{"id":4497,"date":"2008-09-21T13:58:50","date_gmt":"2008-09-21T10:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=4497"},"modified":"2008-09-21T13:58:50","modified_gmt":"2008-09-21T10:58:50","slug":"turkey-europe-the-military-and-the-secularists-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/09\/21\/turkey-europe-the-military-and-the-secularists-2\/","title":{"rendered":"TURKEY, EUROPE, THE MILITARY, AND THE SECULARISTS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Black';\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> and <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Greece<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> were invited at the same time to join the Common Market, which later became the European Union (EU).<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Greece<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> accepted the invitation and is now one of the states of the EU. Bulent Ecevit, a Social Democrat, was the Turkish Prime minister at that time. He declined, saying that \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> is not yet ready\u201d. In more recent times other Turkish governments thought that they were ready and applied for membership. This time EU set unbelievable stumbling blocks before <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">, conditions that were not asked from the other applicants. It was obvious that <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> had changed its mind about inviting <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>But for some inexplicable reason, Turkish governments did not want to see that.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">E u r o p e\u2019 s<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>V i e w s:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Most<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>of the EU states leaders have been officially supportive of <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">\u2019s membership application. Only <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Germany<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">\u2019s conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel wants that a partial membership be offered to <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">. <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">France<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">\u2019s Nicolas Sarkozy <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>is also against granting <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>full membership.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>But the European populations are generally opposed to full membership. <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>Unofficially, <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> is dead set against Turkish membership but could not say so openly, diplomatically. <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>In stead of saying \u201cno\u201d they put such conditions, so that <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> says \u201cno\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Here are statements of top EU leaders, after they retired:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Tom Spencer, Head of EU Foreign Affairs Committee, said in 1999: \u201cI think that we did not behave correctly by promising to the Turks for 30<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>years that some day they will become a part of the EU. Because the truth is, that<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>EU has no intention to accept <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> as a member.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> is squeezed between the words that the Fundamentalists and we will not keep.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>It would have been a more correct attitude for us to explain our true intentions.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Valery Giscard d\u2019Estaing, former Republic President of France, said in 2000: \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> will have no place in the European Union. Today no leader in <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> wants <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> inside <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>They do not have any such intention for tomorrow, either. One is doing injustice to <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">. Because <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> is being deceived by the EU. To make it a candidate at <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Helsinki<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> was to give it an empty hope \u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Helmut Schmidt, former Chancellor of <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Germany<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> said in 2000:<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWhat ever may happen, <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> has no place in <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">. We cannot allow to let 70 million Turkish citizens<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>to walk freely inside <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">. We cannot accept that <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> becomes neighbors with countries like<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Iran<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">, <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Syria<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">, and <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Iraq<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> across European borders. We should continue our economic relations with <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>We should benefit from the purchasing power of the young and <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">fast-growing population. However, we should see that this country does not have the fundamental principles of Globalization, and<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>does not accept the international brotherhood.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">[The above statements have been translated from Turkish, that were in turn translated from English, French , or German.]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Although the EU is very much pro-secularism, in the case of <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> they criticized the attempt of the courts to close the religious party for breaking almost every secularism rule. That was unbelievable. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">T u r k e y\u2019 s<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>D e s i r e<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>t o<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>be c o m e<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>a<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>E U<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>m e m b e r<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Secularist Turkish governments before 2002 were insistently asking to become a EU member, and the EU systematically<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>asked that they fulfill undesirable conditions. Some Turkish representatives claimed that it was <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">\u2019s right to become a member. That was obviously not true.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Many Turks felt terribly insulted that they had defended the West during the Cold War, that former Soviet puppet countries were now easily accepted as EU-members, while their country was not.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>While the three statements reported above happened in 2000 and before, Turkish governments did not take them seriously, because they did not like to hear that the EU does not want them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">On November 2002 there was an important election in <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">. The Turkish people had enough of the incompetent and corrupt secular coalition of parties and voted them out of office.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>A religious party, the AKP, promised during the election campaign that they are not a religious party, they are just a conservative party of Muslims, that <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>they will respect the secularism (Laicism) clause<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>of the constitution and would manage better. They also promised to carry <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> in to the European Union.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>That was odd, but the Turkish voters wanted to give them a chance. The AKP won a majority of seats in the Parliament..<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Of course by 2002 the real intentions of the EU were known, and AKP\u2019s promise to carry <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> to<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>the EU was just a ruse. They knew that Europe will eventually say \u201dno\u201d but mean while they would curb the capabilities of the military<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>to prevent their planned Islamization.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>While it is downright immoral in Western culture to lie and cheat, it is just called \u201cTakkiye\u201d in Islam and is alright as long as it helps Islam. Thus, by Western standards EU\u2019s<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>behavior is immoral.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">AKP kept one promise: they managed the government much better than the socialist secularists. They brought the inflation rate from 50 \u2013 75 %<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>down to single digit.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The per capita income of Turks increased., but they implemented<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>an extensive program of Islamization.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Since 1950\u2019s they had started to re-educate the people <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>in religious schools by brain-washing them as fundamentalist Muslims.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Those graduates kept on increasing and were the important part of Islamization. The people were changed. <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>Those people were now all voting for the AKP.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Since 2002 AKP has put everywhere its own people, except in the military and the courts. During the last months the courts processed a request of the AKP to lift the ban of head scarves at Universities.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The EU had the same problem, mainly in <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">France<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> and the EU did not try to influence the court procedure.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The ban was not lifted and AKP lost. <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Encouraged by this result , the Chief Prosecutor<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>accused the AKP<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>party and its main people to be breaking the laicism (Secularism) clause of the Constitution and wanted to close the AKP. His accusations were clear and many.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>But meanwhile some people were retired and replaced in the Constitutional Court and the suit was rejected 7 to 6.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>During this suite, EU heavily interfered by claiming that this suit was \u201cdestroying<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>democracy.\u201d<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>If we accept their logic, if a party is once democratically elected, it has a license to break the constitution at will. <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> has become horribly absurd. Now the last hope to get rid of the religious party was lost, even the courts are no more independent. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">T h e<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>T u r k i s h<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>M i l i t a r y.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">The Turkish Military is a unique institution.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>It is not only a defender of <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">, but it is also a defender of the Constitution.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>I observed, that each time they interfered, they always returned to democracy in very few years. Western critics say that it is not the job of the military to interfere in the political process.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>That is true for the West, because civilian governments in the West generally do their job right, they do not commit gross violations of their constitutions, so there never is need for military interference.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>When Ataturk founded the <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Republic<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> of <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">, Turks\u2019 literacy rate was 7 % and the Turkish Parliament\u2019s occupants were not too much higher educated.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The Turkish Armed Forces were always very highly educated.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Ataturk left the military as a sort of guardian angels in case the civilians would go off the track. The military had the job of putting things back on the track and returning it to civilians. They always did that. The <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">September 12, 1980<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> coup was the last full-fledged coup. After that, it was seen that a coup becomes counter-productive.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>No one expects today<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>a military coup, but some how the people want that they play their role of guardian angel and help straightening things up. Even that is getting increasingly more difficult in a nation with an increasing percentage of fundamentalists.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">W h a t<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>c a n<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>t h e<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>S e c u l a r i s t<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>P e o p l e<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>d o ?<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Many Secularist people still hope and wish that the military gets the chestnuts out of the fire for them, so, <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>they don\u2019t have to do any thing. But that is now an unrealistic wish. Why don\u2019t they think of doing something themselves?<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>After all, isn\u2019t it their country too, where they would want to raise their children and grand-children?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">The politically and legally healthy move should come from the secularist half of the population. They are disorganized, they should avoid the influence of socialists, form a Secular, Nationalist, Free-Market Economics party and engage in true opposition. They should tell the country that the European Membership is a hoax, <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> will never accept <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">, <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> should remain friends with <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">, continue its Economic relationship, but remain an independent country. They should convince the Parliament to tell <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> that they are retracting the membership application.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>Thus, <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Europe<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"> should stop interfering in <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">\u2019s internal affairs. Ataturk said: \u201cIf a nation does not rely on its own effort, only on its own effort, it can became any body\u2019s toy\u201d.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0 <\/span>The secularist half of the population should definitely avoid fragmenting and should elect themselves a good leader, who will commit himself to oppose the AKP. That can be now the only hope for <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Turkey<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\">Source : <span style=\"font-size: 24pt; font-family: 'Arial Narrow';\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">T H E\u00a0\u00a0 O R HAN\u00a0\u00a0 T A R H A N\u00a0\u00a0 L E T T E R<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Turkey and Greece were invited at the same time to join the Common Market, which later became the European Union (EU).\u00a0 Greece accepted the invitation and is now one of the states of the EU. Bulent Ecevit, a Social Democrat, was the Turkish Prime minister at that time. He declined, saying that \u201cTurkey is not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":782328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[665],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orhan-tarhan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}