For Turkish people the concepts of “old” and “new” Turkey emphasize two different periods in the history of modern Turkey. One is dark and terrifying, while the other represents grounds for hope.
The old Turkey was a country with the same dark atmosphere as that in many communist countries of those days, despite not being communist itself. It was poor. It was a country struggling to survive sanctions and economic crises. Coups would take place in old Turkey and tanks were sent out onto the streets as a warning to governments that were out of favor. Everyone was quite well aware what that sinister tradition meant.
The old Turkey was controlled by the military. The army supervised government’s program and the president’s right of veto and approval. The old Turkey was also in a servile position, under the supervision of the secret apparatuses of various superpowers. It could not take its own decisions, could not engage in independent bilateral relations with other countries and could not even make trade agreements. Much of its population was devout; but the old Turkey did not want a devout Turkey. Illegal deep forces within the state and the army kept close control, meaning that the people’s preferences were irrelevant. Headscarf was banned in public institutions. People could not pray at their workplaces, nor even allowed to express their religious beliefs. Religious devotion in public offices meant that one was marked out. It was inconceivable for a member of the military to admit to being religious. Religious communities were constantly exposed to police operations.
Relations with Muslim countries of the Middle East were no more than a dream. Of course, there was democracy in the country; parties were elected by popular vote under a multi-party system. The problem was that the governments elected were under the same close control. Everyone was aware of the existence of an illegal secret state operating literally like a terrorist organization; mysterious killings of opponents went on and on, while not only the PKK but also the secret state in question repressed the Kurds in Turkey’s southeast.
A right-wing administration was unthinkable. Any strengthening of the right always ended in coups. Indeed, the right-wing administration established under the leadership of Necmettin Erbakan in 1996 was met by a “post-modern coup” just one year later, on Feb. 28, 1997. Devout believers found themselves in an even worse position after that.
Turkey emerged from a sinister time such as that. The country being run by a long-term right-wing administration is therefore something new for Turkey. It is a major event for a prime minister to say “La Ghalib illa Allah” (There is no victor other than Allah) in his victory address. People being allowed to enter Parliament wearing headscarves, the lifting of the pressure on our Kurdish brothers from the secret state and the days when the army would immediately move against elected governments. The existence of a Turkey capable of working simultaneous with the West and the East and of having the courage to deny approval to the US intervention in Iraq are giant steps.
Turkey has made huge progress. But it is not enough. That is why Prime Minister Davutoglu made the following emphasis while celebrating the AKP’s unexpected electoral victory on Nov. 1: “You have not only buried the parties of the old Turkey at the ballot box, but also violence, terror and instability. All the anti-democratic measures of the old Turkey are now history… We will never sacrifice security to freedom, or freedom to security. We will build the new Turkey together.”
The Turkey that has escaped that sinister control now needs to become the “new Turkey.” And for that to happen, greater democracy, greater liberty and greater rule of law are needed. The old Turkey was angry and frightened. That anger has not faded away though; it is settled in the body of the land, literally like a sickness. The new Turkey needs to be freed from this anger, the scourge afflicting it. The new Turkey needs security and guarantees. It needs to believe that all sections of society will be protected without any discrimination. The new Turkey needs domestic and external peace. Domestically it needs to make peace with its brothers and not to be divided into “us and them,” while externally it needs to build strong friendships. It needs to make peace with its old friends. In order to achieve that, the new Turkey needs to remember love and friendship once again.
Is the AKP, which won the recent elections with a large majority, capable of doing this? We all hope so. Although Prime Minister Davutoglu has signaled the dawn of a new Turkey by saying, “We will not make the slightest concession in terms of democracy or compassion” in his address, we need to experience the change. There is great need to lower tensions within the country. Soft, conciliatory language must become the state’s policy. Important lessons must be learned from the terror of the last 40 years, the Gezi incidents and the results of the June 7 election, and a genuinely new Turkey must be built. The Middle East, the world as a whole, our troubled neighbors and the refugees for whom we are caring all need that, too.
• The writer is a commentator on Turkish TV & a columnist.
