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Ruling Party Charms a Turkish City With New Take on Secular Heritage
Ahmet Hamdi Gul, father of Turkey's foreign minister, says the country's religiously rooted ruling party has done well by his city, Kayseri.
(By Anthony Shadid -- The Washington Post)
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Since 1950, parties, and even the military, have flirted with the idea of a growing role for Islam, motivated by political expediency or the quest for popular support in a country that is 98 percent Muslim. But the debate has rarely been so pronounced. Critics of the ruling party believe it is out to dismantle Ataturk's ideals, pointing to proposals such as the recriminalizing of adultery as evidence of intent. The party's supporters counter that they, too, are secularists, but of a different ilk. To them, the state should not enforce secularism as an ideology, but rather stand aside, allowing people to freely express their devotion -- be it head scarves in universities or public prayers.
"This secularism is only serving a small part of the society," insisted Serife Gul Atila, 20, a nursing student at Erciyes University who was sitting with a friend in the downtown park, a statue of a martial Ataturk on a horse in the distance.
Atila considers herself devout but does not wear the veil, having been forced to remove it when she entered Erciyes University in 2001. She quit, then returned months later wearing a wig as a substitute. Atila said she had hoped the party would change the laws, but knew that the secular establishment, laying claim to the legacy of Ataturk, would prevent it.
"They're not the only ones who are pro-Ataturk," she said of the secularists, her voice rising. "I am pro-Ataturk, too. At the same time, I don't want to turn him into an icon and pray to him."
Dwindling Fortunes
The Nationalist Action Party, which formed the militant Gray Wolves in the 1960s, still attracts support in Kayseri, but its fortunes are dwindling. Unlike the well-lit headquarters of the Justice and Development Party, its offices are dark, staffed by men with crescent mustaches who forgo kisses on each cheek for a slight tap on the head. The doors are closed. The clock is stuck at 7:50, the second hand frozen.
"Nationalism, nationalism, nationalism," said Aykut Iltekin, 35, a fitness equipment vendor who voted for the party in parliamentary elections in 1999. "It's like saying you can just survive on water, that we need nothing more."
Iltekin is now deputy head of the Justice and Development Party in Kayseri. "I got clever," he quipped.
His frustration was echoed in a shopping mall in the city, where another debate was going on. Standing with friends and customers, Hamza Ersungur, the 27-year-old owner of a cellphone shop, said he had voted for the nationalists in every past election. The party's triple-crescent banner was proudly emblazoned on the rear window of his white Volkswagen Golf.
But these days, he said a little sheepishly, "something was missing."
"I no longer trust them," he said. "If I vote for them, I want them to run the country, and I'm not sure they know how."
