culture.
Following its victory in the July elections, AKP is currently working to draft a new constitution that has already sparked controversy. AKP intends to transform the current constitution, drafted by the military in 1980, into one with greater guarantees for personal freedoms. The most controversial change being debated is lifting the ban on headscarves for women in universities.
While that seems like a victory for personal freedoms, AKP has not given as high a priority to issues that have been on Turkey's EU accession agenda, such as greater rights for minorities and the abolishment of article 301 of the penal code which makes it illegal to insult the state and state institutions. The blurry boundaries of this article, open to interpretation, has led to the prosecution of numerous intellectuals.
The new study by Freedom House, Countries at the Crossroads, traces developments over the previous two years in four areas of governance: accountability and public voice, civil liberties, rule of law, and anticorruption and transparency. The study reveals that Turkey has shown progress in the areas of accountability and public voice, as well as in anti-corruption and transparency. Yet measures reflecting civil liberties and rule of law have actually declined. On media independence and freedom of expression, Turkey was given middling scores.
Though Turkey's constitution guarantees freedom of the media, the Supreme Council of Radio and Television (RTUK) has authority to sanction broadcasters with fines or cancellation of programs. Just two weeks ago, RTUK shut down the television station Kanalturk for six days due to programming the agency determined was biased against the AKP and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the run up to the July elections.
Turkey also continues to maintain statutes that criminalize speech and actions that are deemed to threaten such vague notions as "national integrity" and "Turkish identity" and to prosecute individuals found to violate them.
If Turkey is to steadily pursue the road towards democratic consolidation and EU membership, these divides need be recognized and reconciled. The reforms that are implemented and their consequences need to be understood by all levels of society and not only the political elite.
The slow pace of reform may be a good thing, as it gives a divided society time to absorb changes, to gain confidence that secular and religious Turks alike can manage their differences in a shared political process. Pressing for more dramatic changes more quickly may threaten the progress achieved thus far.
Didem Cakmakli is an independent researcher based in Washington, DC, specializing in democracy and human rights.
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