Is the world now watching a battle for Turkey’s soul? Austin Bay, in a piece on RealClearWorld, argues that it is:
Over the last two weeks, the Turkish police have detained and interrogated several dozen retired military officers allegedly involved in plotting an intricate coup d’etat.
The government, led by the “moderate Islamist” Justice and Development Party (AKP), has cause for concern. The Turkish military has toppled elected governments four times since 1960. The European Union has made continued civilian rule a key requirement for Turkey’s admission to the EU.
Though the alleged coup was planned in 2003, the current situation is quite serious. The Turkish press reports that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug have held intense discussions where they have addressed the arrests and the evidence.
This domestic Turkish confrontation involves much more than a classic “military junta versus civilian rule” media template, however. Turkish law tasks the Turkish military with defending Turkey’s secular state and the secular reforms of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey. The spring 2010 crisis in Ankara reflects what historians have dubbed “the struggle for Turkey’s soul” and a long-term battle for the terms of modernity.
Turkey’s journey since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 has been remarkable.
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.