Francine Kiefer: Turkey Needs a New Ataturk
[Francine Kiefer is a columnist for the Christian Science Monitor.]
Secularists in mostly Muslim Turkey are disheartened. The judiciary and military – two pillars that have strongly supported the separation of mosque and state in this strategically important country – are toppling.
That's a worry to those who treasure Turkish secularism, a principle of modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
While their concern is understandable, their view is skewed.
The problem is not that these two institutions are radically changing, but that secularists have hid behind them for way too long. Now is the time for this group to develop the political muscles to do its own heavy lifting.
The judiciary and military needed to change. Turkey is in negotiations to join the European Union, but it's not democratic for the Turkish judiciary to vet its own judges – the current practice. The EU rightly applauded voters who on Sunday strongly backed a constitutional reform that allows elected officials – Turkey's president and parliament – more say in appointing high-court judges....
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Secularists in mostly Muslim Turkey are disheartened. The judiciary and military – two pillars that have strongly supported the separation of mosque and state in this strategically important country – are toppling.
That's a worry to those who treasure Turkish secularism, a principle of modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
While their concern is understandable, their view is skewed.
The problem is not that these two institutions are radically changing, but that secularists have hid behind them for way too long. Now is the time for this group to develop the political muscles to do its own heavy lifting.
The judiciary and military needed to change. Turkey is in negotiations to join the European Union, but it's not democratic for the Turkish judiciary to vet its own judges – the current practice. The EU rightly applauded voters who on Sunday strongly backed a constitutional reform that allows elected officials – Turkey's president and parliament – more say in appointing high-court judges....