Artces & Op-Eds

From Ataturk to Erdogan: Reshaping

Turkey
Soner Cagaptay
Aso avaabe n I , , <
Washngton Post
August 14, 2011
Lke Ataturk, Erdogan has a vson and contros a evers of power. Tme w te how far he
s abe to shape Turkey n hs conservatve desgn.
As the Ottoman Empre vanshed after Word War I, Mustafa Kema Ataturk created a new
Turkey n the mod of Europe. Controng a evers of power, ncudng the mtary, Ataturk
mpemented hs vson by mandatng a separaton between regon, pubc pocy and
government, and by teng hs compatrots to consder themseves ntutvey Western.
It took a century and a democratc revouton nvoked by the |ustce and Deveopment
Party (AKP) -- a coaton of conservatves, reformed Isamsts and Isamsts that came to
power n 2002 -- for Turkey's "Kemast Occdent," or daance wth the West, to end. Wth
the mass resgnaton of Turkey's mtary eadershp ast month, the ast standng Kemast
nsttuton, the army, has succumbed to the AKP's decade-ong potca tsunam.
Ths potca bookend for Kemasm suggests that AKP eader Recep Tayyp Erdogan s
Turkey's "new" Ataturk. He doesn't have the cachet of beng Turkey's berator, but he
en|oys as much power as Ataturk once had.
Smpy put, the Kemasts had t comng. When Turkey became a mut-party democracy n
1950, varous partes sought for decades to mantan Ataturk's egacy, whe the mtary
guarded the system.
Eventuay, however, ethargy took hod. Far from remanng the progressve, forward-
ookng movement of the eary 20th century, Kemasm stagnated and then shfted nto an
deoogy for protectng the past. To those of us growng up n Turkey n recent decades,
the most vsbe sgn of ths process was the emergence of mass-produced Ataturk
statues, on amost every town square, after the 1980 coup that ended anarchy on the
streets but aso gave the country ts hghy restrctve and mtary-wrtten consttuton.
By turnng Ataturk nto a cut, the generas aso ensured Kemasm's demse.
Even after Turkey became a democracy n 1982, ths process woud not be reversed: The
governng partes, mosty from the center-rght, faed to produce deas for change. The
nascent Isamst partes sensed an opportunty and began budng grass-roots networks
and ncubatng a forward-ookng vson for Turkey, one that cutvated permeabe was