[Shamim A Siddiqi,
New York]
The geopolitical situation of Turkey is extremely important. It is a predominantly Muslim country with 67.3 million population. It is mostly an Asian country but occupies a great strategic position in Europe too. It is situated at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. It controls the strait of Bosporus and Dardanelle. It had been the sheet anchor of Ottoman Caliphate for over four hundred years and dominated both Asia and Europe. But through the conspiracy hatched by UK, France and Russia, Turkey lost its glamour, power, supremacy and Islamic character to a great extent with the establishment of Turkish Republic by Kemal Ataturk in 1923. Since then it has become a secular national state controlled and dominated by the National Security Council [NSC] of Armed forces. So far Turkish Army has maneuvered armed revolution in Turkey in 1960, 1971 and 1980 and has interfered in destroying the civil governments 35 times in the last 80 years. NSC champions itself as the guardian of the Turkish Constitution and that of the secular character of the state. Unfortunately, the military dictator of Pakistan is determined to follow the same suit.
In 1994 N Erbakan was elected as the Prime Minister of Turkey but the army forced him to quit within one year. In 1998 Erbakan was debarred from politics for five years by hurling false allegations against the party and its leadership and banning his Rafah party. But in spite of all the high-handedness and constant interference of the armed forces in the political system of the country, giving total protection to secular cults and culture, the pro-Islamic trends and people’s fascination to Islam could not be curbed or eradicated from the Turkish society. The under-current towards the revival of Islam is ever very strong.
It has now burst up in the overwhelming support to Justice and Development [JD] Party of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and he, by securing 35 % of the popular votes has captured 364 seats out of 550 of the Turkish Parliament. Voting is mandatory in Turkey and the turn out was about 80%. It shows that about 65% of Turkey’s 41 million voters stand behind JD Party. Mr. Erdogan has categorically declared that he is pro-West, will seek the membership of EU Common Market as his priority, will be secular in approach and performance and maintain strong friendly relations with the USA. But at the same time he has given a very meaningful positive statement in an affirmative tone: “Secularism is the protector of all beliefs and religion”. It appears Mr. Erdogan will not tow down the lines of President Bush in his blindfolded race to destroy the infrastructure of Iraq and kill thousands of its innocent men, women and children. He is a confirmed Muslim when in 1998 he said in one of his poem: Erdogan served four months of a 10-month term in 1998 for reciting a poem at a rally which ran: "Mosques are our barracks, the minarets our bayonets, the domes our helmets and the believers our soldiers." In consequence, the secular courts of Turkey put him behind the bars for four months.
The general masses of Turkey have manifested once more on the lines they supported Mendres and Erbakan in the past that they are Muslims and will remain Muslim. Howsoever the secularist forces of Turkey, in conspicuous alliance with the Zionists of Israel, the secularist powers of the Europe and America, may conspire to change the character of their country towards liberal secularism, they will ever remain akin to the ideology that is running in their blood and artery since the time the Khilafah of Uthmania was established by Ottoman in 1326 C.E. The foregoing elections of Turkey and the emergence of Islamic forces in the “garb” of the so-called secularist slogans is very meaningful. Turkish people have given their verdict, standing at the crossroads of history not only of their country but the world that is being polarized by the vested interests against Islam and Muslim Ummah. They have outright rejected the secularist forces with no representation in the Parliament and showed their road map towards future.
Will Bush-Blair-Sharon axis learn a lesson from this election outcome and stop their hate campaign against Islam and Muslims in the name of an illusionary threat of the so-called “terrorism”? They are unwittingly giving impetus to Muslims masses to organize themselves in their respective countries and consolidate their voting strength towards the emergence of Islam as a political entity in near future.
Recently, the masses in Pakistan have shown the same trend by giving mandatory support to the combined Islamic parties overwhelmingly. Likewise in Bahrain, the candidates of pro-Islamic parties have shown a formidable strength by capturing 19 seats in the house of 42. And now the Justice and Development Party of Turkey have done superbly by securing landslide victory. Turkey now stands at the crossroads of its existence in the modern world by rejecting secularist parties through the most transparent election process. The other Muslim countries are likely to follow this trend and give a death knell to the anti-Islam and secularist forces of the Muslim world. If the onslaught of America and its allies continues, soon the Muslim Ummah will throw up the mantle of its ignominy and declare to resolve its own affairs with courage and sagacity for the betterment of its people and uplifting the mankind to higher values of existence. The election results of Turkey should be an eye-opener for the powers that want to globalize the liberal values and superimpose their culture over the Muslim world. The election phenomenon of Pakistan, Bahrain and now Turkey demonstrate the hope towards the revival of the Muslim Ummah in near future, Insha Allah. But the road is very bumpy. It would need a lot of sacrifice by the adherents of Islam at each and every place.
Shamim A Siddiqi
Website: WWW.dawahinamericas.com