So far, we’re having a relatively quiet news day coming out of the Middle East. The biggest news by far today is the election of Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to the Turkish presidency. If you will recall, last year Turkish Prime Minister Reciep Tayyip Erdogan first nominated Gul for the presidency – which is elected through parliament. Both are members of the Justice and Development (AK) Party, whose roots lie in an Islamist party whom the Turkish Army – whom the Turkish Constitution invests with the power to preserve the secular republic – deposed during the 1990s.
Last year, the Army threatened to overthrow the government if Gul were elected president. This sparked massive pro-secular protests across Turkey and resulted in new parliamentary elections. AK won the election, earning a substantially more seats.
Although Gul is a devout Muslim and his political party has Islamist roots, I genuinely believe they’re the best party to be governing Turkey. The AK Party is staunchly committed to Turkey’s membership in the EU. As part of this process, they have enacted numerous liberal reforms, such as the abolition of the death penalty. Furthermore, they have scaled back the power of the military in politics – a very popular position among rank and file Turks.
If anything, the West should be celebrating AK. They have found a way to reconcile liberal democracy with Islam. Although they are still working out the kinks, such a reconciliation could lead a path forward for other Muslim states around the world as they transition to democracy.
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