How Moderate Are the Islamists of Turkey's AKP?

After Erdoğan's sensational election victory, the winning party AKP has claimed it rejects fundamentalism. But is the AKP united when it comes to accepting Western values? And what exactly is "moderate Islam"? By Baha Güngör

jubilation after AKP´s victory in Istanbul, Foto: AFP

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No one in Turkey knows what to make of terms like "moderate Islam" or "moderate Islamicism". In the European view, however, "moderate Islam" seems to refer to all parties, politicians or countries in the Islamic world with affinities to the West, or which are in fact allied with Western nations – such as Turkey, which has been a member of NATO for 50 years.

Since their landslide victory, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Party of Justice and Development, known by its Turkish acronym AKP, have been seen in Europe as the very model of "moderate Islamism".

"Moderate approach" of the AKP

Recep Tayyep Erdoğan, Foto: AFP

​​Erdoğan and his followers have managed to contain their euphoria, and are careful not to place Western values and interests in doubt. This "moderate approach" put the AKP, which is oriented toward religious values, in power.

"Wolf in sheep's clothing" is another phrase that is often heard in relation to Turkey these days. The question is whether the AKP will remain "moderate" once its 363 delegates have been sworn in and have assumed their positions in government and on all parliamentary committees and commissions.

Proponents of the strict separation of religious and governmental authority fear the wolf will waste little time before discarding its sheep's clothing. In other words: It is feared that the moderate Islamists – once they have consolidated their power – may still prove to be radical fundamentalists aiming to impose their outmoded, extremist views.

The AKP's female members of parliament

The AKP is making an attempt to counteract such fears – in official statements, but also in its very appearance: None of the AKP's 14 female members of parliament looks like a fundamentalist.

They don't wear scarves. Several prominent new party members were recruited from among the conservative, secular parties on the political right, none of which achieved the necessary ten percent of the vote, forcing them into an existence outside of parliamentary debate.

They drink alcohol and are not uninclined to other worldly amusements. Still, the question remains as to whether the AKP's current, well-engineered image as a modern political party might quickly fade into the background.

The party's vital relation to its voters

That depends primarily on how well the party is able to control its voters, the base of which is religiously oriented. Religion remains essential to the existence of the party.

Lately, however, leading AKP representatives have begun stressing that they should rather be compared with Europe's Christian Democrats – and calling themselves Muslim Democrats.

Still: Erdoğan, who is now the head of the AKP, presented a very different face under the leadership of the famous Islamist leader Necmettin Erbakan, who served as prime minister for nearly a year in 1996/97.

The role of the military

The military had pressured Erbakan out of the government after confronting him with demands that measures be undertaken against fundamentalism – demands that he considered unacceptable.

Back then, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was also against NATO and against Europe. Like Erbakan and his followers, he too was convinced Turkey would be better off assuming a leading role in the Islamic world rather than lagging behind in Europe.

Today, on the other hand, Erdoğan says acquiring membership in the European Union is the country's most important goal. This commitment to the EU was reiterated and emphasized at the Copenhagen Summit.

If Erdoğan and the AKP actually do manage to remain "moderate" and oriented toward Western values rather than acquiescing to potential pressure from their voting base for the establishment of a theocracy, the AKP may even be able to lead Turkey out of its political and economic doldrums.

Legitimate scepticism of "moderate Islamism" label

Of course, all this will only be possible if the AKP is not declared illegal – a move that has been called for by the Turkish Department of Public Prosecution. In that case, the party would suffer the same fate as four other parties in the past three decades, all of which were forbidden as "centers of fundamentalist activity."

It was from the roots of these four parties that the AKP arose – which is why it is legitimate to be skeptical about the party's use of its "moderate Islamism" label.

But there is also justification for hope that the AKP has indeed learned from past mistakes and is now maturing into a Muslim variant of the Christian Democratic parties in Europe. Its governmental activities are sure to provide an indication in the near future.

Baha Güngör

&copy DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE 2002

Translation from German: Mark Rossman