Ertugrul Ozkok: The danger on the horizon for Turkey

Because what Mardin has achieved is to have us think very seriously about Turkey's future. What he has done first is to draw our attention to a frightening factor we can call "neighborhood pressure." This "neighborhood pressure" is actually the most dangerous aspect to the period in which we find ourselves now. Yes, the "despots" of the neighborhood.

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Mardin is calling on women all over Turkey to awaken to the dangers inherent now in the future. And I have begun to be afraid of what lies ahead also. Don't misunderstand-I don't think at all that either President Abdullah Gul or Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan want to implement any sort of secret agenda, or bring Turkey into some sort of dark ages.

Knowing them and seeing who they are, I have no such worries. What I am instead afraid of is a danger which rises above them. What I am afraid of is a "religious dictatorship" which one single person could start up.

This is a danger which could turn Turkey into a state worse off than Iran's current state.
 
And what I want know is to warn everyone, including AKP supporters and turbaned women, against this danger.

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An article carried last week in the Milliyet newspaper was what really sparked this train of thought in me. Apparently, inter-city buses in Turkey have begun registering more and more requests for "prayer stops" during their journeys.
 
Now, there might be a few who would stop me to ask "So what if a few people have asked this of their bus drivers?"

But the side of me that remains a sociologist does not trust this reasoning at all.
 

Even if there were only one person in all of Turkey who asked for such favors which riding on inter-city buses, it would still mean that we were facing a religious danger.
 
Because that "one single person" would being acting in the "name of religion."

And when that's the case, our collective force of protest is broken in one moment.
 
And so we see that the foundation of democracy, the ability and strength to protest, is collapsing.
 
Why?
 
Let's diagnose this in all honesty.
 
Because we are afraid.

We are afraid that if we step forward to say a couple of words in protest, we will be immediately labeled as being "without religion," and will become potent targets for fanatics.
 
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Let's admit that when the subject turns to religion, and especially Islam, we are all afraid of this sort of fanaticism.
 
So that even on a bus of 40 people, the "dictatorship" created by one person envelops us all.

This is thus why, despite the fact that I would like to, I cannot defend with all my strength the move to allow turbans into our universities.

Because I know that allowing turbans into the universities would mean that in certain towns and cities across Anatolia, the turban would be made a "necessity" and that young girls would disappear under this wave.
 
On this point, former Constitutional Court president Mustafa Bumin agrees, and points out many of these same dangers I have expressed.

What's more, these worries are more and more becoming the shared feeling of "reasonable people" across Turkey.

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My natural reflexes to defend democracy have always, up until today, been based on the idea of protecting rights and freedoms against military coups. In other words, they have been based on the need to defend the individual.
 
But what about our protective reflexes against despotic individuals?
 
What I mean to say is, what is it we are going to do about those who interfere with drinking alcohol during Ramazan, who force bus drivers to stop for "prayer breaks," and who will no doubt try to prevent Anatolian girls from entering universities there without a turban?
 
* * *

Let me tell you this in closing:
 
Most of us fear that despotism more than we do the military.
 
We sense that while there is a certain captivity that lies in the direction of the military, there is murder that lies in the other direction.

One of these two forces comes, and then leaves on its own volition.
 
The other though, when it arrives, never leaves.
 
Yes, Serif Mardin has warned us all.
 
But you can be sue that more than just warning us, this concerns the AKP, which is deeply involved in preparing the framework for the new Constitution.
 
The real danger faced by the AKP originates from these flanks of society I have talked about.
 
And so, the real danger of coup staring down at those waiting for democracy is this.......