The Stealth Jihad in Turkey

Anyone opposed to the global jihad should be watching recent developments in Turkey very closely -- not just for what they reveal about the direction in which that country is headed, but so as to understand nothing less than the new direction of the jihad movement.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, along with President Abdullah Gul and their ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), have been moving for quite some time to dismantle Turkish secularism and transform Turkey into a state governed by Islamic law. But as Prime Minister, Erdogan has not engaged in a direct assault on Turkish secularism. Instead, he and the AKP have steadily chipped away at it, reintroducing provisions of Islamic law piece by piece, while professing to uphold the country's secular character.

In 2004 Erdogan took steps to criminalize adultery, and late in 2005 the AKP banned alcoholic beverages in government cafes and restaurants in Ankara. In May 2008 a new law came into effect that effectively outlawed sale of alcohol by the glass in bars and restaurants.

In the 1990s, as mayor of Istanbul, Erdogan was forthright about this goal, expressing his opposition to secularism in no uncertain terms: "You cannot be both secular and a Muslim! You will either be a Muslim, or secular!...It is not possible for a person who says 'I am a Muslim' to go on and say 'I am secular too.' And why is that? Because Allah, the creator of the Muslim, has absolute power and rule!"

Saying that Allah has "absolute power and rule" is a fundamentally political statement. And from its inception Islam has been a political and social system, not just a religious faith in the way most Westerners conceive of religion. The establishment of Islamic law as the only legitimate system of government is a goal that Erdogan shares with Osama bin Laden and other jihadists around the world; they only differ regarding the best means to go about this.

While Al-Qaeda and other jihad groups have focused on violent attacks on Western targets, Erdogan has shown himself a master of the stealth jihad: the slow, steady, step-by-step encroachment upon secular societal norms, continuing until Islamic law is fully in place.

This effort is proceeding, too, in the West. As a Muslim Brotherhood operative, Mohamed Akram, put it in 1991 memorandum outlining the organization's strategy in the United States: "The Muslim Brotherhood must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions." Akram explained that this sabotaging of Western civilization would take place not through terror attacks, but by numerous non-violent initiatives carried out by a variety of Islamic organizations. With the public geared to be on guard only against terror attacks, these efforts would slip by unnoticed.

And so they have in Turkey -- at least up until last week. In line with its small-step, indirect approach, for years now the government has been trying to overturn the law banning the Islamic headscarf in Turkish universities. But on Thursday the Turkish Constitutional Court, the nation's highest court, overturned a new AKP-backed law allowing the headscarf in universities, saying it contravened the Constitutional tenets providing for Turkish secularism. With the possibility looming that the Constitutional Court could even ban the AKP itself, on the grounds that it posed a threat to Turkey's Constitutional order, Erdogan canceled a trip to Switzerland and returned to Ankara, where he and his top aides met in an emergency strategy meeting on Friday. If the party is outlawed, Erdogan and Gul could be barred from holding political office.

The Turkish courts and military have intervened to save Turkish secularism before. They may now, and soon again. If Erdogan were to be down, he would not be out, and analysts would be well-advised to study his stealth jihad in Turkey: there are groups in Western Europe and the U.S. that are pursuing exactly the same kind of small-scale, step-by-step approach that the AKP has followed with so much success until last week.

With story after story appearing documenting the disarray and decay of Al-Qaeda, the stealth jihad could be the wave of the future around the world. And its guiding light, however his personal political fortunes may shift, will be Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

By Robert Spencer
www.humanevents.com

© 2008, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.

http://www.aina.org/news/20080612115805.htm

_________________
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

(Matthew 13:49)

Syria: Peace with Israel will be 'bliss'

By JPOST.COM STAFF

A senior Syrian official has expressed confidence regarding the possibility that indirect peace talks with Israel will come to fruition, saying that a peace agreement would be a source of "bliss" in the Middle East.

"When people can move freely between Syria, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt, a great change will take place," Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad told the Chicago Tribune. "Our people will enjoy life without bad dreams of the martyrdom of their children, we will improve living conditions and we will open up to the international community."

"The impact of peace will be bliss for the entire region," he added.

Syria, Miqdad claimed, was aware that there could be no direct talks with Israel without the involvement of the US.

The Jerusalem Post

_________________
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

(Matthew 13:49)

The Case Against Turkey's Ruling Party

by Michael Rubin
The American
June 20, 2008

Sometime this summer, Turkey's Constitutional Court will decide whether Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) violated the "principles of a democratic and secular republic" that undergird the Turkish constitution and should be barred from politics. Across the Turkish political spectrum, most officials expect the Court to rule against the AKP, thus dissolving the party and banning Erdoğan and his closest aides for at least five years.

Although the prime minister, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, and influential AKP advisers have tried to depict this as the unjust outgrowth of a dispute over headscarves in public universities—and perhaps even a "judicial coup"—the case is legitimate.

Erdoğan's supporters often point to his embrace of the European Union accession process as proof of his liberalism. But Erdoğan has used the EU accession process to unravel Turkey's system of checks and balances. He cares little for EU institutions. When the European Court of Human Rights upheld a ban on headscarves in public schools—the same ban that the Turkey's own Constitutional Court later upheld—Erdoğan chastised the European justices for applying civil law to a religious matter, declaring, "It is wrong that those who have no connection to this field [of religion] make such a decision…without consulting religious scholars."

Europe's encouragement of Turkish reforms has been important. In a mature democracy, the military should remain aloof from politics. Brussels should be applauded for pressuring Turkey to reform its National Security Council to give the powerful body a civilian majority with a civilian head. By failing to encourage the creation of an alternate check-and-balance mechanism to replace the military's traditional role as guardian of the constitution, however, the EU committed diplomatic malpractice. Erdoğan seized the opportunity to run roughshod over Turkish secularism and democracy.

Indeed, despite its self-description as secular, liberal, and democratic, the AKP is quite the opposite. Babacan ordered Turkish officials to remove references to secularism from Turkey's position paper ahead of EU negotiations over education policy. Domestically, the AKP has placed religion above the law. Turkey has long regulated supplemental Koran schools, ensuring instructor qualifications and imposing minimum age requirements to prevent indoctrination. When Saudi mullahs fanned out across Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia to promote a radical version of Islam, they largely bypassed Turkey. No longer. Not only did the AKP loosen limits upon the religious schools, but it also eviscerated the penalties for violations, leading some illegal madrassas to begin advertising openly.

As he consolidates power, Erdoğan has become the Turkish Vladimir Putin. Upon taking office, Erdoğan sought to lower the mandatory retirement age for public servants from 65 to 61, which effectively allowed his party to appoint almost half of the nation's prosecutors and judges. With patronage appointments, the prime minister transformed technocratic bodies such as the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), an entity empowered to seize private businesses and media outlets, into virtual party wings. The TMSF today is staffed almost entirely by appointees transferred from Saudi-based financial institutions.

Placement in key ministries and government departments used to depend on success in civil service exams. Erdoğan imposed a subjective interview process that enabled him to choose political loyalists. The practice spread to state-owned industries; Turkish Airlines, for example, began quizzing employees on the Koran. Women have suffered the most. As analyst Soner Çağaptay observes in Newsweek, "under the AKP, women are largely excluded from decision-making positions in government and the workforce, relegated to the confines of their homes."

The AKP has even resorted to wiretapping the conversations of its political rivals. Late last month, Vakit, an Islamist paper close to the AKP, published a wiretap conversation between the opposition's deputy leader and a governor. This episode, which the media have called "Turkey's Watergate," has sent chills through the secular elite.

The AKP has also sought to diminish the power of Turkey's independent judiciary. In May 2005, AKP co-founder and parliamentary speaker Bülent Arınç said that if the Constitutional Court continued to declare AKP legislation unconstitutional, the AKP might simply dissolve it. When the Danıştay, the country's supreme administrative court, ruled against the previous government's seizure of a bank and Erdoğan's transfer of its European subsidiary to a political ally, the prime minister ignored the ruling.

Contrary to AKP claims, this summer's Court decision will not mark the end of Turkish democracy, but rather its rebirth. Erdoğan, too, will begin a new chapter. Even if he is banned from politics, a quirk in Turkish election law would allow him to seek office as an independent. In other words, Erdoğan could conceivably wind up presiding over other AKP alumni as an independent prime minister.

Here, the issue is less ambition than immunity. When Erdoğan leaves parliament, he will face a multitude of corruption charges. While compiling his immense wealth, he has refused to give a full financial disclosure. As the clock runs out on his premiership, Erdoğan has dispensed with even the appearance of legality. He has used the AKP's parliamentary majority to suppress investigation of a recent TMSF deal in which an opposition newspaper and television station were sold to an Erdoğan ally after the prime minister interceded illegally. On June 18, Habertürk's Fatih Altaylı reported that the Austrian energy firm OMV has submitted an affidavit swearing that Erdoğan told OMV the way to unfreeze a $3 billion energy project would be to dump its longtime Turkish partner and work instead with his son-in-law. Perhaps it should not be a surprise, then, that Erdoğan has used what could be his last weeks as prime minister to appoint political loyalists to the Sayıştay, Turkey's supreme court of accounts and audits, which will soon investigate his conduct.

Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is editor of the Middle East Quarterly.

© 2008 The Middle East Forum

http://www.meforum.org/article/1924

_________________
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

(Matthew 13:49)

Seeker - I rarely post on this board but thought I would add the following to your thread.

I too follow Turkey closely - what do you make of Gullen?

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/bushbeat/archives/2008/06/worlds_no_1_thi.php

http://poligazette.com/2008/06/25/fethullah-gulen-islamist-acquitted/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/24/turkey.islam

and finally this:

"Turkey is being transformed gradually to accept – and even celebrate – an eventual “grandiose return” to the motherland of the new caliph, Fethullah Gülen…
"

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=107129



I also see that there might be a new party in Turkey
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/9297067.asp?scr=1

_________________
www.discerningthetimesonline.net

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214726175811&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull



Turkish police arrested two retired military generals suspected of plotting to topple the Islamic-rooted government and the top prosecutor laid out evidence against the ruling party as rifts in Turkish politics appeared to widen Tuesday.


Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Photo: AP

Slideshow: Pictures of the week The country's senior prosecutor has brought a case against the Islamic-leaning Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing it of undermining the secular principles of the Turkish constitution.

The party denies the claims that it is trying to impose religion on politics and society, and accuses its opponents of undermining democracy by plotting to overthrow the legitimately elected government.

Dozens of people, including retired military officers, have previously been detained during the investigation against an alleged network of extreme nationalists called "Ergenekon."

But former generals Hursit Tolon and Sener Eruygur, who were detained Tuesday, were the highest-ranking ex-soldiers to be arrested so far, private CNN-Turk television said. Eruygur was a major organizer in anti-government rallies last year, when hundreds of thousands protested what they considered government attempts to undermine secularism.

Others detained Tuesday included the head of the chamber of trade in the Turkish capital, Ankara, and a journalist known to be a fierce critic of the government, CNN-Turk said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a total of 20 people were arrested and police were looking for four others.

He denied that the police operation was politically motivated or designed to silence government critics, even though it came just before top prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya discussed his case against Erdogan's party.

"I think this was a step toward completion of the indictment. It's a step taken upon a decision by prosecutors," Erdogan said.

The Justice and Development Party holds a comfortable majority in the Parliament, winning its second mandate last year after a months-long confrontation with the secularist opposition backed by the judiciary and the military.

In March, prosecutor Yalcinkaya asked the Constitutional Court to shut down the party and bar 71 people from politics for five years, including Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul. Erdogan and other party members have denied they have an Islamic agenda, citing reforms designed for entry into the European Union as proof.

But Yalcinkaya reaffirmed his position on Tuesday that the ruling party is trying to corrode the secularist principles enshrined in the Constitution, Anatolia news agency reported. He appeared before the top court in a private session, arguing that there was a "clear and present" danger that the ruling party was seeking to impose Islamic law on Turkey.

Turkish police launched simultaneous raids in at least three provinces hours before Yalcinkaya appeared in court, private Dogan news agency said.

"It may not be a coincidence. Every time there is a development concerning the closure case, there is often a development concerning the Ergenekon case," said Volkan Aytar, an analyst with an Istanbul-based research center, TESEV.

In January, a court charged eight people with trying to provoke an armed rebellion against the government. News reports said they were members of "Ergenekon" and were accused of plotting a series of bomb attacks and assassinations.

The Ergenekon hit list reportedly included Nobel prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, who has angered nationalists with his comments about the World War I-era killing of ethnic Armenians, and Kurdish leaders - seen by many Turks as a threat to national sovereignty.

Hi 4given,

Yes he is an interesting character. I have ran across his movement before but never could see a link to the current Turkish gov't. But one of th articles your link, link's this one.

"AKP FORMING CLOSER LINKS WITH THE GULEN MOVEMENT

By Gareth Jenkins

Wednesday, November 21, 2007


Reports in the Turkish press that the state-owned carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) had co-sponsored a conference in Istanbul on October 21-23, organized by the followers of exiled Islamist preacher Fettullah Gulen, have highlighted the increasingly close ties between the once-persecuted movement and Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) (Vatan, Hurriyet, November 20).

Gulen was born in 1941 in the province of Erzurum in eastern Anatolia. In the late 1960s, while he was serving as a preacher at a mosque in Izmir, Gulen began organizing summer camps offering religious courses. He gradually began to build up a huge following through his writings and highly emotional sermons, during which he would frequently break down in tears as he related stories from the Islamic traditions about the Prophet Muhammad’s life, known as the hadith.

Gulen’s spiritual mentor was Said Nursi (1876–1960), a radical activist whose calls for the creation of an Islamic society led to his frequent prosecution by the staunchly secular leaders of the early Turkish Republic, which was founded in 1923. Nursi’s written works are notoriously opaque; something that critics claim demonstrates their intellectual poverty and supporters their complexity and profundity. In contrast, Gulen’s writings tend to be considerably lighter, stronger on tone than content, and avoiding explicit calls for the introduction of Islamic shari’a law in favor of gently worded calls for moderation and conciliation. The thinly disguised Turkish supremacism of his unrepentant nostalgia for an idealized vision of the Ottoman Empire and calls for closer ties between Turkey and the Muslim states of Central Asia resonate strongly with Turkish nationalists."

http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2372611

I suspect that the "Gog" character will be a national Turkish leader. Someone with control of the military for sure. The other side though is that the AC will have a partner the False Prophet. It is interesting watching the current leadership buddy up to this movement. Who knows but it does look interesting. I know that Gulen has plenty of resources to work with. Something to watch for sure. Thanks.

Peace,
Seeker

_________________
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

(Matthew 13:49)

you're welcome.

_________________
www.discerningthetimesonline.net

Turkey Seeks Negotiated End to Iran's N. Issue

TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkey may soon mediate talks on Iran's nuclear program, following indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

Erdogan told a conference on "Leadership" that Turkey has now become a country to set the agenda in its region.

"Turkey mediates peace talks between Israel and Syria. Maybe, the mediator role regarding Iran's nuclear issue will soon be given to Turkey, because the idea of 'settling the issue with Turkey in this geography' has been prevailing recently.

"This is the result of confidence provided (by Turkey)," Erdogan said.

The United States and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's illegitimate calls to give up its right of enrichment.

Tehran has dismisses West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.

Iran has also insisted that it would continue enriching uranium because it needs to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it is building in the southwestern town of Darkhoveyn as well as its first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr.

The US is mainly at loggerheads with Iran over the independent and home-grown nature of Tehran's nuclear technology, which gives the Islamic Republic the potential to turn into a world power and a role model for other third-world countries.

Washington has laid much pressure on Iran to make it give up the most sensitive and advanced part of the technology, which is uranium enrichment, a process used for producing nuclear fuel for power plants.

Washington's push for additional UN penalties contradicted the report by 16 US intelligence bodies that endorsed the civilian nature of Iran's programs. Following the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and similar reports by the IAEA head - one in November and the other one in February - which praised Iran's truthfulness about key aspects of its past nuclear activities and announced settlement of outstanding issues with Tehran, any effort to impose further sanctions on Iran seems to be completely irrational.

The February report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, praised Iran's cooperation in clearing up all of the past questions over its nuclear program, vindicating Iran's nuclear program and leaving no justification for any new UN sanctions.

Following the said reports by the US and international bodies, many world states have called the UN Security Council pressure against Tehran unjustified, demanding that Iran's case must be normalized and returned from the UNSC to the IAEA.

US President George W. Bush finished a tour of the Middle East in winter to gain the consensus of his Arab allies to unite against Iran.

But hosting officials of the regional nations dismissed Bush's allegations, describing Tehran as a good friend of their countries.

Bush's attempt to rally international pressure against Iran has lost steam due to the growing international vigilance, specially following the latest IAEA and US intelligence reports.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8704151158

_________________
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

(Matthew 13:49)

Sudanese president to visit Turkey next August

Saturday 26 July 2008 04:30.

July 25, 2008 (ANKARA) — Sudan’s President, Omer Hassan al-Bashir is expected in Ankara next month to participate in a Trukey-African Union summit, it would be the first time he attends such gathering since this indictment by an international prosecutor.

On July 14, the International Criminal Court Prosecutor requested the pre-trial Chanmber to issue an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The judges are expected to make a decision on whether to issue a warrant for Bashir’s arrest in October or November.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry announced today the participation of al-Bashir in the Turkey-African Union Cooperation Summit scheduled to begin on August 18. He is one of the 20 head of state and government who confirmed the invitation addressed by Ankara.

"According to the information we have, the Sudanese president has confirmed he will be attending. We assume that under normal circumstances he will attend," Kenan Tepedelen, the coordinator for African affairs at the Foreign Ministry, told reporters late on Thursday.

Turkey is not party to the Rome Statute of the ICC at present. Ankara is a member of the unofficial group “Friends of the ICC” since 2004.

Al-Bashir’s state visit to Ankara last January had been the focus of rights groups, who criticized the visit and called on Turkish leaders to press the Sudanese president to end ongoing bloodshed and abuses in Darfur region. Gül described the Darfur issue as "a humanitarian tragedy" after meeting with al-Bashir and called on the international community to exert efforts to help end it.

However during the recent years, Turkey has increasingly developed its commercial and military cooperation with Sudan.

Last year bilateral trade volume reached 225 million USD. Moreover, Turkish direct investments in Sudan have amounted to nearly 50 million USD (disregarding the Turkish firms operating in contracting and consulting), according to the Turkish foreign ministry website.

Sudan and Turkey are signatories of a memorandum of understanding in areas of military industrialization, transfer of military technology, training, and provide military services. During his visit to Ankara al-Bashir requested Turkey to sell weapons to the Sudanese armed forces. Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül said at that time that his government is studying the request.

(ST)

http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article28026

_________________
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

(Matthew 13:49)

Iranian president to visit Turkey late August

www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-25 17:17:05

Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

ANKARA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to pay a visit to Turkey next month at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, Turkish Daily News reported on Friday.

Ahmadinejad's potential visit has been on the agenda for a longtime but could not be finalized due to both the international crisis over Iran's nuclear program and Turkey's presidential and general elections that took place last year, according to the report.

The two neighboring countries have boosted economic, trade, energy and security ties in recent years and the energy ministers of the two sides recently signed a preliminary agreement on transferring Iranian natural gas through Turkish territory and allowing Turkish companies to develop three Iranian natural gas fields in southern Iran.

A couple of documents focusing on economic relations would be signed during the presidential visit, the report added.

Turkey's close energy and trade ties with Iran are not welcomed by the United States, which argues that they would encourage Iran not to cooperate with the international community to solve the nuclear program issue.

Turkey, on the other hand, says that its close ties with Iran allow it to dispatch the international community's message to Tehran as openly as possible.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said earlier that Turkey has no formal mediation mission but described the country's role as "one that is, in a sense, consolidating and facilitating" the negotiations between Iran and the six major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

Babacan will meet his Iranian counterpart Manuchehr Mottaki next week in Tehran on the eve of the summit of non-aligned countries.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/25/content_8769652.htm

_________________
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

(Matthew 13:49)

Turkish Court Rejects Lawsuit to Ban Erdogan's Party

By Mark Bentley

July 30 (Bloomberg) -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan survived a court challenge to force him from office, ending months of political uncertainty that threatened to derail the $660 billion economy.

Six of 11 judges on the Constitutional Court voted to close down the party, one short of the seven required, chief judge Hasim Kilic told reporters in Ankara today. Instead judges ruled that the Treasury should reduce state funding for the party as a punishment for violating a constitutional ban on basing government policy on religious edicts.

``This decision constitutes a serious warning to the Justice and Development Party,'' Kilic said. ``I hope they will take the necessary lessons from this.''

The decision may extend a one-month rally on Turkish markets as investors bet Erdogan would triumph in his latest battle with secularists led by the army. His opponents say his economic success, which includes bringing inflation to a 37-year low of 6.9 percent last year, masks a secret Islamic agenda designed to make Turkey more like Iran.

The lira rose to 1.168 to the dollar, a three-month high, after the decision. Turkey's stock and bond markets were closed when Kilic made the announcement.

`Major Setback'

The verdict is ``a major setback for the secularists and will strengthen the party's hand even further,'' said Ahmet Akarli, an economist at Goldman Sachs in London. `Still the domestic political scene is likely to be prone to intermittent crises.''

Turkish stocks and bonds slumped after the trial began in March on concern that the closure of the country's most popular party since 1965 might jeopardize the political stability required to extend a record period of economic growth and progress toward membership of the European Union.

Markets have recouped most of those losses in the past month, as investors bet that Erdogan's party would escape closure. The rally continued today, as the benchmark ISE-100 stock index gained 5.6 percent, the most in six months, and yields on lira bonds fell to the lowest since May.

The decision means Erdogan and his 339 lawmakers will probably continue to rule Turkey until the next general election, due by 2012. The party has 130 seats more than the opposition combined after it won an election last year with 47 percent of the vote.

`All Sides Satisfied'

``I think this is a solution that will satisfy all sides,'' said Yarkin Cebeci, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Istanbul. ``The party will remain in power but will see that it is not omnipotent.''

The Justice party received 47 million liras ($40 million) in Treasury aid at the start of this year, and will lose half of next year's aid as a result of the verdict.

Erdogan's victory in the trial probably won't mark an end to hostilities with his secular opponents, particularly if Erdogan presses ahead with policies designed to further strengthen Islam's influence among Turkey's 70 million people, said Wolfango Piccoli at Eurasia Group in London, which analyses political risk.

``The key risk is that Turkey may witness a similar crisis in the near future,'' Piccoli said.

Last month, the same court struck down a law relaxing curbs on the Islamic-style headscarf. In his indictment against Erdogan's party, Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya had cited the government's attempt to implement that measure as proof that it had a ``secret agenda'' to introduce Islamic law in Turkey.

President George W. Bush is banking on political stability in Turkey, which is 99 percent Muslim, to help encourage democratic change in regional neighbors Iraq, Iran and Syria.

The government plans to press ahead with measures to secure membership of the EU, Erdogan said in a speech at parliament on July 22. The premier has also vowed to continue with a program of state asset sales that helped bring a record $22 billion in foreign investment last year.

Bloomberg

_________________
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

(Matthew 13:49)

A triumph for Turkey - and its allies
By M K Bhadrakumar

The Israelis are expected to know something extra about their tough neighborhood that we do not know. In all probability, the two Israeli officials - Shalom Turjeman and Yoram Turbowitz - knew when they set out for Ankara on Tuesday that Turkey's government was far from dysfunctional or was going to be in any danger of extinction within the next 24 hours.

The two advisors to (outgoing ) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were on a sensitive mission to hold the fourth round of peace talks with Syria under Turkish mediation. The format of the talks is such that Turkish officials shuttle between the Israeli and Syrian diplomats, who do not come face to face. The Turks seem to have done a masterly job. On Monday, Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Mustafa, speaking on a public platform in Washington, said, "We [Syria and Israel] desire to recognize each other and end the state of war."

"Here, then, is a grand thing on offer. Let us sit together, let us make peace, let us end once and for all the state of war," Imad added, referring to the peace talks brokered by Turkey. Clearly, Turkey's political stability is no longer just a national issue of 80 million Turks. It is a vital issue today for the international community. And Turkey's role in the Israel-Syria peace talks is only the tip of the iceberg. In the highly volatile Middle East situation, Turkey also facilitated contacts between US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. (The two adversaries visited Ankara recently.) Furthermore, Turkey has waded into the Iraq project.

Besides, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is poised to spread to the northern shores of the Black Sea. The new cold war has arrived in Turkey. Moscow is determined not to repeat its historic mistake of driving Turkey into the NATO camp, as it did in the 1950s.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is scheduling a visit to Turkey. A Moscow analyst noted, "Atomstroyexport [Russia's nuclear power equipment and service equipment monopoly] is ready to provide Turkey with a project for the construction of a nuclear power plant [NPP] that will be less expensive and more reliable than its American counterparts. Such NPPs will help Turkey to consolidate its position in the regional energy market, especially considering Iran's nuclear energy problems. Moscow has long been hinting to Ankara that it is best to give priority to economic expediency, especially in the energy industry." In other words, Turkey is once again moving into the vortex of big power politics after a respite of a decade and a half.

Thus, all factors taken into consideration, we may never quite know the extent to which any role Washington would have played in ensuring that the government led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was not unseated by Turkey's constitutional court in the trial regarding the alleged Islamist agenda of the ruling Justice Development Party (AKP). The US is far too experienced in the logarithm of power play in Ankara.

What we know for sure is that Turkey's judicial system is not impervious to political currents. Indeed, if the court, in its verdict announced on Wednesday, had decided to close down the AKP and to clamp down on Erdogan's political activity, Turkey would have plunged into a first rate political crisis. Equally, what is clear is that Washington is visibly relieved that the AKP government continues to rule in Ankara and Erdogan remains in harness.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "Turkey is living a tense situation, and we very much hope that the decision by the court will contribute to restore political stability ... The court has rendered an opinion, and we're going to continue to work with this government. We work quite well with them."

The geopolitical reality, as Cengis Candar, one of Turkey's senior political commentators summed up recently, is that "Turkey and Erdogan becoming a functional and effective actor in the issues topping the international agenda [currently] is of special importance in Turkish internal politics".

Nonetheless, the Turkish court verdict on Wednesday came as a surprise. It found the AKP guilty but avoided closing it down or banishing Erdogan from active politics, as most observers had expected. Instead, it merely penalized the party by levying a fine on it by depriving it of an amount of some US$20 million by way of state funding.

The AKP can take this loss, thanks to its easy access to other sources. The crucial issue was whether Erdogan needed to step down. In the idiom of soccer, we might say the charismatic Turkish leader was shown a yellow card, whereas many wanted and most expected that he was certain to get a red card, which indeed was within the referee's capacity (and reputation) to show.

The yellow card implies that Erdogan has to be extra careful now until the next parliamentary election due in July 2011, as he simply cannot afford another brush with the constitutional court. At least seven of the sitting judges will not retire for the next five years, which means that the court's political or ideological makeup will largely remain the same all through Erdogan's remaining term.

The head of the constitutional court, Hasim Kilic, was explicit that Erdogan is expected to draw some stern conclusions. "This verdict is a serious warning. I hope the party [AKP] draws the necessary lessons from this," he told the media. The hard fact is that 10 out of 11 judges in the constitutional court found the AKP to be a "center of anti-secular activity", though only six of them voted to close down the party, whereas seven needed to for a verdict banning the party to come into effect. No doubt, Erdogan escaped by a whisker.

The looming question now is what lesson he would have learned out of the nerve-wracking suspense. In an uncharacteristic remark, Erdogan admitted recently in a media interview that he made "mistakes". Indeed, he made mistakes. It is obvious that the AKP's heady electoral victory in last year's July parliamentary elections, securing 47% of the votes, did strange things to Erdogan.

Instead of being the prime minister of all Turks, as he promised in the full flush of victory, more and more he allowed himself to be surrounded by a small coterie of advisors; his native Black Sea swagger assumed sharper tilts as he became authoritarian and often turned confrontational toward criticism from the media and the civil society; and, least of all, fatally for a Turkish politician, he seemed to have convinced himself at some point in the past year that his mandate to rule came from his party's two-thirds majority in parliament, which, of course, would be a myopic interpretation of the ABCs of Turkey's democratic system.

Finally, with hopeless timing and an almost incomprehensible rush, he needlessly chose the issue of the right of religiously observant Turkish women to wear headscarves as an epic case of political will - and that too, in a dubious temporary political alliance with the ultra-nationalists who had little political capital to lose. What ensued was an incredible performance, as barely six months into his term after the elections, he began rapidly squandering away the goodwill of some of the vocal and influential "non-Islamist" sections of society who were otherwise gradually getting used to him and, more important, were quite willing to give him a break.

The point is, this is not a simple Kemalist-Muslim conflict, to quote well-known Turkish observer Mehmet Ali Birand, and there is no denying that one part of the Turkish public has important and understandable concerns about the situation. Surely, there is an economic overlap as well, as the established, aged captains of Turkish business and industry in Istanbul feel threatened by the march of the virile Anatolian tigers from inner cities such as Kayseri or Malatya, which are the hunting grounds of the AKP.

When Erdogan antagonized powerful trade and industry bodies such as the Turkish Union of Commodities and Exchanges (TOBB) and the Turkish Businessmen's and Industrialists Association by detaining the president of the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, Sinan Aygun, on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government, the nadir was reached and it was obvious he was taking on far too many powerful people.

TOBB head Rifat Hisarciklioglu acidly remarked, "When we go to bed, we don't want to worry what kind of Turkey we will face in the morning. A highly esteemed member of our community was subjected to treatment reminiscent of the coup era, which deeply offends us. We don't approve of this."

Paradoxically, Erdogan's main disadvantage is that he doesn't feel threatened by a credible political opposition. The established political parties of the left and right in Turkey are mired in disrepute and are languishing due to their miserable past record in government. People hardly repose confidence in them. In the circumstances, Erdogan's political moderation and sobriety will need to come from within, out of self-restraint rather than borne out of political culture.

That is to say, there is always the potential danger that as a quintessential Turk, he may feel tempted to perceive the constitutional court verdict of Wednesday as a triumph over his political adversaries and critics - Kemalists, bureaucracy, military, judiciary, academia, middle class, corporate media, etc. The fact remains there is a political stalemate in Turkey in so far as both Erdogan and his adversaries would know that even if the country goes through another mid-term election, it may only throw up yet another victory for his "Islamist" political platform.

However, on balance, Erdogan is a shrewd politician. He cannot but be chastened by the existential challenge the AKP faced in recent weeks. It is no small matter if he is pushed back into ground zero and has to start all over again, like in 2001 when he formed the AKP after being in the political wilderness for years. Nor can he be under any illusion that the July 30 verdict in any way signifies surrender by the Turkish establishment. He would realize that as prime minister he needs to redefine his working relationships.

His great asset is that he still remains an immensely popular national figure among average Turks, by far outstripping anyone from the political opposition. Also, the Turkish economy has done well under his stewardship and the country is becoming fatter by the day, according to the latest evaluation by the International Monetary Fund. Turkish foreign policy is cruising at an optimal level with its prestige as a regional power running high as it mediates peace in its neighborhood and commands influence. Turkey has returned to the Middle East region after an absence of almost nine decades.

All the same, the most prudent course for Erdogan will be to revert to his agenda during his first term as prime minister and press the pedal on reforms within the broad framework of Turkey's European Union membership drive. He should repose confidence that all said, the AKP's popularity within the country and abroad will work as a break mechanism on the Kemalist establishment from overthrowing his government. It is clear that Turkey is through with the era of military coups. In one sense, an important milestone in the country's democratic transformation has been reached this week.

Erdogan's strategy, therefore, ought to be to revert to his engagement with the European project and the phase of modernity and political liberalism that it offers, which was the broad orientation of his first term as prime minister. It may seem a tantalizing proposition, but even for Islamism in Turkey and for the AKP, arguably, Turkey's European project has been and still remains the best bet.

Turkey's integration into the EU, apart from bringing about increased economic prosperity and modernization, also would open up Turkey to European socio-economic processes. EU standards can give comfort levels to the secularists apropos the specter of creeping "Islamization". At the same time, access to trans-European politics will bring the AKP to rub against Europe's Christian democratic culture, which has been remarkably successful historically in internalizing the tenets of secularism and reconciling them with religiosity.

Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.

Asia Times

_________________
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

(Matthew 13:49)

Turkish president says a Caucasian union is essential for the region

It was essential to form a Caucasian union to block possible conflicts in the region where currently hosts a Russia-Georgia conflict over South Ossetia, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday. (UPDATED)

"I believe it is important to form a Caucasian stability forum in the middle term," Gul told a press conference in Ankara after he was briefed by Turkish officials on the Russia-Georgia conflict.

His remarks came a day after Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's proposal for such an alliance in Caucasus. Turkey would start working on the formation of a Caucasian union, which would include Russia as well, Erdogan has said.

This proposal is seen as the latest step in Turkey's intensified efforts to resolve the conflicts in its region. Syria and Israel have been holding indirect talks under Turkey's auspices, and also Ankara signaled it took step in for the resolution of international row over Iran's nuclear works.

Gul also said Turkey would continue its initiatives for the restoration of peace and stability in Georgia, adding his country attached high importance to Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

"I see as a positive development in information that Russia has decided to halt its military operation in Georgia," he told the conference.

"I hope this will swiftly develop into a ceasefire confirmed by both sides," he added.

He also said Turkey supported initiatives of the European Union, OSCE and U.N. Secretary General for the restoration of peace.

Hurriyet

_________________
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

(Matthew 13:49)

Push the button Max!

"Altay", the first Turkish tank
Turkey has pushed the button, initiating a project to produce the best tank in the world.
Turkey has pushed the button, initiating a project to produce the best tank in the world. The prototype of the new Turkish tank will be produced in 2014.

Altay, the new Turkish tank projected to be the best in the world, will be produced by Otokar, which is affiliated with Koç Holding in Sakarya, and will replace the old tanks used by Turkish Armed Forces. PM Tayyip Erdoğan signed the Altay tank project yesterday.

The agreement for the production of the first national tank to replace the old tanks used in Turkish Armed Forces, Altay, has been signed.

"Altay will be produced as a result of a research and development of 78 months and will be able to do the job of the four tanks currently included in the inventory," Sabah reported.

The first step to make Turkish Armed Forces the most powerful army of the region and to reduce its dependency to other countries has been taken. National tank project to increase mobility of the land forces has started. The ministry of defense has assigned Otokar of Koç Holding to produce first national tank, Altay. Nearly 600 research and development engineers will be working for the project which will cost $500 million.


A Turkish state of the art conventional ground force and a nuclear Iran. King Nebuchad-nezzar would be proud to see his kingdom like it was back in the day .

Pretty soon the U.S. will be up against a militarily and logistically superior force.

Sudan's president in Turkey to attend summit

By C. ONUR ANT – 24 minutes ago

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — A summit of African leaders began in Istanbul on Monday, but the focus was on the visit of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir — his first trip abroad since an international court indicted him on genocide charges.

Al-Bashir was accused last month by the International Criminal Court prosecutor of directing genocide in Darfur, Sudan's troubled region where up to 300,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million displaced since 2003.

The prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, requested that an arrest warrant be issued for al-Bashir. A panel of judges is reviewing evidence submitted by Moreno-Ocampo to decide whether there are reasonable grounds to issue the warrant.

Al-Bashir arrived in Istanbul on Monday to attend the three-day Turkey-Africa economic cooperation summit.

Even if an arrest warrant was issued while he was in Turkey, it would be highly unlikely that Turkish authorities would arrest him because the country has not signed the court's treaty and is not bound by its provisions.

New York-based Human Rights Watch, however, has called on Turkey to express support for the court case during the Sudanese delegation's visit.

"We would ask you to use this opportunity to make it clear to the government of Sudan that Turkey does not, nor will ever, support impunity for such crimes," according to a letter read by representatives of the group to Turkish officials.

Al-Bashir has said that Sudan does not recognize the court in The Hague, Netherlands, and will never cooperate with it.

Ethnic African groups in Darfur rebelled against al-Bashir's government, accusing it of discrimination, and his regime is accused of unleashing Arab militias known as janjaweed that are blamed for atrocities against civilians.

The Turkey-Africa Cooperation Summit, meanwhile, started with talks among high level officials from around 50 countries. Heads of state, including al-Bashir, meet Tuesday afternoon. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was not expected to attend.

The summit in Turkey's cultural and financial center is part of the country's intensifying efforts to expand ties and increase trade volume with the African continent.

Turkey has increased its trade volume with African nations from around $5.4 billion to $13 billion in less then three years, and is targeting $30 billion by the end of 2010.

Associated Press

_________________
So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

(Matthew 13:49)