Is Turkey Moving Away from the West?

He got rid of the Ottoman empire, overthrew the Sultan, and made Turkey a republic. Next, Kemal secularized Turkey (secularized- no main religion in place). Turkey had been an Islamic Empire but when Kemal overthrew the Sultan, the religion was no longer dominant. Kemal tried to separate church and state, like the Europeans. No established religion, none was above the other. Religion was now a private affair. This was a revolutionary move on Kemal’s part. Kemal basically tried to modernize Turkey.

Many proponents think that Turkey’s location might be useful for the future. It can serve as a bridge between Europe and the Islamic countries. Turkey has already worked on some important thing that are necessary if they want to join the EU. They have for instance abolished the death penalty and introduced several measures to help women and Kurds. It is now possible to

The independence of Turkey and its early development as a country full of energetic youth required a combination of two almost contradictory ideals : In order to illustrate its disassociation with the past Ottoman authority the new government desired international style which expresses scientific modernization and political liberation; However, the Kemalists also wanted to preserve a certain degree of cultural root in order to boost, if not, maintain nationalistic devotion of its citizens. Consequently, a new hybridization of theses two ideals emerged

Further, Atatürk worked much harder than the Shahs to create a democratic government, even though he still maintained dictatorial powers. Atatürk’s democratic government showed a positive side of Western, secular style government, and it made the Turkish people more favorable to the West than Persians. Throughout Turkey’s early history, Atatürk was always the president, and nothing more; Turkey had democratic elections through Atatürk’s rule, and Atatürk was simply so popular that he continued to win them over and over until his death. Contrarily, Reza Shah and his son, Mohammad Reza Shah, were both Shahs, meaning kings, and there was very little democracy in their governmental system. Although their parliamentary bodies were elected by the people, both Shahs greatly ignored them, and Mohammad Reza Shah even exiled Mohammad Mossadeq, a leading member of their parliamentary body. Further, Turkey’s Western-style concept of populism and democracy never made it as far East as Iran, and Persians did not have a say in their government. This lack of representation angered Persians, and they considered the Shahs (especially Mohammad Reza Shah) puppets of the West, so by extension they were angry with the West. It is probable that Persians would have liked Western-style government more, had the Shahs created a truly Western government, with democracy and representation. However, because their governments were so autocratic and dynastic, their people were never privy to true Western-style government, and therefore only saw the bad side of the West. Furthermore, the Shahs also created a very confusing identity for their country, as their policies contradicted each other. Reza Shah attempted to create a secular government, but he still wanted Shi’a Islam to be a major part of people’s lives: he neither

Turkey is geographically in a unique geographic situation as it is technically in both Europe and Asia. Turkey is a European country in respect to politics. It borders Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Greece, Bulgaria, Iran, and Iraq. Five regions with unique topography, foliage, and climate divide the country. The region’s most pertinent to U.S. foreign policy are the Mediterranean region (south), Eastern Anatolia (Far East) and the Marmara-Istanbul region. (Agnarella)

Turkey is one of the strongest nations in the Middle East. The official name of Turkey is the Republic of Turkey. The history of Turkey goes back 40,000 years ago. It was one of the first places on Earth to develop agriculture. It was the cradle for many human civilizations. As a result of it’s strategic location between the continents of Asia and Europe, this land was conquered by many empires, including the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders and finally the Ottomans. The Ottoman empire was the one of the strongest and largest empires in history. When the empire collapsed after World War I, Mustafa Kamal Ataturk formed the Republic of Turkey in 1922. The word “Ataturk” in Turkish means “The Father of Turks”.

Approximately 12 million Kurds live in Turkey, but the country has repeatedly denied their existence. Instead, the government has referred to them as "mountain Turks" that speak a "primitive local dialect" instead of referring to their language as Kurdish.[iii] So complete was their denial of the Kurds that the Turkish government even changed the green in traffic lights to blue because the green color was associated with the Kurdish tricolor.[iv] Kurds were forbidden to speak or teach their language to others, and they could not name their children traditional Kurdish names.[v] Any display of Kurdish identity, be it speaking or publishing in Kurdish, or advocating the right to do so, landed thousands of Kurds in prison.[vi] This complete suppression of Kurdish culture began with the creation of Turkey after World War I.

“We need to embrace our loved ones no matter what we believe in. We need to come together and no other event could remind us of the need for solidarity.” At ten o’clock on July 15, 2016, news anchor Tijen Karas for Turkish Radio and Television was forced to read a statement by insurgents calling themselves the Peace at Home Committee, in reference to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s—the founder of the Turkish Republic—famous mantra “Peace at home, Peace in the world.” As rebels held Karas at gunpoint, she read a declaration by of military plotters against the government claiming secular and democratic law had diminished under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Filkins 2). Established on the basis of secularism, the Turkish constitution provides the military with the authority to intervene in the government to maintain democracy and prevent Islamic nationalists from gaining power. The recent attempted coup in Turkey, believed to have been led by forces loyal to exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, was inspired by an alternative to a near-authoritarian regime of President Erdogan. The failure of the coup provided President Erdogan with even greater powers, which has resulted in the loss of freedoms in Turkey and in dire consequences to the wider world.

Turkey is a Middle Eastern country south of the Mediterranean Sea and west to the Aegean Sea. Turkey main religion is Sunni Muslim with a minority of Sufi Muslims with Christians, Jews and other religions only making up about 0.2 percent of the total population. Turkey is a relatively small country compared to the United States or China with the population of 74 million in 2013 (The World Fact book) In the last 15 years Turkey has made huge leaps and bounds to improve their economy and become a more economy independent country. Turkey as we know today was founded in 1923 from the remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by Mustafa Kemal (“Father of the Turks”). In the 1950’s

Throughout history, the middle east has often been the focus of news reporters. A middle eastern country that has not been exempt from this, is Turkey. Turkey has not only been a focus, but it also has had a very long, complicated history.

Freedom House, an organization that promotes the development of freedom and democracy globally, is especially concerned with Turkey’s future as a nation and believes there are threats to civil liberties in this nation. This institute rates countries based on its freedom status – and in its most recent report, Freedom House considered Turkey as partly free and experiencing declines. Between its annual reports, Turkey’s “political rights rating declined from 3 to 4 [and] its civil liberties rating declined from 4 to 5.” More importantly, however, Freedom House assigned a downward arrow to the nation because of President Erdoğan’s security crackdown following the attempted coup in July 2016. This uprising “led the government to declare a

I have always wondered about the affairs between states and political strategies the states apply to determine their relations. My interest and curiosity in affairs between states and their designated policies to determine their affairs became more obvious when I was at high school. I started to read about political history, specifically; political history of Europe between 16th – 20th centuries. Events like Thirty Years War, Treaty of Westphalia, French Revolution, First and Second World Wars in Europe, which shaped today’s international system in many ways, developed my interest in International Politics and their effects to the societies. Throughout high school years, In addition to my readings on European political history; my country, Turkey’s foreign policy influenced me to study on it. Turkey’s geostrategic position is unique and worthy to study. By security perspective, economically and politically stable Turkey is vital for the stability of the Middle East and Caucasus. Also important for the security of EU. By economic point of view, developing energy projects such as; TANAP (Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project), which will be passing through Turkey and existing energy projects such as; Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which is passing through Turkey, are important for energy distribution to Europe. Furthermore, Turkey can play an important role to enhance commercial and economic

Turkey’s future remains ambiguous. On an economic perspective, Turkey is booming. It is quickly launching itself into globalism. A growing economy “during the first six months of 2011 Turkey even vied with China for position as the world’s fastest growing economy. Since 2002 the Turkish economy has nearly tripled in size, experiencing the longest spurt of prosperity in modern Turkish history” (Çaǧaptay, 2014, pp. 17). Diversifying its efforts to bring the nation into the international realm as global player. A prime example of modernization theory, that as countries modernize, streghten middle class values, it becomes inevitable that countries transition away from oppressive regimes to a strong democratic institution. Hindering a politically effective democracy is the current president of Turkey. Increasing tensions and waning legitimacy from its population is showing signs of stress. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was elected to the presidency in 2014.

The Turkish government has fought the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) for the last thirty-two years. The conflict has claimed countless thousands of lives, and caused more than 300,000 to go homeless following the destruction of their villages (Mandıracı, 2016). Despite these atrocities Turkey’s economy has steadily grown, though at a slower rate than otherwise would be possible. Turkey has a highly diversified economy with strong sectors including agriculture, automotive production and shipbuilding. Turkey trades with neighboring countries including the U.S. and the United Kingdom, although there is a sizeable trade imbalance. Foreign Direct Investment figures are rising. Turkey has enjoyed support from the U.S. since the 1950’s and has partnered with the US militarily most notably in Afghanistan. Turkey has strong allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the European Union (EU). Tipping the scales downwards is Turkey’s vision of itself. It seeks to create a version of democracy marked by intolerance of Kurds. It is the most serious problem Turkey faces.

It is on this legacy that Mustafa Kemal founded the Turkish Republic in 1923: a centralised secular nation-state. He built upon the secular institutions of the Tanzimat period and did away with the Islamic ones to foster modernisation (to which secularisation was seen as inseparable). From a process, secularisation turned into a project; one that would be implemented from above (Yilmaz, 2002:114). So secularism was adopted as one of the founding principles of the Turkish Republic. In this regard, it needs to be understood with reference to the other five, and particularly to statism, nationalism, and reformism. While Islam was held responsible for the collapse of the Ottoman empire, secularism would be key to modernising state and society and to “elevating the nation to the level of contemporary civilisation” (Shambayati and Kirdis, 2009:767). Reference to a civilising mission could hardly be made clearer. By making the state, but also society, secular, the Kemalist project also wants to create a new national identity. One that would not call upon ethnic or religious affiliation, but on a secular version of Turkishness. In a Weberian logic, it was assumed that by excluding Islam from the public sphere, its social significance would gradually erode (Fuat Keyman, 2007:219). Secularism therefore became the official ideology of the state and the identity of the state elite (Hakan Yavuz and Esposito, 2003:xxii).