Belief in Democracy 8/8

Views of people from Turkey and Holland on statements made by Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, Turkish president Abdullah Gül and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Dutch VPRO documentary ‘Turkije – Het Dilemma van de Democratie’: ‘Turkey – the dilemma of democracy’ that was broadcast on 8th of October. Daily at Sargasso from October 5th until October 12th, at 13.00h (Amsterdam time, 14.00h Istanbul time). This blogging project is part of the Dutch democracy week WijZijnDeBaas (WeAreTheBoss): the Dutch contribution to the International Week for Democracy. More information here.

Europe can afford to deny Turkey a membership. You know, the world will go on – the world always goes on. And Turkey will survive, Europe will survive, but it will be a great missed opportunity. For both. (video)

Fareed Zakaria,
Newsweek journalist

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Emre Kizilkaya | The Istanbulian
turkish journalist, Hürriyet newspaper, blogger.

“I mostly agree with the quotation, but I should also add that the problem is not only the lack of political will in today’s Europe. For decades, neither Brussels nor European governments did anything to prepare for the future. Check the history books that are still being used in European countries. Turks and Islam are still shown as an opponent, if not hostile or even enemy. i.e: Greece was about to modernize its history curriculum with “less anti-Turk” tone, but it couldn’t do it after enormous public pressure. The social integration can be achieved in the long term, but we have not seen any effort and it gives a hint about the fact that the EU won’t be closer to Turkey for some more decades. Then we would see that “it was a missed chance”.

Views of people from Turkey and Holland on statements made by Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, Turkish president Abdullah Gül and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Dutch VPRO documentary ‘Turkije – Het Dilemma van de Democratie’: ‘Turkey – the dilemma of democracy’ that will broadcast on 8th of October. Daily at Sargasso from October 5th until October 12th, at 13.00h (Amsterdam time, 14.00h Istanbul time). This blogging project is part of the Dutch democracy week WijZijnDeBaas (WeAreTheBoss): the Dutch contribution to the International Week for Democracy. More information here.

If your fear is about Islam – you already got it. You already have millions of Muslims within your borders(video)

Fareed Zakaria,
Newsweek journalist

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Emre Kizilkaya | The Istanbulian
turkish journalist, Hürriyet newspaper, blogger.

“I don’t agree with the wording of the quote. It is like a doctor, saying, “If you fear is about cancer, you already got it.” Countering the Islamophobic arguments with such provocative expressions is not a true way. European Xenophobia is not something new. The only solution to this problem can be based on a widespread European education which would teach the future generations that Europe is not Rome and foreigners are not barbarians. Muslims are just one portion of all foreigners. Defining the whole problem by concentrating on a part of it makes the problem even worse”.

Views of people from Turkey and Holland on statements made by Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, Turkish president Abdullah Gül and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Dutch VPRO documentary ‘Turkije – Het Dilemma van de Democratie’: ‘Turkey – the dilemma of democracy’ that was broadcast on 8th of October. Daily at Sargasso from October 5th until October 12th, at 13.00h (Amsterdam time, 14.00h Istanbul time). This blogging project is part of the Dutch democracy week WijZijnDeBaas (WeAreTheBoss): the Dutch contribution to the International Week for Democracy. More information here.

The problem is not religion. It is the social-political context in which the religion exists. You can’t change the religion, but you cán change the social-political context. It becomes a very hostile relationship with the 1.2 billion Muslims to tell them: the problem is your religion….

Fareed Zakaria,
Newsweek journalist

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Emre Kizilkaya | The Istanbulian
turkish journalist, Hürriyet newspaper, blogger.

“As long as the question is wrong, there is no way to answer it correctly. Islam is a religion and one of its main principles suggests that “the religion is between the God and His subject.” Another significant Islamic principle (from Quran) says that “your religion is for yourself and my religion is for myself.” So Islam is something personal, but Democracy is a form of government, which is public. They are not mutually exclusive, but they are irrelevant. In these circumstances, associating the democracy with Islam is harming both of them. This errant trend gives power to political Islamists, who don’t care about harming both of these concepts in advantage of their personal interests. Because it’s easier to manipulate the public opinion by the power of the faith”.

Views of people from Turkey and Holland on statements made by Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, Turkish president Abdullah Gül and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Dutch VPRO documentary ‘Turkije – Het Dilemma van de Democratie’: ‘Turkey – the dilemma of democracy’ that will broadcast on 8th of October. Daily at Sargasso from October 5th until October 12th, at 13.00h (Amsterdam time, 14.00h Istanbul time). This blogging project is part of the Dutch democracy week WijZijnDeBaas (WeAreTheBoss): the Dutch contribution to the International Week for Democracy. More information here.

Democracy can spread around the world, but it has to be a process of organic development from within societies. You have to be modernizing the country (video)

Fareed Zakaria,
Newsweek journalist

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Emre Kizilkaya | The Istanbulian
turkish journalist, Hürriyet newspaper, blogger.

“Democracy is the system that the highest possible amount of people joining the decision-making process. It is not a modern concept, thus it is not about modernizing the country. If you consider the Islamic world, you can easily see that it was more democratic during 7th-9th century than it is today. We can suggest that Classical Athens was more democratic even more than United States, where today reached the point of electing a President by a minority vote and practising a foreign policy which is overwhelmingly unpopular. Either imported or locally produced, the spread of today’s democracy is an illusion, because its main pillars are considered as those of American democracy, which is not a democracy anymore”.

Views of people from Turkey and Holland on statements made by Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, Turkish president Abdullah Gül and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Dutch VPRO documentary ‘Turkije – Het Dilemma van de Democratie’: ‘Turkey – the dilemma of democracy’ that will broadcast on 8th of October. Daily at Sargasso from October 5th until October 12th, at 13.00h (Amsterdam time, 14.00h Istanbul time). This blogging project is part of the Dutch democracy week WijZijnDeBaas (WeAreTheBoss): the Dutch contribution to the International Week for Democracy. More information here.

Elections don’t mean democracy. Elections can be very dangerous in young democracies if held in a wrong way and at a wrong time: it will appeal to a people’s hatred instead of to its hopes. (video)

Fareed Zakaria,
Newsweek journalist, 2004

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Emre Kizilkaya | The Istanbulian
turkish journalist, Hürriyet newspaper, blogger.

“This is not about being a young or old democracy. The whole issue is about the election system. If the election makes the winner party (or person) the ultimate authority, it means that there is a high possibility that its consequences would not be democratic. Can you organize a referandum that would ask people if they want to abolish the democracy? If the majority says “yes”, then is it a democratic result? What if this majority is 51 percent or 99.9 percent… Does it change anything? Elections are a precondition of a democracy, but they don’t guarantee it. Only an election system that would represent and protect the interests of all parties can guarantee the democracy”.

Views of people from Turkey and Holland on statements made by Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, Turkish president Abdullah Gül and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Dutch VPRO documentary ‘Turkije – Het Dilemma van de Democratie’: ‘Turkey – the dilemma of democracy’ that will broadcast on 8th of October. Daily at Sargasso from October 5th until October 12th, at 13.00h (Amsterdam time, 14.00h Istanbul time). This blogging project is part of the Dutch democracy week WijZijnDeBaas (WeAreTheBoss): the Dutch contribution to the International Week for Democracy. More information here.

As Muslim societies democratize, you will see greater religious expression everywhere in society. It is a consequence of democracy.

Abdullah Gül,
Turkey’s new president,
(in a Newsweek column of Fareed Zakaria, May 2007)

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Emre Kizilkaya | The Istanbulian
turkish journalist, Hürriyet newspaper, blogger.

“I like to emphasize that Islam should be politics-free, as it is only a religion. Politics is about the public, but the religion is about the individual. Associating these two words can only help political Islamists who want to exploit both of them. Abdullah Gul is -unfortunately- one of these politicians and he would stay among their ranks as long as he uses this rhetoric. A society which can only democratize by the help of a religion (actually not religion, but Islamist politicians) is neither democratic, nor religious. It is just a colony of Islamists”.

Views of people from Turkey and Holland on statements made by Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, Turkish president Abdullah Gül and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Dutch VPRO documentary ‘Turkije – Het Dilemma van de Democratie’: ‘Turkey – the dilemma of democracy’ that will broadcast on 8th of October. Daily at Sargasso from October 5th until October 12th, at 13.00h (Amsterdam time, 14.00h Istanbul time). This blogging project is part of the Dutch democracy week WijZijnDeBaas (WeAreTheBoss): the Dutch contribution to the International Week for Democracy. More information here.

Is Europe a home for an alliance of civilizations or is it a Christian club?

Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
prime minister of Turkye,
April 16th 2007, in ‘Der Spiegel’

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Emre Kizilkaya | The Istanbulian
turkish journalist, Hürriyet newspaper, blogger.

“The EU has founded as a project of peace after the bloody clash between Britain-France and Germany ended up with disasters of the total war. The cooperation of Anglo-French and Germanic world was being seen then as impossible as today’s project of an Islamo-Christian civilization. Though, nothing is clear yet, because unlike during the foundation of the EU, now the European elite is not aware the importance of multiculturalism and it leaves it to the public. So European peoples are on the verge of deciding it by themselves. As long as the current trend -where the public opinion is manipulated by narrow-minded European conservatives (whom I dubbed as “Eurocons”)- continues, the natural consequence would be the ultimate exclusion of other cultures for sake of a ‘white Europe’ “.

On the 8th of October VPRO Dutch television will broadcast the documentary ‘Turkije – Het Dilemma van de Democratie’: ‘Turkey – the dilemma of democracy’. The documentary will focus on the issue of EU membership for Turkey and the role of islam in a democracy. Here at Sargasso we will discuss statements made in this documentary by Newsweek journalist Fareed Zakaria, Turkish president Abdullah Gül and prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. From October 5th until October 12th, each day at 13.00h (Amsterdam time, 14.00h Istanbul time) we will post one of these statements. With these statements we will post the views on the statement by a Dutch member of the European parliament, a Dutch journalist and producer, a Dutch-Turkish rapper and bloggers from the Turkish blogosphere. All posts of this Dutch-Turkish blogging project can be found here. This blogging project is part of the Dutch democracy week WijZijnDeBaas (WeAreTheBoss): the Dutch contribution to the International Week for Democracy.

The statements will be provided in text and after the broadcasting of the documentary also in short video messages. Although normally on Sargasso we write in Dutch in this case we will be discussing in English, because we feel it’s important non-Dutch (and especially Turkish) bloggers can join in. In this case we also ask our Dutch ‘reaguurders’ (commenters) to discuss in English, for the sake of what the internet is all all about: enabling worldwide communication. Here are some of the blogs from the Turkish blogosphere (turkish and expat) who were contacted and/or contributed to this project: erkansaka.net, istanbulian.blogspot, quirkglobalstrategies, energynewsletterturkey.blogspot, internations.blogspot, arabisto.com, thewhitepath.com, mvdg.wordpress.