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Istanbul and the East and West puzzle

By Alice Aslan - posted Tuesday, 2 March 2010


With the migration of more and more peasants each day from the countryside to in particular Istanbul, which has a population of more than 10 million people, for better opportunities and to escape the political conflict in eastern Turkey, and also with the rise of a wealthy class of orthodox Muslims in Istanbul, people in religious clothing, especially women with headscarves and some even in veils, have become more visible.

Therefore middle class secularists, who are generally dubbed “the white Turks”, have felt under attack and they generally complain that bogans and orthodox Muslims have infested and invaded “their cities”. And of course the recent migrants in big cities are not totally blameless.

Some of them might sometimes suffocate others and kill the joy of life in big cities with their lack of urban sophistication; their watchful provincial morality; their expectation of a similar morality from other people around them. And in case of some orthodox religious groups, they may stigmatise others with more liberal values with their strong aversion towards alcohol and any signs of sexuality in public places, and with their concentration on religious rules and rituals rather than focusing on the question of how religion should help them become better and more ethical people.

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And since the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power in the early 2000s, not necessarily because people in Turkey have become more religious but because other political parties have failed to achieve the socioeconomic outcomes they promised, tensions have often erupted.

Although some members of the AK Party, including its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan flirted with political Islam in the past, today it has similarities with the Republican Party in the US or the Liberal Party in Australia due to its social conservatism and strong connections with and involvement in the business world, and it has also some characteristics of a populist left party with its policy, for instance, that has helped everyone have access to public health services.

And all the efforts to overthrow the AK Party have so far failed: the western-oriented secularist groups have taken to the streets many times to protest the democratically elected party; the constitutional court has tried to close down the AK Party claiming that it aims to change the secular nature of the republic, and the army have kept plotting against the party to overthrow it including getting involved in the murder of important secular public figures and bombings and blaming the Islamist groups for these crimes.

And there has been relentless tension between the army that tries to overthrow the AK Party and the government that attempts to prosecute the members of the military who supports a military coup.

Such manipulated cleavages in Turkey have created a cynical society where people constantly despise and detest each other, and waste all their valuable energy and resources in unnecessary tensions and conflicts rather than co-operating to create a better society.

But the election of the AK Party, a party with its own flaws like every other political party, has provided Turkey with the opportunity to overcome this paranoid secularism. For instance, the Prime Minister and President appear at their government offices and official events with their covered wives, which would have been unthinkable before.

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Some European countries have had similar tensions about secularism with their Muslim minorities. And it is not useful to explain such tensions in terms of a crude theory of clash of cultures.

Neither paranoid secularist arrogance that always associates religion with bigotry nor an erstwhile progressive attitude that promotes one uniform identity for all nor inflexible religious and social conservatism can provide the ideal social principles in a society in the 21st century.

But the important thing is to create better and more inclusive societies with socioeconomic justice where differences are allowed to flourish within ethical limits without letting any group suffocate other groups or the individuals within itself.

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About the Author

Alice Aslan is an artist, thinker and activist passionate about arts, culture, ideas, justice and wildlife.

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