Turkey guide
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Turkey is the only secular state in the Middle East with a predominantly Muslim population, the result of a unique reformation in the 1920s. The 2008 constitutional showdown which pitched the legitimacy of an elected government against the founding principles of secularism was of immense concern to the international community. The crisis has slowed the momentum of political and economic reform in Turkey, jeopardising fragile progress in poverty reduction which is especially at risk from rising food prices, chronic unemployment and disparities of wealth.
updated August 2008
Millennium Development Goals in Turkey
Turkey is classed as an upper middle income country and has virtually eliminated the most extreme form of poverty addressed by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Inroads are also being made into the broader definition of poverty (including essential non-food needs) which has fallen from a 2002 baseline of 27% to 17.8% in 2006. However, continued progress towards the 2015 target of 13.5% is threatened by the widening gap between urban and rural prosperity. Due to a stagnating agricultural economy and slow labour transition to non-agricultural activities, the rate of rural poverty at 43.6% is three times higher than the urban figure and is rising rather than falling. Unicef reports that over 25% of children in Turkey live in households beneath the non-food poverty line.
The government acknowledges that poverty will persist without effective strategies to overcome entrenched gender discrimination and the regional disparities in human development that exist between the least developed eastern and the developed western parts of the country. Education is critical and net primary enrolment has advanced from 75% in 1990 almost to the 100% MDG target, with girls’ participation equal to boys. However girls are much less likely to attend secondary schools and women occupy only about 25% of non-agricultural jobs.
Health services are of reasonable quality by developing country standards, but far below European expectations. This is reflected in the rates of infant and child mortality which have been falling steadily towards the 2015 MDG targets but which remain 6-7 times greater than experienced in countries of the European Union (EU). Data for maternal mortality is so inadequate that no baseline exists for monitoring progress.
Lack of public investment in health and education is partly the consequence of Turkey’s economic crisis in 2001 which prompted the introduction of an IMF-led tight economic programme. Whilst this has stimulated a thriving business sector and integration into international markets, the programme was aimed primarily at securing the country's debt obligations, with lower priority for human development. Progress towards state-funded welfare, as opposed to traditional dependence on family support, is slow. Although official unemployment is only 10%, the national Human Development Report published in 2008 identifies 2 million young people aged 15-24 as “idle”, neither in education nor employment.
The Secular Constitution in Turkey
Founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Republic of Turkey replaced the Islamic institutions of the Ottoman Empire with European legal codes which reformed all aspects of social and political life. For example, the new civil code empowered women in an unprecedented fashion. They received their right to vote and right to stand for election as early as the 1930s, well before many of their counterparts in Europe. A transition to multiparty democracy took place in 1946 and shortly afterwards Turkey joined the western alliance through membership of NATO, IMF and the OECD.
Defence of these founding secular principles against Islamic intrusion has become the central tension of political life in Turkey. The military has assumed the role of chief defender, actively intervening in government four times since World War Two and writing the constitution currently in force after a coup in 1980. The judiciary too is staunchly secularist; the constitutional court has over the years closed more than 20 political parties, often on grounds of their pro-Islamist stance. In politics, the party established by Atatürk, the Republican People's Party (CHP), survives to represent his values.
Politics in Turkey
These bastions of tradition have been energised since the decisive victory in the 2002 election for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) which draws its support from rural areas and the rising middle class. International observers see the AKP as a stable modernising influence, updating Turkey’s economy and conducting a progressive form of political Islam which might prove a valuable model for the region. By contrast, the party is perceived internally by secularists as having strong Islamic association, with a hidden agenda to challenge the secular principles of the constitution. The leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, became prime minister only after a constitutional change restored his eligibility for parliament - previously denied on account of Islamist activity in a political meeting.
Although the role of president in Turkey is largely ceremonial with various powers of veto, by tradition the post symbolises the secularist ideals of the Republic. Erdogan’s nomination of his foreign minister, Abdullah Gul – whose wife wears a headscarf – failed through the non-cooperation of the CHP in parliamentary voting and threats from the military. Correctly assessing that public sympathy lay with the AKP, Erdogan called an early general election in July 2007 in which his party gained more than double the votes of its nearest opponent. Gul was elected president by the new parliament whilst a referendum held towards the end of 2007 determined that future presidents will be chosen by popular vote.
An attempt by the new government to overturn a ban on headscarves worn by female students triggered the secularists into deploying their ultimate weapon – a petition to the constitutional court to abolish the AKP and ban its leaders from political life on grounds of seeking an Islamist state. Such as move had never before been taken against a party in office and many international leaders expressed concern at the potentially blatant disregard of the popular vote. In the event the court rejected the case in July 2008 by the narrowest margin, withholding a proportion of state funding from the AKP and issuing a strong warning. This critical dispute has deepened further with the decision to bring charges against 86 leading figures accused of plotting a secular coup known as Ergenekon.
Since 1990, civil society has been flourishing, at least in terms of numbers, as the NGO sector remains in the political background. The state-centric nature of Turkish political system and the patronage and clientelism derived from it is seen as the main obstacle to the development of well-functioning civil society as a major force in Turkish democracy. For the same reason, corruption by officials tends to be left unchecked and almost tolerated as normal by the general public. The constitutional crisis has seriously delayed reforms promised prior to the election, in particular the introduction of a new constitution with greater orientation towards democratic and civil rights.
Conflict in Turkey
A long history of repression of the minority Kurdish peoples in the east and southeast of the country culminated in armed conflict in the 1980s and 1990s between government forces and those of the Kurdish separatist movement (PKK), a group now designated as a terrorist organisation. The conflict is estimated to have claimed over 30,000 lives. The military's tactical success in the mid-1990s, and the subsequent capture in 1999 of the PKK leader, greatly reduced the incidence of violence. However, an estimated 3,000 PKK fighters maintain a military base in the Iraqi region of Kurdistan from which they appear safe from extradition and have resumed militant activities. Overcoming US and Iraqi concerns for the stability of the region, Turkish forces regularly shell these PKK positions and in February 2008 were permitted a brief incursion across the border. Turkey’s deployment of 100,000 troops along this border illustrates its fears of the security threat posed by the potential establishment of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq.
The preference of the military for a “defeat” of Kurdish interests is countered by Turkey’s allies such as the US which encourage economic and democratic resolution of the conflict, recognising that Kurds comprise almost 20% of the population. The Kurdish political wing is represented by the Democratic Society Party (DTP) which took 23 seats in the 2007 election. The government has promised a 5 year $14.5 billion development plan for the region and the AKP’s success in gaining Kurdish votes raises hopes for the prospect of reconciliation.
Turkey's military intervention in Cyprus in 1974 resulted in the de facto partitioning of the island between the Turkish and the Greek communities. Yet the government in the Greek side has continued to be recognised internationally. A window of opportunity to achieve a peaceful resolution to this long running conflict was missed in a referendum that took place separately and simultaneously in the two parts of the island in April 2004. The Greek Cypriots rejected a UN-initiated peace proposal, the Annan Plan, which was endorsed by the international community and supported overwhelmingly by the Turkish Cypriot voters. Turkey therefore continues to incur the expense of 30,000 troops on the island.
An unresolved conflict of even greater duration relates to the atrocities suffered by Armenians during World War One which Turkey officially acknowledges whilst categorically refusing genocide claims, on grounds that the Ottoman state did not have direct involvement in the affair. Turkey does not have official diplomatic ties with Armenia and the borders between the two countries are closed.
Human Rights in Turkey
The Kurdish conflict forced many families from their homes, these numbers swollen by the rudimentary vigilante system of “village guards” set up by the government to impose order on the region. For years the fate of these internal displacements (IDPs) were ignored, to the extent that even their approximate numbers were unknown. However, aspirations of EU membership have ended this denial of Kurdish identity and language, bringing about a dramatic change in policy. A survey put the numbers of Kurdish IDPs at up to 1.2 million, mostly living in peripheral urban slums and denied access to basic services. An action plan is now in place to facilitate returns supported by financial compensation although this may be compromised by the new concentration of troops in the border region.
EU membership conditions have been responsible for many other reforms which could potentially consign to history Turkey’s poor human rights record. The 1980s and 1990s featured frequent political killings, the imprisonment of journalists, torture, and "extrajudicial" killings of suspects by police. Abolition of the death penalty in 2002 was the first major step and a 2005 law introduced tougher measures to eradicate torture and ill-treatment in police stations.
Human rights campaigners however remain less than convinced about the depth of change and the EU continues to request reform, especially in the context of the rights of minorities and non-Muslims. However, the timetable agreed when EU accession talks were formally opened in 2005 has already stumbled, partly due to Turkey’s refusal to open its ports to Cyprus and partly due to the overt opposition expressed by the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. In return, prime minister Erdogan has downplayed the significance of Turkish membership which now appears a distant prospect.
Information and Media in Turkey
Turkey's press is relatively free and vibrant, certainly by standards of past years. Since the beginning of the 1990s, numerous private TV and radio stations have been established as alternatives to the state broadcaster. These freedoms are held in check to a degree by the notorious Article 301 of the penal code which led to an international outcry over the 2005 prosecution of the writer, Orhan Pamuk and the 2007 murder of a leading journalist of Armenian descent, Hrant Dink. Both had been accused of "insulting Turkishness" in remarks about the Armenian genocide controversy. These were no isolated cases – 1500 people were charged under this law in 2006 alone.
Amendments to the wording of Article 301 were passed in 2008 but international observers judge these to be cosmetic and consider the continued criminalisation of free speech to be a fundamental breach of rights. The new requirement to refer charges to the Justice Ministry before going to court has however greatly reduced the number of cases and in particular those of high profile individuals. Attention is now switching to the internet which is proving immensely popular for political discourse. The law permits the government to block access to sites publishing “harmful” opinion, prompting the much publicised closure of YouTube on more than one occasion.
Climate Change in Turkey
After years of prevarication, Turkey appears likely to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The implications of such a move are unclear; as an “Annex 1” country to the original UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Turkey might be expected to commit to quantifiable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The government however claims that it has a special status in the negotiations which would preclude immediate obligations. There are few signs of any serious effort to reduce carbon dependency, for example by investing in the country’s recognised potential for renewable energy. Indeed Turkey faces a significant power shortfall as investment has been inadequate to meet the exponential increases in demand currently predicted.
The "Turkey and Climate Change" report facilitated by UNDP in 2007 concludes that greater research in needed to assess the potential impact of climate change. Concerns focus on the coastal cities where 30 million people live and on the water cycle which is already causing difficulties through falling groundwater levels and intermittent supplies in many urban regions.
The OneWorld Turkey Guide was first published in January 2005 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Baris Karapinar.
Turkey is classed as an upper middle income country and has virtually eliminated the most extreme form of poverty addressed by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Inroads are also being made into the broader definition of poverty (including essential non-food needs) which has fallen from a 2002 baseline of 27% to 17.8% in 2006. However, continued progress towards the 2015 target of 13.5% is threatened by the widening gap between urban and rural prosperity. Due to a stagnating agricultural economy and slow labour transition to non-agricultural activities, the rate of rural poverty at 43.6% is three times higher than the urban figure and is rising rather than falling. Unicef reports that over 25% of children in Turkey live in households beneath the non-food poverty line.
The government acknowledges that poverty will persist without effective strategies to overcome entrenched gender discrimination and the regional disparities in human development that exist between the least developed eastern and the developed western parts of the country. Education is critical and net primary enrolment has advanced from 75% in 1990 almost to the 100% MDG target, with girls’ participation equal to boys. However girls are much less likely to attend secondary schools and women occupy only about 25% of non-agricultural jobs.
Health services are of reasonable quality by developing country standards, but far below European expectations. This is reflected in the rates of infant and child mortality which have been falling steadily towards the 2015 MDG targets but which remain 6-7 times greater than experienced in countries of the European Union (EU). Data for maternal mortality is so inadequate that no baseline exists for monitoring progress.
Lack of public investment in health and education is partly the consequence of Turkey’s economic crisis in 2001 which prompted the introduction of an IMF-led tight economic programme. Whilst this has stimulated a thriving business sector and integration into international markets, the programme was aimed primarily at securing the country's debt obligations, with lower priority for human development. Progress towards state-funded welfare, as opposed to traditional dependence on family support, is slow. Although official unemployment is only 10%, the national Human Development Report published in 2008 identifies 2 million young people aged 15-24 as “idle”, neither in education nor employment.
The Secular Constitution in Turkey
Founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Republic of Turkey replaced the Islamic institutions of the Ottoman Empire with European legal codes which reformed all aspects of social and political life. For example, the new civil code empowered women in an unprecedented fashion. They received their right to vote and right to stand for election as early as the 1930s, well before many of their counterparts in Europe. A transition to multiparty democracy took place in 1946 and shortly afterwards Turkey joined the western alliance through membership of NATO, IMF and the OECD.
Defence of these founding secular principles against Islamic intrusion has become the central tension of political life in Turkey. The military has assumed the role of chief defender, actively intervening in government four times since World War Two and writing the constitution currently in force after a coup in 1980. The judiciary too is staunchly secularist; the constitutional court has over the years closed more than 20 political parties, often on grounds of their pro-Islamist stance. In politics, the party established by Atatürk, the Republican People's Party (CHP), survives to represent his values.
Politics in Turkey
These bastions of tradition have been energised since the decisive victory in the 2002 election for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) which draws its support from rural areas and the rising middle class. International observers see the AKP as a stable modernising influence, updating Turkey’s economy and conducting a progressive form of political Islam which might prove a valuable model for the region. By contrast, the party is perceived internally by secularists as having strong Islamic association, with a hidden agenda to challenge the secular principles of the constitution. The leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, became prime minister only after a constitutional change restored his eligibility for parliament - previously denied on account of Islamist activity in a political meeting.
Although the role of president in Turkey is largely ceremonial with various powers of veto, by tradition the post symbolises the secularist ideals of the Republic. Erdogan’s nomination of his foreign minister, Abdullah Gul – whose wife wears a headscarf – failed through the non-cooperation of the CHP in parliamentary voting and threats from the military. Correctly assessing that public sympathy lay with the AKP, Erdogan called an early general election in July 2007 in which his party gained more than double the votes of its nearest opponent. Gul was elected president by the new parliament whilst a referendum held towards the end of 2007 determined that future presidents will be chosen by popular vote.
An attempt by the new government to overturn a ban on headscarves worn by female students triggered the secularists into deploying their ultimate weapon – a petition to the constitutional court to abolish the AKP and ban its leaders from political life on grounds of seeking an Islamist state. Such as move had never before been taken against a party in office and many international leaders expressed concern at the potentially blatant disregard of the popular vote. In the event the court rejected the case in July 2008 by the narrowest margin, withholding a proportion of state funding from the AKP and issuing a strong warning. This critical dispute has deepened further with the decision to bring charges against 86 leading figures accused of plotting a secular coup known as Ergenekon.
Since 1990, civil society has been flourishing, at least in terms of numbers, as the NGO sector remains in the political background. The state-centric nature of Turkish political system and the patronage and clientelism derived from it is seen as the main obstacle to the development of well-functioning civil society as a major force in Turkish democracy. For the same reason, corruption by officials tends to be left unchecked and almost tolerated as normal by the general public. The constitutional crisis has seriously delayed reforms promised prior to the election, in particular the introduction of a new constitution with greater orientation towards democratic and civil rights.
Conflict in Turkey
A long history of repression of the minority Kurdish peoples in the east and southeast of the country culminated in armed conflict in the 1980s and 1990s between government forces and those of the Kurdish separatist movement (PKK), a group now designated as a terrorist organisation. The conflict is estimated to have claimed over 30,000 lives. The military's tactical success in the mid-1990s, and the subsequent capture in 1999 of the PKK leader, greatly reduced the incidence of violence. However, an estimated 3,000 PKK fighters maintain a military base in the Iraqi region of Kurdistan from which they appear safe from extradition and have resumed militant activities. Overcoming US and Iraqi concerns for the stability of the region, Turkish forces regularly shell these PKK positions and in February 2008 were permitted a brief incursion across the border. Turkey’s deployment of 100,000 troops along this border illustrates its fears of the security threat posed by the potential establishment of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq.
The preference of the military for a “defeat” of Kurdish interests is countered by Turkey’s allies such as the US which encourage economic and democratic resolution of the conflict, recognising that Kurds comprise almost 20% of the population. The Kurdish political wing is represented by the Democratic Society Party (DTP) which took 23 seats in the 2007 election. The government has promised a 5 year $14.5 billion development plan for the region and the AKP’s success in gaining Kurdish votes raises hopes for the prospect of reconciliation.
Turkey's military intervention in Cyprus in 1974 resulted in the de facto partitioning of the island between the Turkish and the Greek communities. Yet the government in the Greek side has continued to be recognised internationally. A window of opportunity to achieve a peaceful resolution to this long running conflict was missed in a referendum that took place separately and simultaneously in the two parts of the island in April 2004. The Greek Cypriots rejected a UN-initiated peace proposal, the Annan Plan, which was endorsed by the international community and supported overwhelmingly by the Turkish Cypriot voters. Turkey therefore continues to incur the expense of 30,000 troops on the island.
An unresolved conflict of even greater duration relates to the atrocities suffered by Armenians during World War One which Turkey officially acknowledges whilst categorically refusing genocide claims, on grounds that the Ottoman state did not have direct involvement in the affair. Turkey does not have official diplomatic ties with Armenia and the borders between the two countries are closed.
Human Rights in Turkey
The Kurdish conflict forced many families from their homes, these numbers swollen by the rudimentary vigilante system of “village guards” set up by the government to impose order on the region. For years the fate of these internal displacements (IDPs) were ignored, to the extent that even their approximate numbers were unknown. However, aspirations of EU membership have ended this denial of Kurdish identity and language, bringing about a dramatic change in policy. A survey put the numbers of Kurdish IDPs at up to 1.2 million, mostly living in peripheral urban slums and denied access to basic services. An action plan is now in place to facilitate returns supported by financial compensation although this may be compromised by the new concentration of troops in the border region.
EU membership conditions have been responsible for many other reforms which could potentially consign to history Turkey’s poor human rights record. The 1980s and 1990s featured frequent political killings, the imprisonment of journalists, torture, and "extrajudicial" killings of suspects by police. Abolition of the death penalty in 2002 was the first major step and a 2005 law introduced tougher measures to eradicate torture and ill-treatment in police stations.
Human rights campaigners however remain less than convinced about the depth of change and the EU continues to request reform, especially in the context of the rights of minorities and non-Muslims. However, the timetable agreed when EU accession talks were formally opened in 2005 has already stumbled, partly due to Turkey’s refusal to open its ports to Cyprus and partly due to the overt opposition expressed by the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. In return, prime minister Erdogan has downplayed the significance of Turkish membership which now appears a distant prospect.
Information and Media in Turkey
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| Nadire Mater, accused of 'insulting' the Turkish military © Digital Freedom Network |
Amendments to the wording of Article 301 were passed in 2008 but international observers judge these to be cosmetic and consider the continued criminalisation of free speech to be a fundamental breach of rights. The new requirement to refer charges to the Justice Ministry before going to court has however greatly reduced the number of cases and in particular those of high profile individuals. Attention is now switching to the internet which is proving immensely popular for political discourse. The law permits the government to block access to sites publishing “harmful” opinion, prompting the much publicised closure of YouTube on more than one occasion.
Climate Change in Turkey
After years of prevarication, Turkey appears likely to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The implications of such a move are unclear; as an “Annex 1” country to the original UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Turkey might be expected to commit to quantifiable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The government however claims that it has a special status in the negotiations which would preclude immediate obligations. There are few signs of any serious effort to reduce carbon dependency, for example by investing in the country’s recognised potential for renewable energy. Indeed Turkey faces a significant power shortfall as investment has been inadequate to meet the exponential increases in demand currently predicted.
The "Turkey and Climate Change" report facilitated by UNDP in 2007 concludes that greater research in needed to assess the potential impact of climate change. Concerns focus on the coastal cities where 30 million people live and on the water cycle which is already causing difficulties through falling groundwater levels and intermittent supplies in many urban regions.
The OneWorld Turkey Guide was first published in January 2005 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Baris Karapinar.
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