lifestyle leader

Sticking to today's theme, there is an article in the Globe and Mail about how Turkey is showing signs of moving away from the damn things. This is certainly an interesting story to follow.

Those of us who live in the north-west corner of the world might take civilian control over the military for granted, but in Turkey the army has a fiercely protected independence from government. This is partly because the army views itself as the protector of Ataturk's secular state - a view not shared by all. Nevertheless, throughout the last few decades, a cycle has been repeating itself in Turkey:

1) A right-wing religious/conservative party is elected and forms government
2) the army deems this party "too religious" and a threat to the secular state
3) the army takes over
4) the party is banned, its leaders jailed
5) the army returns power to the civilian government
6) the banned party re-forms under a new name and leadership
7) return to step 1)

However, by historical standard, it appears as though the most recent iteration of this cycle - the election of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002 - has been going rather well. Although there have been some controversies over the government's policies (notably over lifting the ban on headscarves) the army hasn't deemed it necessary to move to step 3. If this op-ed piece is correct, the army is slowly, but voluntarily, moving away from politics and "back into their barracks." Moreover, the AKP has implemented a number of the Copenhagen criteria for EU membership since being elected, bringing it closer to "Western" standards of governance and suggesting that it may be possible to more closely integrate religious views into Turkey's government without compromising the nature of the state itself.

Of course, as the article points out, this is a very slow process and suspicions on both sides remain. There are plenty of open questions and unforeseen events on the horizon that could drastically shift the nature of this situation. For now, however, I am thankful that the various competing factions in at least one part of the world are moving towards a more stable co-existence, instead of in the opposite direction.