Editorial Desk :
Growing militancy, communitarian political conflicts to social polarisation all at one seems to have torn apart the splendours of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s Republic of Turkey to bits and pieces.
Perhaps the year 2016 is the pinnacle period of the ever-growing Turkish trauma.
Following last Saturday’s unanticipated ghastly attacks carried out on an Istanbul night club, the long series of violent onslaughts have claimed the lives of more than 2500 people last year. More than fifty thousand people have become direct victims of aerial displacements. At least a dozen big-scale violent assaults allegedly launched by the extremist Kurd rebels PKK have not only targeted civilians but the army and law enforcers too. Altogether, Turkey is fast appearing as a bitterly divided state fast slipping away from being controlled.
In a country of myriad self-righteous groups claiming absolute certainty, the only remedy seems to get more pluralistic in every approach, and it is this culture of pluralism that has become a rarity to be found within the Turkish republic. Undeniably, based on extreme political and ideological foundations, it’s the growing polarisation that has imperceptibly divided the country in two. However, if the key predicament surrounding polarisation is so clearly felt and understood – how is it being dealt with? What are Mr. Erdogan’s plans to unite a divided nation fast heading towards an abyss?
The latest woe to have been added in the country’s mounting violence is the attack on an Istanbul night club, claiming another 39 lives but this time, it’s not the Kurds but the Islamic State that has claimed responsibility for the massacre. The deepest political divide is apparently between the seculars, who think of themselves as ‘true followers’ of principles of laicism and a democratic republic introduced in 1923 by Ataturk, and on the other side, there are those who claim to be ‘faithful and committed to Islam’ and tradition. But following Turkey’s latest developments based on the clash between the two extremes the problem seems to be elsewhere. Both the above defined groups are amazingly self-conflicting in terms of, coming to any political compromise or sharing power. This is one dangerous sign that has become ubiquitous in the war-torn Middle East. Turkey too, seems like following the same course with just a different modality in place.
Following a failed coup last July, President Erdogan had been tightening his grip on power, stifling debate while fighting accusations of corruption. Such authoritarian actions have even polarized the nation rattling investors while sending the currency to a record all time low. It has also dimmed the country’s potential chances with more than seventy-eight million people to find a model that reconciled democratic secular government with Islam and join the European Union.
Given the prevailing ill-omen looming at large, Turkey’s rulers must find a way out to deal with its innumerable socio-political woes. It must first unite as a nation. The leader in power should bridge the gap between the two extreme poles. The regime there must be more decisive in dealing with Kurdish rebels while cancelling out further IS attacks.
We don’t know what invisible power has led Turkey’s leader to choose autocracy but he must realise that, ‘external factors’ have damaged the internal peace in many countries in the name of ‘establishing peace and democracy.’ Most significantly, it must draw lessons from the countries nearby – Syria, Iraq, Libya and Egypt otherwise a ‘Turkish spring’ is not very far away.
Growing militancy, communitarian political conflicts to social polarisation all at one seems to have torn apart the splendours of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s Republic of Turkey to bits and pieces.
Perhaps the year 2016 is the pinnacle period of the ever-growing Turkish trauma.
Following last Saturday’s unanticipated ghastly attacks carried out on an Istanbul night club, the long series of violent onslaughts have claimed the lives of more than 2500 people last year. More than fifty thousand people have become direct victims of aerial displacements. At least a dozen big-scale violent assaults allegedly launched by the extremist Kurd rebels PKK have not only targeted civilians but the army and law enforcers too. Altogether, Turkey is fast appearing as a bitterly divided state fast slipping away from being controlled.
In a country of myriad self-righteous groups claiming absolute certainty, the only remedy seems to get more pluralistic in every approach, and it is this culture of pluralism that has become a rarity to be found within the Turkish republic. Undeniably, based on extreme political and ideological foundations, it’s the growing polarisation that has imperceptibly divided the country in two. However, if the key predicament surrounding polarisation is so clearly felt and understood – how is it being dealt with? What are Mr. Erdogan’s plans to unite a divided nation fast heading towards an abyss?
The latest woe to have been added in the country’s mounting violence is the attack on an Istanbul night club, claiming another 39 lives but this time, it’s not the Kurds but the Islamic State that has claimed responsibility for the massacre. The deepest political divide is apparently between the seculars, who think of themselves as ‘true followers’ of principles of laicism and a democratic republic introduced in 1923 by Ataturk, and on the other side, there are those who claim to be ‘faithful and committed to Islam’ and tradition. But following Turkey’s latest developments based on the clash between the two extremes the problem seems to be elsewhere. Both the above defined groups are amazingly self-conflicting in terms of, coming to any political compromise or sharing power. This is one dangerous sign that has become ubiquitous in the war-torn Middle East. Turkey too, seems like following the same course with just a different modality in place.
Following a failed coup last July, President Erdogan had been tightening his grip on power, stifling debate while fighting accusations of corruption. Such authoritarian actions have even polarized the nation rattling investors while sending the currency to a record all time low. It has also dimmed the country’s potential chances with more than seventy-eight million people to find a model that reconciled democratic secular government with Islam and join the European Union.
Given the prevailing ill-omen looming at large, Turkey’s rulers must find a way out to deal with its innumerable socio-political woes. It must first unite as a nation. The leader in power should bridge the gap between the two extreme poles. The regime there must be more decisive in dealing with Kurdish rebels while cancelling out further IS attacks.
We don’t know what invisible power has led Turkey’s leader to choose autocracy but he must realise that, ‘external factors’ have damaged the internal peace in many countries in the name of ‘establishing peace and democracy.’ Most significantly, it must draw lessons from the countries nearby – Syria, Iraq, Libya and Egypt otherwise a ‘Turkish spring’ is not very far away.
