Op/Ed Articles in WSJ/LA Times Argue that Turkish Ruling Party Using “Democratic Means to Erode Democracy”
May 17, 2007 | Printer Friendly

In a Wall Street Journal op/ed, Melik Kaylan argues that perception is not everything in the recent political gridlock in Turkey.  Responding to criticism that the Turkish government enjoys the support of the majority and should be able to elect any president they desire, Kaylan notes that the country’s constitution is “rigged to create a two-party system,” giving the AK party (AKP) more seats than their electoral support would indicate. Despite having 65% of the seats in parliament, the ruling party only won 35% of the vote in the last general election. 

Despite the misconception about the AKP’s popularity, Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes in a Los Angeles Times op/ed that the rise of Islamist politics in Turkey is due to the failures of the former secular regimes.  In the Wall Street Journal, Kaylan shares a similar view, saying that the 35% vote for the AKP is “derived in part from the voters disgusted by the corrupt incompetence of the secular parties, not from pro-Muslim sentiment.”  Ali argues that the failure of secular parties to “win the hearts and minds” of Turks and create a successful economy are two factors that have allowed the AKP to come to power.  The author believes that without popular support for their platform, the secularists’ complaints against the AKP “will sound irrational and undemocratic.” 

Both Kaylan and Ali agree that the AKP are using the democratic system to work against democracy.  Kaylan claims that Prime Minister Erdogan “pushed the system’s limits for his own ends,” trying to “impose his choice on the country through his technical parliamentary majority.”  According to Kaylan, Prime Minister Erdogan’s choice of fellow AKP-Islamist Abdullah Gul for the seat of the presidency violated a long-standing tradition of nominating a non-partisan, unifying figure to the office, and would allow the AKP to make structural changes to the country’s secular institutions.  Ali refers to the actions of the AKP as using “democratic means to erode democracy.”

References:

Los Angeles Times: Can secular Turkey survive democracy? (Ayaan Hirsi Ali)

Wall Street Journal: Trouble in Turkey (Melik Kaylan)