Real politik

Turkey's "new" and "advanced" democracy is getting entrenched in exceptional developments. One of those rather interesting happenings came at a meeting between the prime minister and representatives of minority religions. Another one, not so positive, is related to a statement made by the top judge of the country, that members of the Constitutional Court were under "intense pressure." This "confession" from the top judge came in a newspaper interview and demonstrated vividly the absence of "supremacy of justice" in the sui-generis democratic understanding of the "new" Turkey.

The meeting between Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and representatives of non-Muslim religious minorities reflected the mentality of the ruling political Islamic clan of Turkey. The meeting was not with representatives of the minorities, but rather one with leading members of the religious minorities. For example, the Greek Orthodox Phanar patriarch and his deputy; vicar of the Chaldean Patriarchate in Turkey; the Turkish Syriac Orthodox archbishop; the deputy patriarch of Turkey's Syriac Catholic Church; the archbishop of the Turkish Armenian Catholic Church; the chief rabbi of the Turkish Jewish community; the Armenian deputy patriarch; and Turkey's ambassador to the Vatican were guests of the luncheon, but that was all. The Alevite society, or any of the Sunni or Shiite sects, or the ethical minorities like the Kurds, Caucasians, Romans, or any other minorities of the country were not there, nor were there other minorities. Did not all minorities deserve to be accorded equal treatment from the prime minister?

The "new" Turkey apparently could not go very far away from the accustomed old Turkey, where the state was trying to behave as if it was secular, dictating to everyone...