A Dangerous Tilt by Turkey

In power less than a year, Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan has run into serious trouble at home and abroad over his pro-Islamist policies. His continued efforts to broaden the role of religion in this pivotal Muslim country appear headed for the shoals of secularism. The military, which created the new Turkey in the 1920s, is sending strong signals that Erbakan stepped over the line with his support of women civil servants wearing veils and in other matters of a religious nature.

To most in the West, this may seem an insular political matter, but not to the generals who value Turkey’s role in NATO and its goal of achieving membership in the European Union.

Erbakan most recently fanned domestic fires by calling for early elections in hopes his Welfare Party, in coalition with former Prime Minister Tansu Ciller’s True Path Party, could win re-endorsement at the polls. Turkish news reports say he wants the vote to be held this fall, before the nation’s supreme court takes up a demand that the Welfare Party be banned because of its religious policies.

Turkey’s geostrategic status as the eastern bulwark of NATO does not permit ambiguities regarding its loyalties. Clearly the Ankara government should deal with its Islamic neighbors, but to weaken more than 70 years of secular society is another matter.