Mummies and models in the new Middle East

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On February 3, the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation published a poll conducted in seven Arab countries and Iran. No less than 66% of respondents considered Turkey, not Iran, the ideal model for the Middle East. A media scrum from Le Monde to the Financial Times now evidently concurs. After all, Turkey is a functional democracy in a Muslim-majority country where the separation of mosque and state prevails.

That stellar Islamic scholar at Oxford, Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, also recently labeled the "Turkish way" as "a source of inspiration". In late February, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu agreed, with a surfeit of modesty that barely covered the ambitions of the new Turkey, insisting that his country does not want to be a model for the region, "but we can be a source of inspiration".

The Egyptian Marxist economist Samir Amin - widely respected across the developing world - suspects that, whatever the hopes of the Turks and others, including so many Egyptians, Washington has quite different ideas about Egypt's destiny. It wants, he believes, not a Turkish model but a Pakistani one for that country: that is, the mix of an "Islamic power" with a military dictatorship. It won't fly, Amin is convinced, because "the Egyptian people are now highly politicized".

The process of true democratization that began back in the distant 1950s in Turkey proved to be a long road. Nonetheless, despite periodic military coups and the continuing political power of the Turkish army, elections were, and remain, free. The Justice and Development Party, or AKP, now at the Turkish helm, was founded in August 2001 by former members of the Refah Party, a much more conservative Islamic group with an ideology similar to that of today's Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MC15Ak03.html

[Jefferson23]

1. K&R

I asked the mods to remove my same thread...sorry about that!

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2. It is nothing.

I find the rise of the Turks interesting in view of the Bushite politicies towards them in the Iraq fandango.

Edit: Pepe's comment on the fact they were never subjugated and the effects of having avoided that seem very relevant too.

[Jefferson23]

3. A safe model upon which they can rely....hopefully the West's dreams will choke on a bone.

snip* It's not surprising that key sectors in the West are pushing for a "safe" Turkish model for Egypt. Yet, given the country's immiseration, it's unlikely that young protesters and their working class supporters will be appeased even by the possibility of a Turkish-style, neo-liberal, Islamo-democratic system.