Turmoil in Turkey

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Phillip Martin reports on the political turmoil in Turkey following the arrest of former military officials who allegedly plotted a coup against the government years ago.

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MARCO WERMAN:  The U.S. also wants Turkey onboard for sanctions against Iran, but Turkey has been reluctant to go along.  It has political and business ties with Iran and right now Turkey has something else to worry about.  Authorities there continue to investigate what they say was a serious attempt to overthrow the government.  The alleged coup reflects deepening anxiety over what some Turkish citizens fear is creeping Islamization in a country with a strong secular tradition.  Phillip Martin reports.

PHILLIP MARTIN:  On this day as the sky over Istanbul turns from iron grey to a widening patch of blue, one is reminded of Turkey’s Islamic faith.  Turkish citizens this week also woke up to another reminder.  With the arrests of seven power officers, the ever-present tensions between Islam and secularism bubbled to the surface.  The seven were said to be part of a plot called sledgehammer.  It’s allegedly designed to create unrest that would allow the military to take over the government.  It’s a charge that military men say is absolutely untrue.  Isik Biren, a retired Turkish Admiral.

ISIK BIREN:  I think that some people are just collecting some sort of information which they say piles up to 5,000 pages and is the plan or something like that.  I’ve never heard of the 5,000 page plan in my whole life.  So there must be some misunderstanding in certain places.  To me, its nonsense.

MARTIN: For decades Islam has existed side by side with a deep commitment to secularism enshrined in Turkey’s Constitution.  Whether the coup plot is true or not, the tensions underlying this week’s events are widespread.  Popular jazz pianist, Ali Perret says he doesn’t want to lose what he calls “Turkey’s free spirit”; a way of life he fears is threatened by the ever-increasing growth of Islamist parties.

ALI PERRET:  First of all they’re a conservative government.  But he main reason is going towards fascism and we all it Islamo-Fascism.  The country is divided; the secular ones and the Islamic religious conservative people.  So it’s really bad times for Turkey and the Turkish people.

MARTIN: Demographers have also documented a surge of religion in recent years and an increase in the number of radical Islamic parties.  But Ilber Ortayli, Director of the Topkapi Palace, a center of Ottoman and Islamic history, says he’s not particularly concerned.

ILBER ORTAYLI:  This so-called fundamentalists, repeat, so-called fundamentalists, they have nothing to do with fundamental ideas.  They like to sing about their past.  Today Turkey is, of course, a western country.

MARTIN: But for many Turks, that’s precisely the problem.  Islamists, Nationalists and others have criticized Turkish institutions for being too accommodating to the United States and Israel.  Some are calling for the severing of military relations with the U.S. which maintains an air base in southern Turkey.  That’s one of the reasons why talk of a coup should have the U.S. deeply concerned says Bill Martel, professor of Security Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

BILL MARTEL:  The geo-strategic concern has to be that instability or chaos in Turkey has a set of consequences that weaken both the American and the European ability to have a positive, productive role in that part of the world.

MARTIN: Turkey’s armed forces, the second largest in NATO have overthrown at least four civilian governments over the course of the last half century.  Jazz pianist Ali Perret says any way you look at it, Turkey is in trouble.

PERRET:  There is a danger of civil war.  In the seventies when I was a teenager we had the military coup in ’71, so that was pretty fascist years.  Now it even looks worse.

MARTIN: Perret says he worries that he may soon lose the freedom to play his music late into the night without interference from religious conservatives or military bent on keeping oil.  For The World, I’m Phillip Martin, Istanbul, Turkey.

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