Turkish military commander warns against Islamization of society

[Salahuddin]

by Mavi Zambak

General İlker Başbug defends military’s traditional role to guard state secularity and refers to the threat of increased power among religious communities.

Ankara (AsiaNews) – Turkish military commander, General İlker Başbug, speaks out strongly against the threat of Islamism in Turkey. In a speech to military academy cadets for the opening of the new academic year, the commander stated that the reactionary threat has reached alarming levels due to the increased power held by religious communities in economic and political fields. He also rejected criticism from Europe, defending the military’s right to have a voice in the country’s socio-political affairs.

As is known, with Turkey’s request to become part of the European Union, there has been discussion in Europe on the role played by armed forces in Turkish social and political life. In fact, one condition for entry to the E.U. entry is the absence of influence or interference by the military in political and administrative questions of the state. Still valid is the warning made by the vice-president of the European Commission, Guenter Verheugen: “As long as it is military power – through the National Security Council, which defines itself as bastion of the lay state and defender of Kemalist ideology – controlling politics and not politics controlling the military, I cannot imagine how Turkey can become an E.U. member.”

Just yesterday, in responding to criticisms made by E.U.’s envoy, Hanjoerg Kretschmer, who had said that military officials are in the habit of expressing their opinion on all matters, Başbug stated that the military has the right to have its say when it is a question of defending secularity and nationalism. “Turkish armed forces have always defended and will continue to defend the nation state, the unitary state and the lay state,” he stated yesterday in Ankara.

The military’s role as guarantor of Kemalist secularity has come at a high price for the country in terms of the formation of a very costly military bureaucracy and the systematic repression of any form of fanaticism. The military was called to defend nationalism and secularity and in defending these values has organized not less than four coups d’état. The first took place in 1960 and was followed by others in 1971, 1980 and 1997, each time to protect the state against both Islamic groups and against leftist parties that began to influence excessively the country’s public life.

Thus, from the beginning, the military has been a pillar on which the republic was founded and it has subsequently defined, to a large extent, the norms of behaviour of the republic’s political elites. This is the main reason for which elements and norms of military behaviour, such as heroism, authority and discipline, prevail in Turkish society today.

Leaders of the new Turkish Republic had, in fact, a military background and organized it as a homogenous nation state, at the expense of ethnic and religious minorities.

Turkey’s father and founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk himself was a military general who had studied at the Istanbul War Academy and had served in the Ottoman army.

In creating the Turkish Republic, in 1925, from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, Atatürk sought to “cleanse and elevate Islamic faith, freeing it of its role as political instrument” and in 1937 cancelled the article of the Constitution that proclaimed Islam state religion.

His main objective was to give rise to a process for the construction of a national Turkish identity, together with a strong degree of Westernization which was considered to be indispensable for Turkey’s survival. He wished to transform a downfallen country into a modern and civilized state: for him and other reformists, civilization meant “Western civilization.” This was the line underpinning Atatürk’s reforms which included the abolition of the Sultanate, the Caliphate, the Ulema, and Sharia, the adoption of a new civil code modelled after Switzerland’s, the substitution of the Arabic alphabet with the Latin, the elimination of words of Arabic and Persian origin, the passage from the lunar to the solar calendar, the substitution of Friday with Sunday as the day of rest and the recognition of political rights for women. These measures were not thought up so much to eliminate Islam or Islamic values from Turkish society, but rather to put an end to the political functions of Islam and to the power of religious institutions in the Turkish legislation and justice systems, transforming religion into a question of individual conscience.

Without hesitation, General Başbug stated yesterday that Turkey is facing a serious threat from Islamic sects and that the presence of Muslims is greatly increasing in many vital areas, jeopardizing the achievements made by Atatürk’s revolution, which had give life to a secular Turkey.

“I am sorry to say that, even if some circles do not accept it, the reactionary (Islamist) threat is reaching alarming proportions," Başbug said, in a warning to the nation and perhaps also Europe. And he added, “Intentional, constant and systematic attempts are being made to erode the achievements of the Kemalist revolution,” warning also that “turning religion into an ideology will politicize it and religion will then be the biggest loser.” Başbug’s accusations would seem aimed at the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party which is rooted in political Islam.

But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government denies having an Islamist programme and the AKP party declares itself to be democratic and conservative. For this very reason, Faruk اelik, a former AKP parliamentarian, said in reply to the General that it is up to the government to tackle any Islamist threat: “If there is a going backwards in Turkey, if there is (religious) reaction, I want everybody to know the government of the Turkish Republic is the leading force to counter this.”

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=7322

 

[sigatoka]

Attuturk was a drunkard and today his ideology has not allowed Turkey to regain it former glory or power whether within Europe or outside it. It is left to the imagination whether another Sultan would have done a better job. If anything the Turkish military imposes a heavy burden on the nation in terms of the resources it consumes (which doesnt even include the implicit but heavy cost of compulsory conscription). It has stunted the growth of the economy with its frequent coups and consequent instability and prevented the development of democratic foundations. It has also been responsible in advocating ruthless suppression of minorities especially the Kurds who have been massacred in the past.

What Turkey requires is a military totally subservient to the civilian leadership. In Pak. case it is mere luck that Mush. has turned out to be such a good leader, in most cases military rule is marked by its brutality and incompetence. Also without democratic vote, if a leader turns corrupt there is no way to remove them. If Mush. were suddenly to turn corrupt, there would be no way for an orderly transition of power.

 

[Salahuddin]

Musharraf is not a constitutional, legal and legitimate President of Pakistan. He is a self-appointed President of his ruling army junta of outlaws. He is a demagogic military dictator, ruthless tyrant, war criminal and human rights
abuser. He did not seize power in an October 1999 military coup
against the dogmatic regime of ousted Prime Minister M. Nawaz Sharif.
He is a corrupt mercenary who was clandestinely installed on the
throne of Pakistan by the U.S. CIA, Israeli Mossad and British
MI6/SIS to impose tyranny and oppression on more than 150 million
slaves of an illegal military dictatorship. Actually, the
intelligence agencies of the Wild West seized powers of the Pakistan
Government on 12 October 1999 and they continue to illegally rule
occupied Pakistan.


Dictator Musharraf is not only like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt or Shah
Mohammed Reza Pahlevi of Iran, but he is also a clone of Ariel
Sharon -- the Israeli-Zionist terrorist, serial murderer and war
criminal -- who is also being supported, promoted and financed by the
Bush-Cheney junta unconstitutionally and illegally.

 

[A.Rahman]

Musharraf is not a constitutional, legal and legitimate President of Pakistan. He is a self-appointed President of his ruling army junta of outlaws. He is a demagogic military dictator, ruthless tyrant, war criminal and human rights
abuser. He did not seize power in an October 1999 military coup
against the dogmatic regime of ousted Prime Minister M. Nawaz Sharif.
He is a corrupt mercenary who was clandestinely installed on the
throne of Pakistan by the U.S. CIA, Israeli Mossad and British
MI6/SIS to impose tyranny and oppression on more than 150 million
slaves of an illegal military dictatorship. Actually, the
intelligence agencies of the Wild West seized powers of the Pakistan
Government on 12 October 1999 and they continue to illegally rule
occupied Pakistan.


Dictator Musharraf is not only like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt or Shah
Mohammed Reza Pahlevi of Iran, but he is also a clone of Ariel
Sharon -- the Israeli-Zionist terrorist, serial murderer and war
criminal -- who is also being supported, promoted and financed by the
Bush-Cheney junta unconstitutionally and illegally.

He's an Alien from MARs!

 

[Skeptic786]

Kamalist achievment is the repeated bankruptcy the turkish state plunges into...which is then bailed out by injection of billions of dollars by the zionists....since the turkish state is such an avid hater of Islam and Muslims. Last time they injected 15 billion dollars in 2003.

To please a gathering of Israeli generals in Turkey....a senior turkish officer had some one fetch a copy of the Quran.......then he kicked the Quran...causing it to fall way into the distance on the floor and turned to the israelis and said "this is what we think of that book". It is another matter that this scondrel and his family perished in the massive earthquake that hit Turkey within days........i heard this from a Turkish student and some would say that this is an urban myth. But the Turkish army has done far worse.........like hanging to death the first person that defied Ataturk's orders to ban saying of the Azan in arabic ( Azan is the muslim call to prayer given from mosques five times a day.....Ataturk had it banned in arabic..so it could only by given in turkish ). Subsequently to the execution of the imam who had defied the ban it was legalised - the giving of Azan in arabic but the ban remained in force for decades ( 35-40 years ).
tayib erdogan the prime minster's wife is not invited to state functions because she wears a headscarf....his daughter cannot go to any turkish university since it would mean her to remove her headscarf......therefore she has to go to university in the USA....who despite being infidals have no problem with the girl's headscarf...non wotsoever.

Not to mention Tayib ardogan was banned for life from political office because once in a speech....reffering to minaretts of a mosque he had said to europe that this is our line of defence...these are our missiles ( happened during bosnia crisis ).........so when his party won the elections....Erdogan could not become PM....abdullah gul became pm.....and in face of this barbarity....those evil infidal europeans came to the rescue of Erdogan...when they told the Turkish milatary that if they want to stay in the hunt for european membership they must immediately lift the ban on Erdogan. Eating humble pie...they reversed the Life ban....Erdogan became PM and abdullah gul came down to party's intended position of FM.


I say all this because purely out of ignorance many people in Pakistan think pakistan should emulate Turkey...when in fact the truth is pakistan has never plunged to the depth of political/religious repression or financial crisis Turkey keeps on getting into.

 

[A.Rahman]

Very nice post skeptic!

Kemal did everything to please christains and jews, but they will never let Turkey into EU.

This is their punishment

 

[Skeptic786]

Very nice post skeptic!

Kemal did everything to please christains and jews, but they will never let Turkey into EU.

This is their punishment

Thanks for the compliment.:army:

Largest political parties of Germany and France have said so many times in the past that turkey is a muslim country which has no place in the christian club of Europe.....The present Nazi-scum Pope ratt-berger has said the same.

Majority of Turkish people have realised the same....hence despite the 70 years of kemalist repression they are returning to their islamic roots and voting for islamist parties.

 

[KashifAsrar]

Very nice post skeptic!

Kemal did everything to please christains and jews, but they will never let Turkey into EU.

This is their punishment

Thier punishment is yet not this only. A continous turmoil in the social/political/economic sector is what is going to happen soon. Kemalist is taking the country the MUSH way. Total chaos, corruption and confusion.
Kashif

 

[Thunder]

I belive kamel was bron in greece, greece to turkey is what pakistan to india. He banned the hijab in the universties, he ordered azan and Quran to be said in turkish not arabic. He said that no more misjids be build. He said turks will not learn about islam in schools. He said alot of things. But you know what happened. The turks did'nt cared what he said. By the 40'sthe azan and Quran was in arabic again. More misjids were being built and by the 80's. Islam was being thought in schools. That's why the army is worried about islam being back in turkey. Despite being anti-islam to the core. 60% of all the household in turkey have atleast one person wearing the hijib . The more you push islam out of turkey, and harder it'll come back. You should've seen how turkey was celberting ramadan. And then people say that islam is a exterme religon.

 

[Salahuddin]

Musharaf praises of Kamalism reflects a strange phenomena that exists in the mind of the Pakistani elite, namely,
>that Kamal was the champion and savior of Turkey. This view has evolved around the public image of Kamal propagated by the British during the occupation of the Khilafah by the allies after the First World War and the subsequent liberation.
The war for liberation was itself a staged event orchestrated by the British
who secretly assisted Kamal in the fight against the Greeks in return for the abolishment of the Khilafah.

Once in office kamal's true nature and enmity towards Islam emerged. His
nationalistic, xenophobic views were clearly express when he said, "It is
time for the Turks to stop dying for the Indian's and Arabs" i.e. referring
to the Islamic army of the Khilafah fighting the enemies of Islam. Yet Musharaf persists to praise the evil of Kamalism.

If we were to put into practice these policies in Pakistan we could expect Musharaf to say, "It is time for the Pakistanis to stop dying for the Kashmir's".

Atarturk mocked Islam and the Muslims by comparing the Azan to the braying
of a donkey and yet the Musharaf still persists to praise Kamalism even though his statements and many other actions took Kamal outside the
fold of Islam. He prohibited the Islamic dress, the Azan to be called in
Arabic and he ridiculed the Isra (The ascension of the Prophet (saw) to
the
seven heavens) as a stupid story. The culmination of all his evil deeds
manifested itself in the abolishment of the Khilafah system on the 3rd March1924. Fulfilling the dreams of the Kuffar ever since the time of the crusades.

After the abolishment of the Khilafah, Kamal promised the people of turkey

peace' and 'prosperity' under a modern capitalist state. Indeed his
promises
were similar to many Pakistani leaders who promised heaven and earth under
the capitalistic system. The Failure of the imposition of capitalism in
turkey, grabbed from the shelves by the intellectually inept Ataturk has
caused the destruction of the Muslim Ummah, and has secularised a people
rooted in Islam. This has not only seen the non-fulfillment of all the
Kamalist promises of a peaceful prosperous state, but has led to modern
Turkey being held in increasing domestic and international turmoil. Turkey
has gone from being the sick man of Europe, to being the humiliated and
defeated man of Europe.

On the domestic front the military form of so called 'democracy' promises death and destruction for the increasing prominence of Islamic movements and
the acceleration of Islamic revival, even though this is the choice of the people.

On the international front turkey prostitutes itself to the highest bidder,
vainly hoping to gain some credibility and perhaps as a result access to the
European Union. Turkey's alliance with Israel and the US against Muslims
in
Palestine, Iraq, Iran, and the Kurds is not only foolish considering these
are it's neighbors but also alien to Islam.

It is not suprising that the Kurds are reacting to their Oppression under a
capitalist, dictatorial and Secular Kamalist regime. If General Musharaf
requires the people of Pakistan to suffer the same fate as the Muslims of
Turkey, there will be no peace and no prosperity rather destruction and
turmoil.

 

[Salahuddin]

The fact that he was a despot and dictator cannot be denied. It was his cruelty and sadistic treatment of Muslims that makes him stand out as one of the worst enemies of Allah. The above was only what was reported and recorded by mostly Western observers. The extent of what actually went on in the new Turkey by the direct policy of Kamal, was heinous to say the least. He was an enemy of Allah (swt) to the core.




TIME - January 9, 1933: p. 64

Squinting skyward last week, Turks looked for the new moon. When they should see it Ramadan would begin. Ramadan is the mystic month in which the Koran was revealed to Prophet Mohammed. This year the first glint of the new moon had a special, dread significance. Turks had been ordered by their stern dictator, Mustafa Kemal Pasha who made them drop the veil and the fez (TIME, Feb. 15, 1926 et seq.), that beginning with Ramadan they must no longer call their god by his Arabic name, Allah.
No godly man, Dictator Kemal considers that there is no reason why Turks should not call Allah by his Turkish name Tanri. There is no reason except centuries of tradition, no reason except that Turkish imams (priests) all know the Koran by heart in Arabic while few if any have memorized it in Turkish. Strict to the point of cruelty last week was Dictator Kemal's decree that muezzins, calling the faithful to prayer from the top of Turkey's minarets, must shout not the hallowed "Allah Akbar!" (Arabic for "God is Great!") but the unfamiliar words "Tanri Uludur!" which mean the same thing in Turkish.

When imams threatened to suspend services in the mosques and hide the prayer rugs, the Government announced that it was holding 400 brand-new prayer rugs in reserve, threatened to produce "newly trained muezzins who know the Koran in Turkish and are ready to jump into the breach." .........

Nearer & nearer crept the moon to crescent. Ramadan was almost upon Turkey when officials of the Department of Culture (which includes religion) screwed up their courage and told Dictator Kemal that he simply could not change the name of Turkey's god - at least not last week. Already several muezzins had been thrown into jail for announcing that they would continue to shout "Allah Akbar!" The populace was getting ugly, obviously sympathized with the Allah-shouters.

Abruptly Dictator Kemal yielded "Let them pray as they please, temporarily" he growled. Beaming, his Minister rushed off to proclaim the glad respite only a few hours before the new moon appeared. "On account of the general unpreparedness of muezzins and imams," they suavely declared, "prayers may be offered and the Koran recited in Arabic during the present month of Ramadan, but discourse by the imams must be in Turkish."

During Ramadan all Moslems are especially irritable because they eat nothing during the hours of daylight. After the fasting is over Turks will be more tractable, may accept from their Dictator a new name for their God.




TIME February 20, 1933 p. 18 Word for God

A hard father to his people, Mustafa Kemal told his Turks last December that they must forget God in the Arabic language (Allah), learn Him in Turkish (Tanri). Admitting the delicacy of renaming a 1300-year-old god, Kemal gave the muezzins a time allowance to learn the Koran in Turkish. Last week in pious Brusa, the "green city," a muezzin halloed "Tanri Uludur" from one of the minarets whence Brusans had heard "Allah Akbar" since the 14th Century. Raging at Kemal Pasha's god, they mobbed the muezzin, mobbed the police who came to save him.
Quick to defend his new word for God, quicker to show new Turkey the fate of the old-fashioned, Kemal the Ghazi, "the Victorious One," pounced on Brusa, had 60 of the faithful arrested, ousted the Mufti (ecclesiastical judge) of the Ouglubjami mosque and decreed that henceforth God was Tanri.




TIME, February 15, 1926 - pp. 15-16

"Turkey presents today the most promising and challenging field on the face of the earth for missionary service." Thus wrote James L. Barton, missionary executive, in last week's issue of 'Christian Work.' But first he summarized the revolutionary changes in Turkey since 1923. The changes: .........
For a hundred years Christian missionaries have struggled hopelessly to capture the hearts of the Calif-awed Turks. They had come, said Mr. Barton, to suspect that "the Moslem was outside the sphere of the operation of divine grace."




Turkey, Emil Lengyel - 1941, pp. 140-141

During the early days of Kemal's career, many of his followers were under the impression that he was a champion of Islam and that they were fighting the Christians. "Ghazi, Destroyer of Christians" was the name they gave him. Had they been aware of his real intentions, they would have called him "Ghazi, Destroyer of Islam."



Grey Wolf, Mustafa Kemal - An Intimate Study of a Dictator H.C. Armstrong, 1934

He was drinking heavily. The drink stimulated him, gave him energy, but increased his irritability. Both in private and public he was sarcastic, brutal and abrupt. He flared up at the least criticism. He cut short all attempts to reason with him. He flew into a passion at the least opposition. He would neither confide in nor co-operate with anyone. When one politician gave him some harmless advice, he roughly told him to get out. When a venerable member of the Cabinet suggested that it was unseemly for Turkish ladies to dance in public, he threw a Koran at him and chased him out of his office with a stick.
p. 241:
"For five hundred years these rules and theories of an Arab sheik," he said, "and the interpretations of generations of lazy, good-for-nothing priests have decided the civil and the criminal law of Turkey."

"They had decided the form of the constitution, the details of the lives of each Turk, his food, his hours of rising and sleeping, the shape of his clothes, the routine of the midwife who produced his children, what he learnt in his schools, his customs, his thoughts, even his most intimate habits."

"Islam, this theology of an immoral Arab, is a dead thing."

Possibly it might have suited tribes of nomads in the desert. It was no good for a modern progressive State.

"God's revelation!" There was no God. That was one of the chains by which the priests and bad rulers bound the people down.

"A ruler who needs religion to help him rule is a weakling. No weakling should rule.."

And the priests! How he hated them. The lazy, unproductive priests who ate up the sustenance of the people. He would chase them out of their mosques and monasteries to work like men.

Religion! He would tear religion from Turkey as one might tear the throttling ivy away to save a young tree.

p. 243:
Further, it was public knowledge that he was irreligious, broke all the rules of decency, and scoffed at sacred things. He had chased the Sheik-ul-Islam, the High Priest of Islam, out of his office and thrown the Koran after him. He had forced the women in Angora to unveil. He had encouraged them to dance body close to body with accursed foreign men and Christians.




Turkey - Emil Lengyel, 1941, p. 134

Kemal cared nothing about Allah; he was interested in himself and in Turkey. He hated Allah and made him responsible for Turkey's misfortune. It was Allah's tyrannical rule that paralyzed the hands of the Turk. But he knew that Allah was real to the Turkish peasant, while nationalism meant nothing to him. He decided, therefore, to draft Allah into his service as the publicity director of his national cause. Through Allah's aid his people must cease to be Mohammedans and become Turks. Then, after Allah had served Kemal's purpose, he could discard him.



Ataturk, The Rebirth of a Nation - Lord Kinross, 1965, p. 437

For Kemal, Islam and civilization were a contradiction in terms. "If only," he once said of the Turks, with a flash of cynical insight, "we could make them Christians!" His was not to be the reformed Islamic state for which the Faithful were waiting: it was to be a strictly lay state, with a centralized Government as strong as the Sultan's, backed by the army and run by his own intellectual bureaucracy.
p. 470:
The cleavage in his musical tastes emerged in Istanbul, where he once had two orchestras, one Turkish and one European, brought to the Park Hotel. He listened with constant interruptions, commanding one to stop and the other to play in turn. Finally, as the raki took effect, he lost patience and rose to leave the restaurant, saying, "Now if you like you can both play together." Another evening, incensed by the sound of the muezzin from a mosque opposite, which clashed with the dance-band, he ordered its minaret to be felled - one of those orders which was countermanded next morning.




Ataturk, The Rebirth of a Nation - Lord Kinross, 1965 p. 365

Some confusion as to his identity persisted, however, for some years to come. Inspecting some soldiers in Anatolia, Kemal once asked, "Who is God and where does He live?"
The soldier, anxious to please, replied, "God is Mustafa Kemal Pasha. He lives in Angora."

"And where is Angora?" Kemal asked.
"Angora is in Istanbul," was the reply.

Farther down the line he asked another soldier, "Who is Mustafa Kemal?"
The reply was, "Our Sultan." - Irfan Orga: Phoenix Ascendant.

 

[gromell]

As a Muslim, even just the title of the thread makes me sad

 

[gromell]

Turkey is even more secular than England! The royal family of Windsor at least patronizes the church of England.

The British monarch, at present Queen Elizabeth II, has the constitutional title of "Supreme Governor of the Church of England". The canon law of the Church of England states, "We acknowledge that the Queen’s most excellent Majesty, acting according to the laws of the realm, is the highest power under God in this kingdom, and has supreme authority over all persons in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as civil."

Turkey's constitution and military on the other hand are not just secular, but I feel they are against Islam! There is no prohibition against Muslim women wearing hijab in England, at least officially. But there is in Turkey! Women wearing hijab is not allowed in universities?! WOW! Even then Turkey is not allowed into EU.

I hope Turkish Muslims will wake up one day