This is a face-off within Islamism all over the world. Either the outdated Islamists who cannot reconcile with democracy are going to prevail; or those democrats whose religion is Muslim will prevail,’ says Özkök.
One of Turkey’s leading columnists argues the current political turmoil in Turkey is about the struggle for Western lifestyles against an authoritarianism that imposes a conservative way of life. After all the talk about the rights of veiled persons, the rights of Kurds, it is for the first time there has been talk about the struggle of people with Western lifestyles, according to daily Hürriyet columnist Ertuğrul Özkök.
Turkey is living a face-off with all its problems that accumulated in the past 50 years. The first face-off was with nationalism by the end of 1940’s, the second was with left-wingers. Today Turkey is living a face-off between Islamists. Look at the speech delivered by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Dec. 17, 2004, when negotiations with the EU started. He said a big step was being taken on the way for modernization and he thanked everybody that contributed to it; including Turkish media, civil society and the opposition. Now look at where Turkey has come. Turkey needs to settle its accounts with its Islamism. Unfortunately, we have an Islamic degeneration. While we were talking about a democratic and Muslim Turkey; Erdoğan perceived the Arab Spring as the ascent of Muslim Brotherhood to the government and forgot all about his Dec. 17 speech. He is quarrelling with Israel, with Arab regimes, with the EU, United States… Currently he has a profile of a confused man seeking an Islamic leadership. Read More
One of Turkey’s leading columnists argues the current political turmoil in Turkey is about the struggle for Western lifestyles against an authoritarianism that imposes a conservative way of life. After all the talk about the rights of veiled persons, the rights of Kurds, it is for the first time there has been talk about the struggle of people with Western lifestyles, according to daily Hürriyet columnist Ertuğrul Özkök.
Turkey is living a face-off with all its problems that accumulated in the past 50 years. The first face-off was with nationalism by the end of 1940’s, the second was with left-wingers. Today Turkey is living a face-off between Islamists. Look at the speech delivered by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Dec. 17, 2004, when negotiations with the EU started. He said a big step was being taken on the way for modernization and he thanked everybody that contributed to it; including Turkish media, civil society and the opposition. Now look at where Turkey has come. Turkey needs to settle its accounts with its Islamism. Unfortunately, we have an Islamic degeneration. While we were talking about a democratic and Muslim Turkey; Erdoğan perceived the Arab Spring as the ascent of Muslim Brotherhood to the government and forgot all about his Dec. 17 speech. He is quarrelling with Israel, with Arab regimes, with the EU, United States… Currently he has a profile of a confused man seeking an Islamic leadership. Read More
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