Council for a Community of Democracies

Op-Ed: Shutdown of AKP in Turkey Would Send ‘Dangerous Message to the Muslim World’
By Daniel Hollingsworth
July 28, 2008

In an op-ed piece published in the July 24 edition of the Christian Science Monitor, Alex Taurel and Shadi Hamid of the Project on Middle East Democracy write that if the Turkish Constitutional Court decides to close down the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey, it would signal to the rest of the Muslim world that “no matter how much Islamists moderate, they won't be accepted as legitimate participants in the democratic process” and instead “will strengthen those Islamists who see violence and confrontation as a surer means to influence political power.” The court could make its decision as early as this week.

The case against the AKP charges that through actions such as an attempt to lift the ban on head scarves at universities, the government is violating the constitutional establishment of secularism. The constitution grants the courts the ability to disband parties found to be anti-secular, but the authors argue that “disbanding a democratically-elected party on such dubious grounds…is not how mature democracies handle divisive issues.”

The authors write that “in recent years, mainstream Islamist groups throughout the region – including in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco – have embraced many of the foundational components of democratic life. Yet their moderation has been met with harsh government repression, or more subtle designs to restrict their political participation.” They argue that while the decision by popular Islamist groups to “[reconcile] themselves to the give-and-take nature of democracy” should fit nicely with the Bush administration’s vision of a democratic Middle East, the Bush administration has remained indifferent to the case:

“Though US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praises the AKP's democratization agenda, last month she said, ‘Obviously, we are not going to get involved in … the current controversy in Turkey about the court case.’ Yet moments later she opined, ‘Sometimes when I'm asked what might democracy look like in the Middle East, I think it might look like Turkey.’ It's difficult to tell if she's referring to the new, democratizing Turkey of the past five years – or the reactionary Turkey where judges and generals flagrantly overrule the people's will.”

The authors call on the Bush administration to take its last chance to “reinvigorate the cause of Middle East democracy… By publicly denouncing the closure case, the administration would signal that the US not only supports Turkish democracy against a dangerous internal assault, but that it is also committed to defending all actors willing to abide by democratic principles in a region that desperately needs more of them.”