[Daughters_of_Ataturk] Re: [TAAC] Protecting women rights and secularism in Turkey

Cok guzel bir mektup ama Rice comment'lerini yapti bile ...mektubu  guncellestirip, Buyuk Elcimizin degindigi onemli bir noktayi da vurgulasak ' stop naming Turkey as 'Moderate Islam Country'...

meltem d

Ilkcan Cokgor <cokgor@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear members,

 

As a group of Turkish American women of different organizations we have signed the letter below and sent to Dr. Condoleezza Rice. We intend to send this letter to every congressmen/women and Senator in USA. This letter has been prepared by Mrs. Aynur Sumer, edited and approved by a committee which I am a member of. Our special thanks go to Mrs. Sumer for her superb work.

 

If you agree with this letter please do not hesitate to send it to your state representatives/friends/groups/newspapers by addressing them. I am a very strong believer of women rights and secular Turkey which should not be "negotiable" by any religion, ethnic group or a political group. 

 

Ilkcan Cokgor   

 

 

Honorable Dr. Condoleezza Rice

US Secretary Of State

US Department of State

2201 C Street

Washington, D. C. 20520

 

Dear Secretary Dr. Rice,

 

We invite your attention to the attached article by Mr. Michael Rubin published in National Review Online on April 14, 2008. Mr. Rubin very ably and clearly draws attention to potential dangers of Turkey becoming an "Islamist State" under the current AK Party Government of Tayyip Erdogan. After providing an excellent overview of the political developments over the past six years in Turkey, Mr. Rubin argues that "the Country is nearing the cliff" and asks you, Secretary Rice, "Please do not push it over the edge ! ".

 

Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and editor of the Middle East Quarterly, has been following Turkey's politics closely since the early 1990s. 

In his article, Mr. Rubin explains in detail the rise of Islamist influence in every aspect of the Turkish State and Turkish life under AK Party government. Passing two constitutional amendments, in February 2008, to provide a legal basis for spreading the wearing of religious headscarf (turban) on college campuses was but yet another step towards the Islamization of the entire country. This clear unslaught to the principle of Laicism enshrined in the Turkish Constituion led, as it should, the State's Chief Procecuter to bring a law suit before the Constitutional Court against AK Party and its leaders.

 

As you are well aware, Turkey has been a laic (secular) Republic since its establishment in 1923. Over the past 85 years, the Country has been able to demonstrate to the world that it is quite possible to remain a modern, secular and democratic nation, while 99 percent of its population is muslim. It is these traits of Turkey that made it a valuable partner of the US. All other countries that follow islam as their major faith and call themselves islamist are run by totalitarian regimes. It has been a major foreign policy of Bush Administration to encourage those countries to switch to parliamentary democracies. It must, therefore, be obvious to your administration that the protection of the Constitutional principles of Turkey are of utmost importance and interest to both countries.

 

Mr. Michael Rubin correctly argues, and we concur, that the AK Party and Erdogan's Government have been following a hidden agenda of transforming Turkey into an Islamist State run by Sheria law. AK Party leaders, especially Erdogan's and Gul's political convictions can be inctrovertibly discerned from their statements and step by step actions. The prospect of Turkey's becoming an Islamist State is particularly disturbing to us, the Turkish women. Under the Islamic tradition and the Sheria Law women are "not given equal rights" and are expected to "hide themselves". This is not what is prescribed in the Koran. The underlying argument behind this Islamic tradition, imposed by the male dominated clergy, is highly demeaning to both women and men alike ! Under the Islamist Tradition and Sheria Law women are encouraged (if not forced !), to cover themselves, to remain at home, to be "mothers and wifes" only, instead of being equal partners in modern life. Women are segregated from the mainstream society. We already have started seeing such incidences in Turkey. The number of women covering themselves has increased four folds, and women "work-force" dropped from 36% to 25% during the AK Party era. These women cannot, therefore, contribute to the economy or the development of the country. This would not possibly be in the interest of Turkey, of the US, and of the whole world.

 

We would like to emphasize also the importance of another point raised by Mr. Rubin. A self declared Imam Fethullah Gulen exiled in Pennsylvania, runs a media empire and religious courses and boarding schools in about twenty countries around the world, and is the power behind the "Rumi Forum" in Washington D.C. He has been lobbying extensively the US Government and the US media in favor of AK Party, Gul and Erdogan. Without any formal education, not even an elementary school diploma, Gulen is poised to become the Supreme Imam of a possible Islamist Turkey, following the footsteps of Ayetullah in Iran. As explained by Mr. Rubin, Gulen gained monetary and political power by portraying himself as a "man of peace", "progressive", "an Islamist reformer". These were the "cover" words or labels used to camouflage his real intensions. He worked for decades to undermine the secular system in Turkey and equated the separation of religion and state with "atheism". He called Kemal ATATURK, the founder of modern Turkey, an atheist and provoked the young-minds against him and his reforms. Currently under trial for "attemting to destroy the state system, and to establish a state based on religion", Gulen's ultimate goal is to help establish an "Islamist State" in Turkey and restore the caliphate, formally dissolved by Ataturk in 1924.

The world is tired of violence. No one needs another rogue backward state, especially one in place of a modern, secular and democratic country. Why should we help add another warrior to the enemy.

 

Secretary Dr. Rice, we are writing to you because of public statements in favor of AK Party and Erdogan's Government and against the law-suit, made by some US officials after the filing of the case against AK Party. We have also heard rumors that you too, were going to make similar direct or indirect statements against the law-suit, and in favor of AK Party. We sicerely hope that these are only rumors. Not only it is an international tradition but also a generally accepted law not to influence an ongoing law-suit by official statements. We are alarmed by recent statements made by some EU officials interfering with the law-suit. Embolding the current government in Turkey for small, wrong or short lived calculations will have serious consequences for the future and peace in the region.

 

We trust that, as a member of the US Government, you will not be influenced by possible lobbying done by or on behalf of AK Party. Nor would you yield to the advice of so-called "area experts". The area experts are informed from books and by residing a few years in the country. Whereas we are highly educated professionals, mothers, daughters and sisters of those who founded the modern Turkey with much toil. No one better than us can be more knowledgeable and thus qualified to understand and anayze the events in Turkey. Please trust the sincerity of our apolitical pleading.

 

We hope that you and the US Government will continue to support, as has been the case thus far by the Bush Administration, the continued presence of modern, secular and democratic Turkey. You will continue to be on the side of the rule of law; you will continue to respect the Founding Principles of Turkish Republic; its Constitution and the decisions of its impartial Prosecuters, Judges and High Courts. 

 

We, as Turkish-American women, plead with you for continious US support for a modern, secular and democratic Turkish Republic and for equal rights and unconditional freedom for women around the world.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

The "Women Managers and Members" of Turkish-American Associations in the United States

 

Attachment: Could there be an Islamic Revolution in Turkey ?

NRO, By Michael Rubin April 14, 2008 

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Meltem Deniz, DMD.,MS.

TMD and Orofacial Pain

San Luis Obispo, CA

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