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West Turns Blind Eye to Oppression of Secularists in Turkey
Bahar Çinarli When the topic is Turkey, the term "human rights" always seems to come up. The "West" has been more than ready to bring up human rights issues in regard to minorities in Turkey, and lately this enthusiasm has been expanded to include the rights of the more strict Muslim population of Turkey, as in, "they can not practice Islam the way they want." However, there are silent masses in Turkey today that are oppressed by the pro-Islamic movement in the country. These are mostly educated professionals, and they believe in secularism, the way that the leader Atatürk formed the modern Turkey from ashes in 1923. Many Turkish secularists and scholars, believe that the pro-Islamic movement was designed by the U.S. government, as this vision of Turkey better suits the interests of the imperialistic powers, especially the U.S.A.: to control the Islamic world via Turkey, to use Turkey as a "dump market" for overproduced items, and to keep Turkey as a source of cheap labour, the first one being the most important. This "vision" that the U.S.A. had for Turkey has been slowly implemented over decades, and it is now almost ripe. What we see before our eyes today is the decay of a nation that up until recently grew and produced all it needed, and that was heading for a successful, cultivated and financially independent position following the great leader Atatürk's reforms. Ataturk clearly formed a secular country. In the new Turkish Republic, religious practices were respected and expected, but it was the individual's free choice how loosely or strictly he would follow his religion, which should be private matter between himself and God. Religion did not rule the country. These applied to other religions in Turkey, other than Islam too. Unfortunately not only the secular Turks, but also apparently Turkish Jewish population are under the oppression of the AKP government, according to the recent Jewish immigrants from Turkey to Canada. This is disgrace, as Ataturk saved so many lives of Jewish people and allowed them to settle and prosper in Turkey and freely practice their religion. Now Turkey is forced to buy foreign seeds that are processed abroad, that produce plants that do not re-seed, so that the farmers are forced to buy a new batch every year. They are no longer permitted to grow their own traditional Turkish varieties, which were renowned for their legendary and uniquely tasteful fruits and vegetables. As well, school programs have been intentionally lowered in quality, and art and music classes have been disappearing. Any altruistic ideals in the society are intentionally downplayed-except religious ones. Public schools are so bad now, that desperate parents try very hard to send their children to very expensive private schools. They work very long hours to support their children's future. There is a very widespread deep concern. While cutting down on the quality of arts, sciences, and music alike, the education system now puts increasing emphasis on religious studies instead. The pro-Islamic movement crept up on the secularists, especially over the last decade, and especially during the last year the oppression has gone overt and aggressive. Initially, if someone was not a fundamentalist Islamist, he or she didn't get the job, or the promotion. The pressure started rising over the years, forcing the secularists to join in the prayers at mosques on Fridays, at a level that people are now very intimidated to not do so. They close their shops during Friday prayers, and either attend the prayers, or pretend and hide until they are over. The drinking of alcohol has been also slowly more and more frowned upon. Most secularists, because of concern about their livelihoods, and their family's well-beings, gradually started obeying the gentle pressure. They started hiding the alcohol bottle in public. The movement was masterfully planned a long time ago. Key positions, such as in government and education were targeted by the fundamentalists as a way to reshape the country. If a family had a bright child but not much money, "scholarships" were offered to the family as long as the child attended the religious preachings. The poor were bought off. Once the family agreed to the "scholarship," they were then told what faculty their child should aim for, and they often were taken away from their families to stay in special "student housing" places where they are brain washed over the years. These faculties had always to do with the political direction of the country - education, political sciences, law and so on. Speaking of buying the poor, AKP government increased the gap between the poor and the rich; and then used the desperation of the poor for their own ends. Even in the latest elections, a lot of votes were bought by giving expensive gifts, such as refrigerators and washing machines, to the poor families by the leading Islamist AKP party. Members of the already hard-working secularist middle class have been too busy paying the bills to deal with the changes gradually brought over the country-or they were blind sighted by the politicians; or they were thinking they were immune from the changes; or they were they were selfish thinking that it would not affect their generation! These people are now not only not getting promoted at work, but they are also intimidated to the point where they cannot speak up for fear of false accusation and imprisonment. Yes, the last year the leading AKP party, totally violating the human rights, has arrested the most respected professors, politicians and members of the press giving them a fake name "Erkenekon Terrorist Organization". Doesn't this scenario sound familiar from the other parts of the world? Creating fake enemies that is- if they stand in the way-, and justifying their destruction! In this case their only "fault" was that they were speaking up against the leading AKP party, disapproving its ill conduct. These people were blamed with false accusations, and did not have fair trials. This "showing muscles" by the ruling party intimidated the rest of the society who are not happy with them, but now they are afraid to speak up with the fear of being called a terrorist and imprisonment without credible trials, or simply loosing their livelihoods. Some secularists try to escape the country, such as by applying for immigration to Canada, and succeed, but not everybody can leave! I should add here, this is interesting to Canadian authorities, some fundamentalist Islamists also immigrated to Canada already have very well established sects to brain wash any Turkish-Canadians who are lonely, homesick, jobless, who need something to hold on to, right here in Canada. Secularist women are now forced to cover up more and more. Their sexual freedom is limited more and more, toward becoming non-existent. Over the years during my travels back to my homeland, I have personally observed the changes forced on the women. Every year, there were more and more covered women, in an exaggerated style, foreign to Turkey I knew. I was once told I could not stay at a particular hotel with my boyfriend as we were unable to provide a marriage certificate. During another visit, while I was buying alcoholic beverages at a very touristic town, I felt the disapproval of the vendor, who placed the alcoholic drinks in a separate dark black bag-as if they were pornographic magazines. More and more shops, especially in non-touristic areas, are overtly refusing to sell alcoholic beverages-they might well be forced into doing this so as to be permitted to stay in business. In order to put all these into perspective, I will add that 20 years ago, far fewer women were covered; covering then was typically a modest colourful headscarf only, definitely not veils, or burkas. I never saw a "burka" while I was still a resident in Turkey; there were no pressure on secular women to cover up, and alcohol sales were much more free. The religious people did not force their type of religion down the throats of secularists. Not-so-religious people respected that religious people continued in their faith. The religious, and, not-so-religious used to live side by side, without bothering each other. The number of mosques built in the last decade is ridiculous. Someone I know bought a very nice, expensive house in Ankara, and according to the housing project a large sports facility was to be built next to his house. The plans, after-the-fact were changed, to make room for yet another mosque! Any sports facilities that are built are intentionally very inadequately constructed, or not built at all. Wherever people turn, there will be a mosque, literally and figuratively! Fundamentalist Islam limits women-and violates their rights-much more than it does men, and I believe that is one of the reasons some men are not fighting back all that much. I almost think some Turkish men must love this growing oppression of women, because it tips the balance of power in their favour. Old taboos-such as the one against premarital sex for woman-are being brought back, but similar behaviour is not expected from men. More and more women are expected to except that their husbands can have mistresses, and they should live with it! If the scenario is reverse, these women are shunned from the society, and in some cases even killed by a man in the family, mostly by their husbands. I watched U.S. President Obama's recent visit to Turkey on TV. President Obama kept on emphasizing the word "Islamic" when he referred to Turkey, and he said that he expects Turkey's help with Middle-Eastern issues. It was then reported that Obama went to visit the "religious leaders" in Istanbul. Wait a minute there! Turkey is still a secular country, despite all the efforts otherwise. Although Obama is a much more lovable leader than George W. Bush, he is nevertheless simply continuing the U.S.A.'s plan developed long before him: to create a subservient Islamic country to suit the U.S.A.'s needs rather than support a modern, successful, independent, secular Turkey. He never said a word about supporting the oppressed secularists in his speech, or acknowledged that as a problem. He stood by Islamist government. The issue of the oppression of the secularist Turks in Turkey is not seen as a problem by the "West". The well intending common Western people are kept in the dark, as the western media would not cover such stories. It may be because they get all their information from the biased government broadcasts, or oppressed Turkish secularists is not interesting news to them. May be they are only interested the small ethnic minorities' rights only as long as they are not Turkish, as history showed over and over. Lastly, the "guru!" of this Fundamentalist Islamist movement reshaping Turkey is living on a very large ranch in New Jersey for many years. How does U.S.A. explain that? I have been thinking of writing this article for a while, as there is a definite human rights violation in Turkey today, and it is only getting worse. The foreign press is simply not covering it, may be because it not related to the non-Muslim minorities, or simply they are unaware, or worse they intentionally turn a blind eye. The oppressed by the government are the bright, cultivated, peace-loving secularist Turks who love their country. I am asking the HUMAN RIGHT ACTIVISTS and FEMINISTS of the world to pay attention and help, before Turkey becomes another Iran. April 2009 Old Articles
by Bahar Cinarli: |
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