Türkiye : A 2-WORLD BALANCE ACT
TÜRKIYE : A 2-WORLD BALANCE ACT
[img_assist|nid=7764|title=Twilight in North-East Turkey|desc=Photo by Mustafa Küpeli|link=node|align=right|width=550|height=413] It is hard not to notice a certain dichotomy in Turkish society which has exacerbated with the recent elections held in that country.
Although democracy has definitely expanded throughout the land, the cherished secularism of Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK, founder of the modern nation, is now being challenged by the ruling AKP party.
This Justice and Development Party (AKP), after its July 2007 reelection, has gained a larger share of the popular vote, meaning that now almost half of Turkish citizen voters have rallied to it and to what it represents.
The AKP, although currently moderate, condones the Muslim heritage social and religious conservatism so dear to rural populations and has struck a big note with small-town populations as well as the up and coming middle -classes of the Anatolian cities, like in Kars. Modern in many of its ideas, it embraces free markets and endorses the twin Ottoman-Muslim heritage over the Kemalist ideological notions of secularism, republicanism and Western values.
Recep ERDOGAN, the present party leader as well as Prime Minister of Turkey, embodies this power which raises concern about motivation for continuing political and social reforms to permit the country to enter the European Community. Important issues pending, include the Kurdish problem and abolishment of certain articles in the Penal Code that limit freedom of expression, notably criticism of 'Turkishness' which lead to prosecution.
Examples are Armenian-Turk Hrant Dink, murdered by a young fanatic and Orhan Pamuk (Nobel Prize winner in 2006).
Although Turkish voters now seem to rule the country, the malaise caused by such competing ideologies, both vying for power, exercises pressure and strain on the Kemalist -thinking nationalists. There is little grounds to predict how the AKP will govern immediate and upcoming social and political issues that have to be dealt with. This overwhelming face-à-face may hopefully be defied and overcome to steer the country away from a hard-line populist, Asian-value nation towards an energetic and democratic society as a potential member of the European Community..
