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July 30, 2008
Good News From Turkey

The Constitutional Court in Turkey rejects the attempts to close down the ruling party:

Turkey’s top court on Wednesday ruled against closing the governing AK Party for Islamist activities but decided to impose partial financial penalties on the party, chief judge Hasim Kilic said.

The threat of closing the AKP and of banning its top politicians, including the President and Prime Minister, from politics and elections was severe. This was coup attempt by legal means.

The consequences of an AKP ban would have been disastrous for Turkey and the Middle East:

  • The society in Turkey would have split further and the followers of the soft Islamic AKP would have radicalized.
  • The legal situation of the government under such a ban was totally unclear and could have led to a military coup.
  • Further steps on to EU affiliation would have been blocked.
  • Negotiations between Syria and Israel and between Iran and the U.S., facilitated by Turkey, would have stopped.

All  these dangers have now been averted. The financial penalty is unlikely to be a problem.

In 2002 the AKP government turned down U.S. requests for a 4th division attack on north Iraq through Turkey. That is one reason why neocons favored the closure of the AKP. They and Cheney would certainly have preferred a return of a hard right-wing, secular-militaristic government in Turkey.

For now the crisis is over. But the deep state in Turkey is a continuing danger and this was certainly not its last attempt to act against the will of the people.

Posted by b on July 30, 2008 at 16:41 UTC | Permalink
Comments

b,
Do you think that the American government is interfering with Turkey in any way? A covert opp or two? Pressure? It seems to me that anytime you find trouble in the world, the CIA is on the scene. Sometimes only watching perhaps, but on the scene never the less.
At least the USA did not put an aircraft carrier group of the coast. Yet.

Posted by: Buckaroo | Jul 30 2008 21:41 utc | 1

Democracy is not just about majority rule, it is also about preventing the tyranny of the majority.
But I still find it unfortunate that Turkey has to rely on a military clique to ensure a basic tenet of democracy, namely the separation of Church and State.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 31 2008 7:55 utc | 2

I read in the Danish tabloid, Ekstra Bladet, that it was by one vote in the Turkish court that prevented the exclusion — the vote was 6/5 and 7 votes were needed to pull it off. (Almost) needless to say, the Danish TV news ignored it.

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Jul 31 2008 19:14 utc | 3

Do you think that the American government is interfering with Turkey in any way? A covert opp or two? Pressure? It seems to me that anytime you find trouble in the world, the CIA is on the scene. Sometimes only watching perhaps, but on the scene never the less.
Yes I suspect that, though I have no direct evidence yet. The ruling class in the U.S. would prefer a military government in Turkey that would bend to its will. It is too late for that but they still try. Google a bit around “deep state” and “gladio” and you will see the processes at work here.
The neocons just hate the AKP. They would rather accept a hard right secular military dictatorship or a hard right Saudi influenced Islamic dictatorship. They can not stand a kind of social democratic, soft left, soft islam democratic rule in Turkey as it will not bend to their wishes.

Posted by: b | Jul 31 2008 19:59 utc | 4

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