The Enemy of Turkey is Back: Islam

Turkey, once known as the most modernized and advanced Islamic nation. Nowadays, the actions of the Islamic government, sale of some governmental institutions, interior security operations, increasing crime, the change in Turkish culture and more importance to religion than education issues are wreaking havoc in the country. What made the change in the country? What caused the effect of turmoil? What made the Turkish culture change dramatically?

The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, understood the effect of Islamic religion on the Turkish government and Turkish people. Ataturk and the cabinet formed a constitution that separated government and religion in 1921, which made Turkey a secular state. Since that time Ottoman Emperors hasn't allowed any modernization movements because of the Islamic religion and their fear of mollas, which are the superior teachers and thinkers of Islam. As the European nations advanced and industrialized, the Ottoman Empire stood as where it was before. The Empire became the ''sick man of Europe''. No factories, limited number of advanced schools, no production except agricultural goods threw Ottoman Empire into a debt that they needed help from European nations of that time, mostly United Kingdom and France. And of course those countries gave the Money because of their interest in Ottoman lands. As a new hope, Ottoman Empire found its self in World War I as the ally of the German Empire. But things didn't go well for the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire. After the war ended, The Ottoman Empire lands, which are nowadays Anatolia, were conquered by Allied countries. A former officer of Ottoman Empire, Ataturk decided to take action against those invading countries. On May 19, 1919, he took the step that would change the fate of the Turkish nation. He repelled the invading forces and with the Treaty of Lausanne, independence was gained.

He knew Turkey had a lot of potential and this made a supporting idea for his revolutions but there was only one obstacle left; The Emperor of Ottoman Empire and caliphate. It wasn't easy to change the Islamic oriented Turkish society into a modernized, advanced and working society. Most of the Turks followed his lead and formed Turkish Republic from the ashes of Ottoman Empire. But of course, there were people who opposed Ataturk's revolutions; the mollas and the strong followers of Islam. Ataturk always trusted in the Turkish army; to protect Turkish Republic, secularism and advancement. A Turkish army officer named Kubilay was attacked by Islamic fundamentalists in city of Menemen, which fundamentalists cut his head from his body. Actions were taken by Turkish Army and the fundamentalists got executed. This wasn't the first incident made by them; they tried to launch a coup in 1925 which was unsuccessful.

After Ataturk died, the Islamic fundamentalists got stronger as required actions weren't taken by Turkish government. Even at those times, The Turkish army was a security valve for the secularism, which most of the attempts to overthrow republic and bring Islamic rule was unsuccessful. There were few revolutions made by Turkish army to overthrow the governments which were leaning towards the Islamic rule instead of secular republic. Adnan Menderes, the prime minister of Turkey was executed in 1961, who promised to bring back Islamic Rule and the suspended Arabic language. Other prime minister, Suleyman Demirel was starting his talks with an Islamic ceremony. As the years passed, Islamic fundamentalists gained upper hand against the Ataturk supporters. In 2002, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was elected as the prime minister of Turkey. Before that, he was imprisoned in 1998 because of his Islamic sympathy and poems that targeted Turkish Secularism and Turkish Army. As the years passed, the Turkish society has changed a lot and got divided into two polar; the Islamic fanatics and the Ataturk supporters. And the rivalry and hatred between the two groups of people is growing day by day. And Turkish people were famous with their hospitality. This is not true anymore, the society got aggressive as they weren't before. They became something that Ataturk never imagined. They lost their soul as they tried to get back the Islamic rule they missed. They just want to return back to the dark ages with their narrow minds instead of advancing. As most of the countries are sending their satellites into space, the Turkish people think Islam will save them and covering their heads is more important than studying, industrializing, making discoveries.

The Turkish society wasn't the only thing that changed. The Turkish Army changed a lot too. As the Islamic fundamentalists have been trying to put their men in Turkish army, they were successful. The army got closer to the Islamic government. Since the foundation of Republic of Turkey, the officers who have Islamic sympathy were suspended from the army. But this year, 2008 was a first in Turkish Army history. No officers were suspended.

July was a very important month for Turkey. A group of people, who support Ataturk's ideas of secularism, was arrested by police because that group was supposed to attempt a coup against the Islamic government. In that group, there were retired highly ranked army officers, writers who support Ataturk revolutions and some economists. The weird part is, since 1923 the foundation of Turkish Republic, no government could touch anyone that is a member of army because Turkish Army would protect their officers. But this time they didn't. And later in August, just a month before the High Commander of Turkish Armed Forces retire, a reporter from a newspaper found that government got a very expensive car as a gift to the High Commander of Turkish Armed Forces.

Turkish people and Turkish Army got very far away from Ataturk revolutions; and they deserve the outcome. If Turkey becomes a country like Iran, which I don't have any doubts, there will be nobody to blame except Turkish society and Turkish Army who was supposed to defend something which they forgot.