Historical Evolution of Turkish Politics: End of Kemalist Order

By Bayram Aliyev- PhD Candidate of Political Science and International Relations at Istanbul University/

Clearly understanding of contemporary Turkish Politics absolutely depends on understanding of late Ottoman Period and early period politics of Turkish Republic. Thus, ideologies such as Kurdish nationalism, Turkish nationalism, Islamism, Secularism are product of those periods. In other words, roots of modern Turkish Politics are related with political movements at late Ottoman period.

Clearly understanding of contemporary Turkish Politics absolutely depends on understanding of late Ottoman Period and early period politics of Turkish Republic. Thus, ideologies such as Kurdish nationalism, Turkish nationalism, Islamism, Secularism are product of those periods. In other words, roots of modern Turkish Politics are related with political movements at late Ottoman period.

Beginning of XX century has been one of the turning points of World Politics. There were World War I and later recession of empires with other political, social and economic turning points in the world. One of these empires was Ottoman Empire, which has been very important political actor since its establishment time. Although the factors that made Ottomans disintegrate were based on political issues of XIX century, but these factors became influential at the establishment of new Republican Turkey.

Turkish politics passed into new phase with the establishment of Turkish Republic. Ottomans dominant ideology based on Islam was not considered main ideology of new Republic- contrarily New Turkish Republic adopted totally different political priorities from Ottomans such as Secularization, Nationalization, and Westernization. Factually, secularist and westernizationist movements emerged at the beginning of weakening period of Ottoman Empire around 1830s, with the adopting of Tanzimat Reforms. Secularist movements and Islamist movements emerged at that period and clashed between themselves which resulted with emergence of solid Secularism and Nationalism in Republican Turkey. Of course, there were exterior factors that made indispensable secularist reforms in the Empire such as modernization of European countries. The main point here is that, modernization process in Europe has been consequence of natural developments within society and state, however Ottomans tried to take products of this modernization and apply them in the Empire. This process has been continued at Republican Turkey which resulted failing. Thus, failing of Kemalism and Turkish type of Secularism, actually, has begun at the time of they were applied. Secondly, it resulted with emergence of reactionary Islamist trends, which is also continued today’s Turkish Politics. We see traces of this period on contemporary Turkish Politics.

We see three main strategic problems through the construction of Kemalist state in Turkey:

-          State officially neglected Islam and its place in the society totally while it adopted solid Secularization which caused deep societal polarization. This solid Secularization attempts are called “Kemalism” and aimed to build new Western identity and to remove all influence of Islam at societal and cultural spheres. (Ahmet Ocak Yashar, “Turkler, Turkiye ve Islam”, p. 114)

-          State focused on Secularization instead of Democracy. Democratic principles were neglected which created serious problems for the country at next years.

-          Finally, we see that “Kemalism” is aimed to build strong Turkish nationalism in the country which has been also formed very problematic issues for the country such as emergence of violation which covered by Kurdish nationalism

Thus, we see that current political trends are not only shaped by ideological thoughts of late Ottomans and early Republic, but also today´s discomforts in the country directly rooted from these thoughts. So, acceptance of Kemalism and its values in societal level have not been successful. Namely, majority of Turkish society has strong Islamic characteristics and underestimation of Islam in the country, naturally, caused to the reaction of society and consequently, people adopted Islamic values more strongly. Samuel Huntington, who has been one of the very well-known political scientists at contemporary world, argues that western type of modernization have not been successful, since it has not been a natural process, rather Turkish elites tried to force society to be “Westernized” as I explained above.

Secularism without democracy brought economic limitations and became a barrier in front of economic welfare together with its effect on society to limit People`s religious activities. Namely, focusing on secularism instead of democracy has made military to be an important political power in the country. As a result of all military coups, economic crisis has emerged and this factor influenced on increasing of popularity of parties which have Islamic rhetoric in the country. Thus, it can be said that emergence of Islamist parties is a natural result of Kemalism ideology in the country.  As a result, people tends to support alternative parties rather secularists because of their limitations on economic welfare. He indicates that economic democracy is basic to avoid from emergence of extreme powers.

            It is seen that country zigzagged until today at its democracy struggle. As it was mentioned, government tried to build new unique identity for the all ethnic groups in society- Western identity at the first years of Turkish Republic. Naturally, these attempts were not successful, since who had other nationalities from Turkish nationality like Kurds and who had different religious identity like Alewites were against to the government’s policies. At that time nationalist secularism paradigm became dominant. “Ulusalcilik” paradigm has been the product of those years. Turkey passed into multi-party system at 1950 and new “Democratic Party” has won the elections with strong support of people, despite the rule of Republican People party (CHP) for decades till 1950. This has shown that Kemalism has not been successful at societal level. Other point is that, rising of Kurdish nationalism in Turkish politics is production of strong stressing of Turkish nationalism by Kemalism.

Islam and Modern Turkey

In fact, Islam, even when it was seen as missing in discussions entailing Kemalism, has always been a constitutive element of Turkish politics and society. Even in its very lack of visibility in public spaces, it continued to shape political and social relations and continued to have an impact on the discourses of political actors. Religion, and more importantly, Islamic symbols, have been a part of the social fabric of Turkey. With the passage of multi-party system at Turkey at the beginning of 1950s, we see that political Islam emerged as a reaction to Kemalist ideology in the country. We saw that rising of political Islam and Islamist parties in the country such as Milli Nizam Partisi (National Order Party), Milli Selamet Partisi (National Salvation Party) and Refah Partisi (Welfare Party), while Kemalism began to lose its importance at the country. Another important factor of Rising of Islamist parties in the country is related with economic difficulties of people under the ruling of Secularist powers. (Aliyev, Bayram, “Transition of Turkish Politics: Kemalism to Political Islam”, Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs, New Delhi, July 2014)

Politicizing of Islam started at last decades of XIX century at Ottoman Empire. It aimed to gather all people who possess Islamic identity at only one “Islamic” state. At that period, it was attempted that systemizing Islam. On this point of view, Islam is a name of religion, while political Islam is the name of its systemizing state and as a result, Islamism or political Islam is a political ideology. One of the Ottoman Sultans, Sultan II Abdulhamit took Islamism from to be “notion” and he began to apply Islamist policies at a first time. 

Islamic trends in Turkish Politics (Turkish Republic) began at 1950s, but with the power of Welfare party (Refah Partisi), political Islam culminated. Party officials stated continuously that their final purpose is the transition of Turkey to Islamic state which caused their overthrown by military coup at 28^th of February, 1997. Policies of Welfare party are totally against the EU and NATO, instead of they supported Islamic common market and an Islamic NATO. Furthermore, they tried to build close ties with Iran, Libya and Syria which is completely opposite to the attitudes of secular political elite, military and public (Aydin S. & Cakir R., 2007: “Political Islam In Turkey”) However, after their collapsing with military coup in February, 1997, there were transition in Political Islam. Reformists and Traditionalists in the movement had different visions from each other and the movement divided into two groups as a consequence. Traditionalists formed Fazilet Partisi (Virtue Party), later Saadet Partisi (Felicity Party), but reformists created Justice and Development Party under leadership of former President Abdullah Gul and current President Erdogan. Reformists changed their views on both inner politics and foreign policy line. Namely, they defined themselves as “Conservative Democrats” and focused on Democracy inside and tried to build very good relations with the West.

Here, the social Islamic movements should be mentioned because of their importance in Turkish society which directly influential at formation of public perception in the country. One of the very important movements was Nurculuk which was founded by Said Nursi. Said Nursi who was very influential Islamic cleric selected different way from other Islamic personalities at that time. Although he also was perceived as a threat for secular regime of Turkey, but he has never participated political contestation and has never used sharp rhetoric and condemn directly government officials for spreading of secularist ideas, instead he tended to educate society with Islamic values and he wrote Risale-i Nur (Epistles of Light) book series which he tried to support Islam against communist ideology. His movement has spread in Anatolia rapidly in the short time. Namely, Nurculuk movement played very important role as a non- governmental civil organization during those years (This part is taken from my master thesis unpublished yet). Currently, the very influential movement in Turkey is Fethullah Gulen movement which is inspired from thought of Said Nursi, but followed different way from other Nurcu movements. They made cooperation with AKP and current President Erdogan, but after corruption scandal in December, 2013, they became the most dangerous enemy of Erdogan. They were accused to construct parallel structure to the State with Gulen- inspired bureaucrats in state structure. Currently, clashes among these two Islamic- referenced movements are continuing. AKP government declared Gulen movement as a terrorist organization and tries to weakening their activities in the country. Thus, AKP’s struggle with Kemalist order is added to their struggle with other Islam- backed group. Gulen and Gulen- inspired organizations always try to hold off Political Islamic rhetoric from them because of their global vision.

End of Kemalism

Kemalism is the mixture of Nationalism and Secularism which is totally different from Ottomans dominant ideology which possessed multi-identity and religious rhetoric. Kemalism emerged as a consequence of modernization paradigm. Its breakup period began mainly at 1980s with the changing of leadership. Namely, Turgut Ozal came to power as a presenter of liberal thought. During his ruling period, many reforms were realized and democratic criteria have been begun to apply. However, at the same time, Islamic Rhetoric and Ottomanist trends also emerged in the Turkish Politics and were used increasingly. But, in fact, academicians, experts or even politicians at that time could not evaluate power of Islamism in the country truly. (Sherif Mardin, “Projects as Methodology: Some Thoughts on Modern Turkish Social Science” In Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey, edited by Sibel Bozdoğan and Reshat Kasaba (University of Washington Press, 1997), p.77)

Strongest emergence of Political Islam at the Turkish Politics was 2001 with the establishment of new party, Justice and Development Party (AKP). In a short time, party became famous and was elected at 2002 parliamentary elections. At that process, we see that they defined themselves such as “conservative democrats”. In fact, AKP made many democratic reforms to democratize country in the first phase of their power. There has been also radical transition at Turkey’s foreign policy. “Strategic Depth” paradigm has been dominated Turkish Foreign Policy which was developed by Prof. Dr. Ahmet Davutoglu, who is current Prime Minister of Turkey. According to “Strategic Depth”, Turkey can be a bridge between East and West. So, according to this paradigm, Turkey should follow active foreign policy at Middle East and Central Asia besides its willing to be a European Union country. “Strategic Depth” theory contains new-Ottomanist characters beside its liberal characters, which is appearing nowadays, but it brought popularity to Turkey at those days. There are concrete factors behind being successful of current ruling party and current President Mr. Erdogan and these are shortly:

-          Fully Islamic rhetoric of current President Erdogan, which perceived as a symbol of sincerity and honesty in the society

-          His critics on unfairness at International System, standings on side of Palestine and his polemic with Israel (since there is a strong anti-Israeli attitudes in Turkish Society)

-          Economic success and increasing welfare of people since 2002, when AKP came to power after economic crisis in the country

-          Stop of deaths by terrorist attacks of PKK and starting to solution of Kurdish issue in the first phase and after many reforms on solution of Kurdish issue (giving many liberties to Kurds, beginning to broadcast state television TRT into Kurdish language, to open faculties of Kurdish philology and literature) PKK began its attacks which increased legality of Justice and Development Party and marginalize pro- Kurdish party HDP   

We can say that Kemalist ideology was marginalized with the power of AKP (Justice and Development Party). Many academicians defined marginalizing process of Kemalism as a “transition of Turkish Politics from Kemalist era to Post-Kemalism”. However, the broken point of Kemalism in the country was unsuccessful coup attempt by Military at 27^th of April, 2007. AKP officials and other public figures condemned this e- coup very harsh style. We see that role of military at political process began reducing steadily after this coup attempt. Bureaucracy and Military became under the control of Government steadily and this process still continuing. Thus, declining of Kemalism as a main ideology of the State continues while Islamist and neo- Ottomanist policies became dominant. Transformation of State is not coming to end yet. Introducing of Presidential System and adopting of New Constitution will be last step of this process.

Regarding future of Islamism in the country, it is supposed that it will be continued in near future whether at a new form or like current form. Turkish politics cannot be taken without Islam in current stage, because of strong Islamic trends in society which are mainly supported by Islamic social movements. This fact itself shows that why Justice and Development Party is being successful (because of strong Islamic emphasizing) while other political parties cannot develop strategies in proper way.