History of Turkey – 98% population is Muslim. Along with Indonesia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, Turkey counted one of the most secular Muslim country. Until world war 1, there was Ottoman Empire from 1299-1922. After Ottoman Empire, General Ataturk helped Turkey get independence in 1923. Ataturk was a dictator and considered as benevolence dictators’ category who basically fought for the betterment of the nation. From the very beginning Ataturk wanted Turkey to become secular country. In the year 1924, constitution was made in Turkey and in 1928, Islam as a state religion was removed. Many such secular moves took place like Ministry of Sharia was disbanded, Sufi orders and Traditional madrasas were banned, mosques were placed under government control. Equal rights given to both women and men. By 1930 women achieved the right to vote. Government employees were ordered to uncover the face. Co-Education started where both girls and boys could study. Compulsory education started. Principle of Ataturk came from French Secularism. French secularism is based on religion kept long apart from politics. Even people are not allowed to show off their religion. Muslim women could not wear burkha, religious symbols could not be promoted in any platform etc. India and USA Secularism allows promotion of religion up to certain extent. After the demise of Ataturk in 1950, democracy came in Turkey and finally free and fair elections were conducted in Turkey. But some how the public of Turkey were not happy with the non-publicizing of their religion. But to keep the secularism intact, Ataturk gave free hands to the army of Turkey. It has been written in the constitution that Turkish Armed Forces is responsible for guarding and defending the Turkish Republic as defined by the constitution. At any point of time whenever there is a smell of non-secularism act played by any political party, the Turkish Armed Force threw back the ruling government from its place. This happened in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997.
Rise or Erdogan – Today’s President. He started his career as a mayor of Istanbul in 1990. In his tenure of being a mayor he worked on many spaces like traffic congestion in Istanbul, Water shortage etc which helped him be in the good book. In the year 2001 he created a party named Justice and Development Party. The abbreviation in Turkish is AKP. The leaders of this party kept stating that this party is a secular party which keeps religion and politics apart. The image of Erdogan was projected and seen as a good leader who respects Muslim religion and at the same time works on development and betterment of people. With he is being in the good book of Turkish public, Erdogan became Prime Minister in 2002. After becoming the PM, Erdogan passed many pro democratic reforms like stronger judiciary, reducing military’s role, supporting human rights because of which the economic growth saw a rise in the country. Many FDIs came into Turkey, infrastructure boomed up. In the tenure 2002-2007 Turkey used to see a GDP growth of 6-7% whereas the deficit was 15% in 2002 and in 2010, it came down to 3.5%. Public debt was 77% in 2001 which came down to 40% in 2013. Not only economic growth but Erdogan also worked on betterment of people like rising the spending on healthcare and education. Poverty almost reduced to 50% from 2002 to 2015. For 3 consecutive terms Erdogan kept on winning elections but by 2014, he had become arrogant. According to Turkish Constituency, a leader could be there for maximum 3 terms and not more than that and just because to keep himself intact in power, Erdogan stood for Presidential candidate and won the election in 2014. Erdogan wanted all the Prime Ministerial power to be given to President. He passed a constitutional reform with regards to this transfer of power.
Fall of Erdogan – By the time when Erdogan started to allocate the power to President, the Turkish Army as per the constitution started opposing and tried their level best to stop the constitutional reforms passed by Erdogan. This is the same power which was given to the Army by Ataturk. Meanwhile Erdogan called up all his party workers to come on road and start protesting the military which eventually won the race. Erdogan won and military fails. In the year 2017 Erdogan proved that he could go to any extend to save his chair. He passed some reforms for the power transfer from PM to President and that consequently would abolish the PM post in the country. Now President is the head of government. To pass these reforms, Erdogan conducted a referendum of power sweeping with the public and he some how managed to win with very narrow majority. With this game of power adoption by President, Erdogan managed to win the Presidential election in 2018 also. In this approach of power sweeping and politics, Erdogan failed to do anything for the public which he used to do once upon a time. And guess what the economy drastically went down, rise in unemployment, debt crisis went high.
Economic Crash of Turkey – Turkish currency lost 30% value against USD. Inflation went over 10%. GDP Growth rate is from 0-1% from past couple of years. People and Journalists started raising voice against Erdogan. And they were been put into jails, many government employees were fired from their jobs. Statistics say that the maximum number of journalists in jail are in Turkey.
Religion and Politics – Erdogan started playing mind game and to distract people’s mindset from economy and growth, he and his party started religion card with politics. He reopened Islamic schools giving maximum funds as compared to any other institutes. Started building mosque. He opened Turkey’s largest mosque in Istanbul. The mosque can accommodate 63000 worshippers and has 3500 sq km art gallery. He spent a lot despite of low economic growth, rising debt. All these were just because to distract people from the real issue of the country.
Hagia Sophia Museum – Erdogan gave mosque right to Hagia Sophia. An Arab news reports that Hagia Sophia verdict sees as Erdogan’s attempt to mast economic failure. Also 55% of Turkish public too believes the same as reported. Hagia Sophia was a church made in 6 century AD. And it stayed to be a church until 1453 after which the Ottoman Empire converted the Church to Mosque. Until 1934, it was a Mosque. In 1934 Ataturk changed the Mosque to a museum to prove that Turkey as a symbol of secularism which gives equal rights and priority to all religion. And now Erdogan took ka decision to again convert the museum to mosque in 2020. The world eventually is criticizing the Turkey’s move to convert Hagia Sophia to a mosque. UNESCO, Greece, Cyprus, and church leaders among others express concern about the change. This move questions the secular credentials in the whole world.
My View – The history should be conserved at it is best. This is a modern era and digging the history and fighting on the same is no where going to be the best at any case. Moreover, there would be losses and losses all over. Political parties no doubt will play mind game to distract people’s attention from real challenges, but the public must act upon and raise voice against political leaders. Rather than digging the history and working on that, the political parties or ruling government should focus on upliftment of people, understanding their challenges and extending their support to them. It’s better to work on present and not fighting on the past.
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