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

Carl Remick carlremick at hotmail.com
Sun Apr 15 13:58:25 PDT 2007



>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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