2008_10_SRP_CornellKaraveli_Turkey
2008_10_SRP_CornellKaraveli_Turkey
2008_10_SRP_CornellKaraveli_Turkey
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Prospects for a ‘Torn’ <strong>Turkey</strong> 33<br />
conservatism was not reflected at all in the political inclinations of in<br />
particular officers of lower rank.<br />
The military has in fact experienced severe difficulties in trying to navigate<br />
the new ideological landscape. Developments since the Islamic conservatives<br />
came to power in 2002 have disoriented – and possibly dispirited – the<br />
military. Its powers have been curtailed as a result of <strong>Turkey</strong>’s adjustment to<br />
the norms of the EU; above all, the military, though it still remains by far the<br />
most trusted institution in society, has lost much of the ideological high<br />
ground, a fact that was born out during the crisis of 2007-<strong>2008</strong> when the<br />
military was subjected to heavy criticism in the media and its political<br />
interventions were challenged – and repelled – as never before. In 2000,<br />
Abdullah Gül, the current president, had notably predicted that “the military<br />
will be isolated if it tries to direct the future”. 19 So far, developments have not<br />
proven him wrong.<br />
During the last decade, the Islamic movement has succeeded in acquiring<br />
control over much of the media in <strong>Turkey</strong>. The AKP government has used<br />
legal loopholes to transfer large media companies to pro-AKP businessmen.<br />
The fact that the media has largely come to be controlled by Islamic business<br />
interests has obviously restricted the outreach of secularist ideological<br />
dissemination.<br />
Confusion about the nature of Kemalism<br />
Indeed, there has been a significant shift in the public discourse about the<br />
republican experience. Even if a majority of the population still remains<br />
attached to the republican heritage of secularism, that founding principle has<br />
been intellectually weakened. Not least the liberal intelligentsia has come to<br />
perceive the republican conception as innately synonymous with<br />
authoritarianism.<br />
Liberal think-tanks and privately funded universities have contributed to<br />
creating and sustaining a new, anti-Kemalist ideological paradigm. As has<br />
already been noted, the liberal intelligentsia played a decisive role by allying<br />
itself with the Islamic conservatives. Obviously, Turkish liberals are not<br />
motivated by anti-secularism; rather, they fail to fully appreciate the value of<br />
19 Robert D. Kaplan, Eastward to Tartary, Vintage, 2000, p. 120.