[lbo-talk] 300,000 rally against Turkish government

[Carl Remick]

>From: "James Heartfield" <Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk>
>
>Yoshie writes:
>
>"It's a good question whether secular Western leftists choose democracy
>under the AKP or its demise at the hands of the secularist military in
>Turkey."
>
>But many Turkish leftists I know are secularists even though they fought
>against the military. They know that Ataturk's Republic was deeply
>conservative but still support secularisation. Of course it is something of
>an hysterical reaction, given that Erdogan's 'Islamism' is about as Islamic
>as Angela Merkel's Christian Democracy is Christian, but I would not assume
>that defence of Turkish secularism is all reactionary.

To the outsider Turkey seems intensely confusing in its social makeup and in 
the moral or ideological questions it poses to leftists or advocates of any 
other POV.  E.g., I am solidly on record on the LBO list as opposing any 
public expression of religious doctrine of any kind in the sphere of public 
affairs.  That would predispose me to applaud Turkey’s strong historic 
efforts to maintain strict church-state separation.  Does it bother me that 
the apparently main force that has supported this effort has been Turkey’s 
military?  You bet!!!  Ultimately, I think any democratic society’s *own* 
military poses the greatest danger to that society’s democratic nature and 
economic strength, so as a leftist I’m not quite sure what to make of 
Turkey’s secular, but very military, democracy.

BTW, Turkey’s richly enigmatic qualities are illustrated by a curious but 
moving tribute, by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, to the soldiers, both ANZAC and 
Turkish, who died in WWI’s Battle of Gallipoli.  At today’s pivotal moment 
in history – when bloodlusts dormant for so many years have been stirred to 
nightmarish levels by George W. Bush and his lunatic crew – it well to 
remember Atatürk’s conciliatory words.  However controversial and mysterious 
Atatürk himself remains, these words, which are engraved on the Anzac Cove 
(Anzak Koyu) Monument that commemorates the thousands on both sides of the 
battle who died at Gallipoli:  "Those heroes that shed their blood and lost 
their lives… you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore 
rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets 
where they lie side by side here in this country of ours… You the mothers 
who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons 
are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. Having lost their lives on this 
land they have become our sons as well."

Carl

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