The Foreign Service Journal, April 2008

Thus, the course of the headscarf controversy is an important measure of how the religion issue is evolving in Turkey. The headscarf was a new form of Islamic observance when it was introduced in Turkey in the 1980s. At the end of that decade, a law was passed forbidding women to demonstrate attachment to Islam by wearing a head covering that con- ceals all their hair in university and government buildings. Indeed, in a somewhat sensation- al incident after the 2002 elections, one female member of the newly elected AK Party’s parliamentary delegation attempted to wear a headscarf to the swearing-in ceremo- ny at the National Assembly. She was physically prevent- ed from taking her seat. Yet although AK Party leaders gave the impression during the 2002 elections that they would end or at least relax the ban, they took no action during their first term in office. Then, in April 2007, the time came for the election of a new president. Abdullah Gul, the head of an observant Muslim family, was going to stand for the position. In an attempt to head off his election, the military leaders engi- neered large street demonstrations in Ankara and Istanbul in favor of secularism. Then, during the National Assem- bly’s voting process, the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled that the necessary quorum was not present to per- mit the presidential vote to continue. The main complaint against Gul was the fact that his wife, Hayrunisa, always wears an Islamic-style headscarf. But after the July 2007 national elections returned the AK Party to power with an even larger majority, a quorum was secured and Gul was successfully elected president. The generals, their bluff called, took no action. Although the headscarf ban is dear to the military estab- lishment and to many Turks, the AK leaders then pro- ceeded to lift it, with support from the Nationalist Movement Party, an ultra-nationalist organization, which got the third-largest number of votes in the last election. This returned the situation to where it was 20 years ago, when women’s hair was permitted to be covered, but veils and burkas were not allowed. Polls show that there is not much support for allowing such veiling in Turkey today. But again, the move to permit the headscarf is stirring up opposition, ensuring that the issue will remain a live one in Turkish politics. Tellingly, the Turkish first lady has been very careful to be discreet and not lead the challenge to secularist practice, however. Meanwhile, the top generals have seemingly repaired relations with the AK Party over this matter. Whether those two develop- ments constitute a tradeoff, explicit or implicit, or are merely coincidental, it appears that there has been a signifi- cant diminution in the power, if not the inclination, of the military estab- lishment to involve itself in politics. This may be because any flexing of political muscle by the generals would impede Ankara’s already shaky bid to join the European Union. E.U. membership is some- thing both secularists and proponents of Islam wish would happen, although for different reasons. The de- votees of Islam see membership as a guarantee of free- dom of religious activity and assurance against military intervention. However, given the reluctance of the Europeans to see Turkey with its large Muslim popula- tion enter, membership is not likely to come about in the next decade, and some doubt it will ever take place. The Kurdish Conundrum A major test for the AK Party government is whether its Islamic appeal for unity can prove stronger than the separatist current within the Kurdish community, partic- ularly in the traditionalist eastern part of the country, and thus overcome the divisiveness that has troubled Turkey in recent decades. By the end of the 1970s, a small radical Kurdish ter- rorist organization, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (known by its Turkish initials as the PKK), began to foment vio- lence against the regime. Led by Abdullah Ocalan, it operated outside the tribal structure and espoused the cause of broader independence for Kurds in eastern Turkey. After Ocalan’s capture in 1999, he called for an end to ethnic violence. Accordingly, there seemed a chance that the PKK would turn into a political party and use the electoral system to seek greater political rights, rather than pursue outright independence. Unfortunately, that course has not been followed, and in the past few years Kurdish violence has resumed. The danger exists that a tit-for-tat mentality could arise where F O C U S 32 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 8 The course of the headscarf controversy is an important measure of how the religion issue is evolving in Turkey.