The article published by the Jewish Telegraph Agency was brazen in its headline: “Fears of an Islamic Turkey push Jews to vote for secularists.”
Parliamentary elections are scheduled for 22 July in Turkey. The JTA writes of “no good options at the ballot box” because the incumbent “liberal-Islamic”
The opposition right-wing Republican People’s Party (CHP), while secular, is portrayed by JTA as “increasingly hostile to the United States and the European Union” with “a poor track record on minority rights and economic liberalization.” Given the choices, many Jews, according to JTA, will opt for CHP on Election Day.
“I don’t like them, but I don’t have a choice,” Nisim Cohen, a textile manufacturer in Turkey, is quoted as saying. “The AKP shows a nice face, but in their hearts I fear they want to make this an Islamic country. They will not keep the republic as it is.”
Jews hope their vote will help create a stronger opposition to check the government’s powers.
Viktor Kuzu, an advertising executive, expressed a fear that an unbridled AKP could change Turkey in ways to “interrupt the way we live.” [italics added]
The Jewish stance toward the AKP must be regarded with much bemusement. By aligning themselves against the AKP, Jews are aligning themselves with the Kemalist military, which, although secularist, was behind the Armenian Holocaust.
JTA acknowledges that there is little substance to fears of Islamism springing from AKP, but at the same time it paints a dire picture of creeping Islamism.
Denis Ojalvo, an Istanbul businessman involved in Jewish communal affairs complained about small changes: “They [AKP] appoint people of the wrong ilk to key positions, and then one day you wake up and everything has changed.”
People of the wrong ilk!? One wonders how AKP politicians stack up against the ilk of Jewish Israeli politicians such as Avigdor Lieberman
JTA creates a scenario whereby Jews in Turkey appear caught in the proverbial pinch between a rock and hard place: between Islamists and xenophobic secularists with their “anti-European, anti-American and, lately, anti-Israel” rhetoric. Nearly lost in all the JTA caterwauling is that the thrust of the article could easily be dismissed as anti-Islamic. Imagine Israel being criticized for becoming a Jewish republic where other ethnic minorities suffer second class status or worse — but, then, this is already a fact-of life in Israel.
“I want a strong opposition that will block the insertion of fundamentalist cadres into government,” said Ojalvo. “This would de facto change Turkey.”
The JTA finds:
Jews who support the secularist CHP find themselves at odds with Turkey’s two other visible religious minorities, the Greeks and the Armenians. They appear to be backing AKP, which portrays itself as the party of human rights and democracy.
This is mendacious. First, Greeks and Armenians are not a religious minority, but rather a national or ethnic minority. Second, JTA feigns concern for minority rights, but its coverage of human rights for national minorities morally fails when it comes to the indigenous Palestinians within Israel and elsewhere. Thus, the recalcitrance at acknowledging the nationals in Turkey mirrors that of denying the existence of Palestinian nationals.