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'NO' TO ISLAMIST TURKEY
By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
Washington Times
Sept 27 2005
On Oct. 3, representatives of the European Union and the Turkish
government of Islamist Recep Erdogan will meet to determine if
Muslim Turkey will be allowed to seek full membership in the EU. It
will be best for Turkey, to say nothing of Europe and the West more
generally, if the EU answer under present circumstances is: "Thanks,
but no thanks."
The reason Europe should politely, but firmly, reject Turkey's bid
should be clear: Prime Minister Erdogan is systematically turning his
country from a Muslim secular democracy into an Islamofascist state
governed by an ideology anathema to European values and freedoms.
Evidence of such an ominous transformation is not hard to find.
~U Turkey is awash with billions of dollars in what is known as
"green money," apparently emanating from funds Saudi Arabia and other
Persian Gulf states withdrew from the United States after September
11, 2001. U.S. policymakers are concerned this unaccountable cash
is laundered in Turkey, then used to finance businesses and generate
new revenue streams for Islamofascist terrorism. At the very least,
everything else on Mr. Erdogan's Islamist agenda is lubricated by
these resources.
~U Turkey's traditionally secular educational system is being
steadily supplanted by madrassa-style "imam hatip" schools and
other institutions where students are taught only the Koran and its
interpretation according to the Islamofascists. The prime minister
is himself an imam hatip school graduate and has championed lowering
the age at which children can be subjected to their form of radical
religious indoctrination from 12 years old to 4. And in 2005, experts
expect 1,215,000 Turkish students to graduate from such schools.
~U Products of such an education are ill-equipped to do much besides
carrying out the Islamist program of Mr. Erdogan's AKP Party.
Tens of thousands are being given government jobs: Experienced, secular
bureaucrats are replaced with ideologically reliable theo-apparatchiks;
4,000 others pack secular courts, transforming them into instruments
of Shari'a religious law.
~U As elsewhere, religious intolerance is a hallmark of Mr.
Erdogan's creeping Islamofascist putsch in Turkey. Roughly a third of
the Turkish population is a minority known as Alevis. They observe
a strain of Islam that retains some of the traditions of Turkey's
ancient religions. Islamist Sunnis like Mr. Erdogan and his Saudi
Wahhabi sponsors regard the Alevis as "apostates" and "hypocrites"
and subject them to increasing discrimination and intimidation. Other
minorities, notably Turkey's Jews, know they are likely next in line
for such treatment -- a far cry from the tolerance of the Ottoman era.
~U In the name of internationally mandated "reform" of Turkey's
banking system, the government is seizing assets and operations of
banks run by businessmen associated with the political opposition. It
has gone so far as to defy successive rulings by Turkey's supreme court
disallowing one such expropriation. The AKP-dominated parliament has
enacted legislation that allows even distant relatives of the owners
to be prosecuted for alleged wrongdoing. Among the beneficiaries of
such shakedowns have been so-called "Islamic banks" tied to Saudi
Arabia, some of whose senior officers now hold top jobs in the
Erdogan government.
~U Grabbing assets -- or threatening to do so -- has allowed the
government effectively to take control of the Turkish media, as well.
Consolidation of the industry in hands friendly to (or at least cowed
by) the Islamists and self-censorship of reporters, lest they depart
from the party line, have essentially denied prominent outlets to any
contrary views. The risks of deviating is clear from the recently
announced prosecution of Turkey's most acclaimed novelist, Orhan
Parmuk, for "denigrating Turks and Turkey" by affirming in a Swiss
publication allegations of past Turkish genocidal attacks on Kurds
and Armenians.
~U Among the consequences of Mr. Erdogan's domination of the press
has been an inflaming of Turkish public opinion against President
Bush in particular and the United States more generally. Today,
a novel describing a war between America and Turkey leading to the
nuclear destruction of Washington is a runaway best-seller, even in
the Turkish military.
~U This data point perhaps indicates the Islamists' progress toward
also transforming the traditional guarantors of Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk's legacy of a secular, pro-Western Muslim state: Turkey's
armed forces. Matters have been worsened by Mr. Erdogan's skillful
manipulation of popular interest in the European bid to keep the
military from serving as a control rod in Turkish politics.
At the very least, over time, the cumulative effect of having the
conscript-based Turkish army obliged to fill its ranks with products
of an increasingly Islamist-dominated educational system cannot be
positive for either the Europeans or the Free World beyond.
Especially as Mr. Erdogan seeks to put into effect what has been
dubbed a "zero-problem" policy toward neighboring Iran and Syria,
the military's historical check on the gravitational pull toward
Islamofascism is likely to recede.
Consequently, the EU's representatives should not only put on ice
any invitation to Turkey to join the European Union next week. They
should make it clear the reason is Mr. Erdogan's Islamist takeover:
The prime minister is making Turkey ineligible for membership on the
grounds that the AKP program will inevitably ruin his nation's economy,
radicalize its society and eliminate Ankara's ability to play Turkey's
past, constructive role in the geographic "cockpit of history."
It is to be hoped this meeting will serve one other purpose, as well:
It should compel the Europeans to begin to address their own burgeoning
problem with Islamofascism. Both Europe, Turkey and, for that matter,
the rest of the world, need to find ways to empower moderate Muslims
who oppose Islamists like Turkey's Erdogan. Oct. 3 would be a good
time to start.
Frank J. Gaffney Jr. is president of the Center for Security Policy
and a columnist for The Washington Times.
By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
Washington Times
Sept 27 2005
On Oct. 3, representatives of the European Union and the Turkish
government of Islamist Recep Erdogan will meet to determine if
Muslim Turkey will be allowed to seek full membership in the EU. It
will be best for Turkey, to say nothing of Europe and the West more
generally, if the EU answer under present circumstances is: "Thanks,
but no thanks."
The reason Europe should politely, but firmly, reject Turkey's bid
should be clear: Prime Minister Erdogan is systematically turning his
country from a Muslim secular democracy into an Islamofascist state
governed by an ideology anathema to European values and freedoms.
Evidence of such an ominous transformation is not hard to find.
~U Turkey is awash with billions of dollars in what is known as
"green money," apparently emanating from funds Saudi Arabia and other
Persian Gulf states withdrew from the United States after September
11, 2001. U.S. policymakers are concerned this unaccountable cash
is laundered in Turkey, then used to finance businesses and generate
new revenue streams for Islamofascist terrorism. At the very least,
everything else on Mr. Erdogan's Islamist agenda is lubricated by
these resources.
~U Turkey's traditionally secular educational system is being
steadily supplanted by madrassa-style "imam hatip" schools and
other institutions where students are taught only the Koran and its
interpretation according to the Islamofascists. The prime minister
is himself an imam hatip school graduate and has championed lowering
the age at which children can be subjected to their form of radical
religious indoctrination from 12 years old to 4. And in 2005, experts
expect 1,215,000 Turkish students to graduate from such schools.
~U Products of such an education are ill-equipped to do much besides
carrying out the Islamist program of Mr. Erdogan's AKP Party.
Tens of thousands are being given government jobs: Experienced, secular
bureaucrats are replaced with ideologically reliable theo-apparatchiks;
4,000 others pack secular courts, transforming them into instruments
of Shari'a religious law.
~U As elsewhere, religious intolerance is a hallmark of Mr.
Erdogan's creeping Islamofascist putsch in Turkey. Roughly a third of
the Turkish population is a minority known as Alevis. They observe
a strain of Islam that retains some of the traditions of Turkey's
ancient religions. Islamist Sunnis like Mr. Erdogan and his Saudi
Wahhabi sponsors regard the Alevis as "apostates" and "hypocrites"
and subject them to increasing discrimination and intimidation. Other
minorities, notably Turkey's Jews, know they are likely next in line
for such treatment -- a far cry from the tolerance of the Ottoman era.
~U In the name of internationally mandated "reform" of Turkey's
banking system, the government is seizing assets and operations of
banks run by businessmen associated with the political opposition. It
has gone so far as to defy successive rulings by Turkey's supreme court
disallowing one such expropriation. The AKP-dominated parliament has
enacted legislation that allows even distant relatives of the owners
to be prosecuted for alleged wrongdoing. Among the beneficiaries of
such shakedowns have been so-called "Islamic banks" tied to Saudi
Arabia, some of whose senior officers now hold top jobs in the
Erdogan government.
~U Grabbing assets -- or threatening to do so -- has allowed the
government effectively to take control of the Turkish media, as well.
Consolidation of the industry in hands friendly to (or at least cowed
by) the Islamists and self-censorship of reporters, lest they depart
from the party line, have essentially denied prominent outlets to any
contrary views. The risks of deviating is clear from the recently
announced prosecution of Turkey's most acclaimed novelist, Orhan
Parmuk, for "denigrating Turks and Turkey" by affirming in a Swiss
publication allegations of past Turkish genocidal attacks on Kurds
and Armenians.
~U Among the consequences of Mr. Erdogan's domination of the press
has been an inflaming of Turkish public opinion against President
Bush in particular and the United States more generally. Today,
a novel describing a war between America and Turkey leading to the
nuclear destruction of Washington is a runaway best-seller, even in
the Turkish military.
~U This data point perhaps indicates the Islamists' progress toward
also transforming the traditional guarantors of Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk's legacy of a secular, pro-Western Muslim state: Turkey's
armed forces. Matters have been worsened by Mr. Erdogan's skillful
manipulation of popular interest in the European bid to keep the
military from serving as a control rod in Turkish politics.
At the very least, over time, the cumulative effect of having the
conscript-based Turkish army obliged to fill its ranks with products
of an increasingly Islamist-dominated educational system cannot be
positive for either the Europeans or the Free World beyond.
Especially as Mr. Erdogan seeks to put into effect what has been
dubbed a "zero-problem" policy toward neighboring Iran and Syria,
the military's historical check on the gravitational pull toward
Islamofascism is likely to recede.
Consequently, the EU's representatives should not only put on ice
any invitation to Turkey to join the European Union next week. They
should make it clear the reason is Mr. Erdogan's Islamist takeover:
The prime minister is making Turkey ineligible for membership on the
grounds that the AKP program will inevitably ruin his nation's economy,
radicalize its society and eliminate Ankara's ability to play Turkey's
past, constructive role in the geographic "cockpit of history."
It is to be hoped this meeting will serve one other purpose, as well:
It should compel the Europeans to begin to address their own burgeoning
problem with Islamofascism. Both Europe, Turkey and, for that matter,
the rest of the world, need to find ways to empower moderate Muslims
who oppose Islamists like Turkey's Erdogan. Oct. 3 would be a good
time to start.
Frank J. Gaffney Jr. is president of the Center for Security Policy
and a columnist for The Washington Times.