Washington Post | Opinions
The Turkey I no longer know
By Fethullah Gulen May 15 at 7:41 PM
Fethullah Gulen is an Islamic scholar, preacher and social
advocate.
SAYLORSBURG, Pa.
As the presidents of the United States and Turkey meet at
the White House on Tuesday, the leader of the country I have called home for
almost two decades comes face to face with the leader of my homeland. The two
countries have a lot at stake, including the fight against the Islamic State,
the future of Syria and the refugee crisis.
But the Turkey that I once knew as a hope-inspiring country
on its way to consolidating its democracy and a moderate form of secularism has
become the dominion of a president who is doing everything he can to amass
power and subjugate dissent.
The West must help Turkey return to a democratic path.
Tuesday’s meeting, and the NATO summit next week, should be used as an
opportunity to advance this effort.
Since July 15, following a deplorable coup attempt, Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has systematically persecuted innocent people —
arresting, detaining, firing and otherwise ruining the lives of more than
300,000 Turkish citizens, be they Kurds, Alevis, secularists, leftists,
journalists, academics or participants of Hizmet, the peaceful humanitarian
movement with which I am associated.
As the coup attempt unfolded, I fiercely denounced it and
denied any involvement. Furthermore, I said that anyone who participated in the
putsch betrayed my ideals. Nevertheless, and without evidence, Erdogan
immediately accused me of orchestrating it from 5,000 miles away.
The next day, the government produced lists of thousands of
individuals whom they tied to Hizmet — for opening a bank account, teaching at
a school or reporting for a newspaper — and treated such an affiliation as a crime
and began destroying their lives. The lists included people who had been dead
for months and people who had been serving at NATO’s European headquarters at
the time. International watchdogs have reported numerous abductions, in
addition to torture and deaths in detention. The government pursued innocent
people outside Turkey, pressuring Malaysia, for instance, to deport three
Hizmet sympathizers last week, including a school principal who has lived there
for more than a decade, to face certain imprisonment and likely torture.
In April, the president won a narrow referendum victory —
amid allegations of serious fraud — to form an “executive presidency” without
checks and balances, enabling him to control all three branches of the
government. To be sure, through purges and corruption, much of this power was
already in his hands. I fear for the Turkish people as they enter this new
stage of authoritarianism.
It didn’t start this way. The ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP) came into power in 2002 by promising democratic reforms in pursuit
of European Union membership. But as time went on, Erdogan became increasingly
intolerant of dissent. He facilitated the transfer of many media outlets to his
cronies through government regulatory agencies. In June of 2013, he crushed the
Gezi Park protesters. In December of that year, when his cabinet members were
implicated in a massive graft probe, he responded by subjugating the judiciary
and the media. The “temporary” state of emergency declared after last July 15
is still in effect. According to Amnesty International, one-third of all
imprisoned journalists in the world are in Turkish prisons.
Erdogan’s persecution of his people is not simply a domestic
matter. The ongoing pursuit of civil society, journalists, academics and Kurds
in Turkey is threatening the long-term stability of the country. The Turkish
population already is strongly polarized on the AKP regime. A Turkey under a
dictatorial regime, providing haven to violent radicals and pushing its Kurdish
citizens into desperation, would be a nightmare for Middle East security.
The people of Turkey need the support of their European
allies and the United States to restore their democracy. Turkey initiated true
multiparty elections in 1950 to join NATO. As a requirement of its membership,
NATO can and should demand that Turkey honor its commitment to the alliance’s
democratic norms.
Two measures are critical to reversing the democratic
regression in Turkey.
First, a new civilian constitution should be drafted through
a democratic process involving the input of all segments of society and that is
on par with international legal and humanitarian norms, and drawing lessons
from the success of long-term democracies in the West.
Second, a school curriculum that emphasizes democratic and
pluralistic values and encourages critical thinking must be developed. Every
student must learn the importance of balancing state powers with individual
rights, the separation of powers, judicial independence and press freedom, and
the dangers of extreme nationalism, politicization of religion and veneration
of the state or any leader.
Before either of those things can happen, however, the
Turkish government must stop the repression of its people and redress the
rights of individuals who have been wronged by Erdogan without due process.
I probably will not live to see Turkey become an exemplary
democracy, but I pray that the downward authoritarian drift can be stopped
before it is too late.
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