EU-DIGEST

Huge pro-secularism rally in Turkey

n a massive demonstration in support of secularism in Turkey hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in a rally Ankara. It was organised by a group opposed to the nomination of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for president. His AK party has its roots in Islam and many in the country worry its official secular status would be undermined if he were to become head of state. Turkey, which is a candidate for EU membership, is predominently Muslim but state and religion are strictly separated.

Tens of thousands of people were bussed into the capital from across the nation to attend what was one of the biggest gatherings in Turkey in recent years. Note EU-Digest: "Mustafa Kemal Ataturk shaped the destiny of a nation which was alone and dying. He gave it a new future. Under his progressive nationalist leadership his country broke free from its passive, inward-looking and parochial and religious conservatism, ingrained through long centuries of habit, and from the defeatism and apathy engendered by the inexorable decline of its imperial power. Aiming to replace the image of Turkey as ' the Sick Man of Europe ' with that of a dynamic and self-renewing non-imperialist country capable of winning the respect of its more advanced European neighbours, he led his country out of the Middle Ages into the twentieth century in a couple of decades. He achieved this through a co-ordinated series of sweeping reforms, all directed towards the creation in Turkey of a western-style democracy. These changes were so drastic that it is impossible to conceive that anyone could have brought them about if he had not been, like Mustafa Kemal, a national hero twice over as a result of his leadership at Gallipoli and his single-handed master minding of the Turkish War of Independence, which ended with the departure of all foreign armies from Turkish soil.

In February 1937 he had the following six principles written into Article Two of the Constitution of the Turkish Republic:
1. Republicanism
2. Nationalism
3. Populism
4. Revolutionism
5. Secularism
6. Etatism

The first four principles provide the basis for the new political life of the country, and the last two lay down the guidelines for his reforms.

Secularism is one of the cornerstones of the Turkish political system. Any change in this structure will not only mean a danger to the survival of a free and independent Turkish Democratic Republic, but it will also impact on Europe's established secular societies. Secularism is one of the cornerstones of the Turkish political system. Any change in this structure will not only mean a danger to the survival of a free and independent Turkish Democratic Republic, but it will also impact on Europe's established secular societies. All of us in the EU can take an example of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who created this great democratic and secular country. We must help to preserve Turkey, not bring it down. (EU-Digest) "

Labels: Elections, EU, Secularism, Turkey