Confessions of a recovering 'Erdo?an enabler'

Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, published a notable piece a couple of weeks ago in the magazine Commentary. Titled, ?Erdo?an?s Willing Enablers,? this was a bold critique of some Turkish writers, including myself, who allegedly enabled the ?authoritarian, repressive regime? of President Tayyip Erdo?an. (It was also, apparently, a pun on Daniel Goldghagen?s famous book, ?Hitler?s Willing Executioners.?)

Before countering what Mr. Rubin said in that piece about my views, first let me clear out a personal point. Mr. Rubin wrote that I, in a 2007 piece, falsely suggested that he had ?labeled Erdo?an?s government as an ?example of so-called Islamo-fascism.?? He reminded that he had never used that term, and accused me of putting words into his mouth. Let me plead guilty to that charge. At that time, ?Islamo-fascism,? a term used by President Bush, was heard frequently among some neo-conservatives, and I apparently counted Mr. Rubin?s strong criticisms of the AKP in that light. But Mr. Rubin says he never used that term. So it is appropriate for me to offer a better-late-than-never apology.

However, on the broader issue of my former support for successive Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments, I don?t see much to regret. Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, anybody who wanted to see a more liberal and democratic Turkey could easily see the light in the AKP rather than its political rivals. It was the AKP that championed rights for minorities (including non-Muslims), freedom of speech, free markets, and the whole ?Copenhagen Criteria? of the European Union. The fact that these liberal causes were championed by a party of conservative Muslims made me only even more enthusiastic. Here was...