Under the scarf

Turkey8217;s parliamentary elections that concluded this weekend will focus the country with greater urgency on debates it has averted for most of its post-Ataturk years. The ruling 8220;Islamist rooted8221; AK Party has been returned to power with almost half the vote, considerably more than the 34 per cent it had gained in 2002. With the enhanced mandate, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his part has framed most clearly three issues, which in many ways capture a battle of ideas raging across the world. One, how sustainable is the kind of state-mandated secularism that bars religious symbols from public places? Two, how sustainable is the idea of intervention by the holding establishment 8212; read military, as in so many other parts of the Muslim world 8212; to safeguard this state-mandated 8220;secularism8221; on the basis of apprehensions? Three, with Turkey already a NATO member and Erdogan8217;s government having honoured its responsibilities in the run-up to possible European Union membership, what should be the West8217;s obligation in yielding space at its high table?

The immediate pretext for Erdogan advancing elections was his failure in carrying the establishment with him to set up his Islamist foreign minister, Abdullah Gul8217;s candidature as president. This May, the prospect brought thousands of protesters out on Ankara8217;s streets, raising the possibility of the military intervening, as it has done on at least four occasions in the past. At the heart of the crisis was a dilemma novelists like Orhan Pamuk have been highlighting: how can Turkey be secular without coercing the traditional into, as in this case, abandoning symbols like the headscarf? Gul8217;s wife famously wears a headscarf, something banned in public buildings. Among the Turkish president8217;s powers, they noted, is the authority to veto legislation. The win may embolden Erdogan to assert once again his party8217;s freedom to field its candidate of choice. It will also, interestingly, draw into the debate France8217;s new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who is wary of Turkey8217;s membership of the EU and whose country is working through similar debates on religious symbols.

Erdogan8217;s argument for democratically settling issues 8212; in a neighbourhood mostly unfamiliar with constitutionalism and meaningful elections 8212; gains strength with the entry of the Kurdish National Action Party, with 14 per cent of the vote. It remains to be seen whether the national government can win them over with moves to regional autonomy, as opposed to the military8217;s more stern approach. The effects will be felt most keenly next door in northern Iraq. But Turkey8217;s conversation with itself may only just be beginning. And the world will be listening.