By Gareth Jenkins - Eurasia Daily Monitor - The Jamestown Foundation - Washington D.C., U.S.A.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
The results of the Turkish general election of July 22 suggest that Turkey’s Kurdish minority is looking increasingly to Islam rather than the secular nationalism of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
(...)
Turkey’s eastern and southeastern provinces have traditionally been not only the most underdeveloped in the country but also the most devout.
The PKK was founded as an explicitly Marxist organization. In recent years it has downplayed its communist credentials in favor of secular Kurdish nationalism. But to the majority of Turkey’s Kurds it is regarded as being, at best, indifferent to Islam and, at worst, anti-Islam.
(...)
In recent years, other non-violent Islamist organizations, such as the Sufi brotherhoods known as tariqah, have also stepped up their activities in eastern and southeastern Turkey. The most active has been the Naqshabandi, which, like Hezbollah [the Turkish Hezbollah, which is unrelated to the Lebanese organization of the same name], has been vigorously conducting propaganda activities and social work in the region, including soup kitchens, free Koran courses and scholarships and subsidized housing in dormitories for students wishing to attend university in western Turkey.
Although there are no organic links between the Naqshabandi and the AK Party [the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party], many of its leading members, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have close ties with the order.
In conversations with Jamestown, leading Naqshabandis have never made any secret of their support for the AK Party. In comparison, the PKK and its close associate, DTP [Kurdish Democratic Society Party, founded in 2005 as a successor to the Democratic People’s Party (DEHAP), which was closed by the Turkish authorities], lacks both the financial resources and the ideological appeal of either militant organizations like Hezbollah or the Sufi orders.
The DTP’s brand of secular nationalism is a very new phenomenon for Turkey’s Kurds. The results of the July 22 election suggest that it is already losing ground to Islam.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
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Thursday, August 09, 2007
Turkey's Kurds Opt for Islam
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
The results of the Turkish general election of July 22 suggest that Turkey’s Kurdish minority is looking increasingly to Islam rather than the secular nationalism of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
(...)
Turkey’s eastern and southeastern provinces have traditionally been not only the most underdeveloped in the country but also the most devout.
The PKK was founded as an explicitly Marxist organization. In recent years it has downplayed its communist credentials in favor of secular Kurdish nationalism. But to the majority of Turkey’s Kurds it is regarded as being, at best, indifferent to Islam and, at worst, anti-Islam.
(...)
In recent years, other non-violent Islamist organizations, such as the Sufi brotherhoods known as tariqah, have also stepped up their activities in eastern and southeastern Turkey. The most active has been the Naqshabandi, which, like Hezbollah [the Turkish Hezbollah, which is unrelated to the Lebanese organization of the same name], has been vigorously conducting propaganda activities and social work in the region, including soup kitchens, free Koran courses and scholarships and subsidized housing in dormitories for students wishing to attend university in western Turkey.
Although there are no organic links between the Naqshabandi and the AK Party [the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party], many of its leading members, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have close ties with the order.
In conversations with Jamestown, leading Naqshabandis have never made any secret of their support for the AK Party. In comparison, the PKK and its close associate, DTP [Kurdish Democratic Society Party, founded in 2005 as a successor to the Democratic People’s Party (DEHAP), which was closed by the Turkish authorities], lacks both the financial resources and the ideological appeal of either militant organizations like Hezbollah or the Sufi orders.
The DTP’s brand of secular nationalism is a very new phenomenon for Turkey’s Kurds. The results of the July 22 election suggest that it is already losing ground to Islam.
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politics
By Gareth Jenkins - Eurasia Daily Monitor - The Jamestown Foundation - Washington D.C., U.S.A.Tuesday, August 7, 2007
The results of the Turkish general election of July 22 suggest that Turkey’s Kurdish minority is looking increasingly to Islam rather than the secular nationalism of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
(...)
Turkey’s eastern and southeastern provinces have traditionally been not only the most underdeveloped in the country but also the most devout.
The PKK was founded as an explicitly Marxist organization. In recent years it has downplayed its communist credentials in favor of secular Kurdish nationalism. But to the majority of Turkey’s Kurds it is regarded as being, at best, indifferent to Islam and, at worst, anti-Islam.
(...)
In recent years, other non-violent Islamist organizations, such as the Sufi brotherhoods known as tariqah, have also stepped up their activities in eastern and southeastern Turkey. The most active has been the Naqshabandi, which, like Hezbollah [the Turkish Hezbollah, which is unrelated to the Lebanese organization of the same name], has been vigorously conducting propaganda activities and social work in the region, including soup kitchens, free Koran courses and scholarships and subsidized housing in dormitories for students wishing to attend university in western Turkey.
Although there are no organic links between the Naqshabandi and the AK Party [the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party], many of its leading members, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have close ties with the order.
In conversations with Jamestown, leading Naqshabandis have never made any secret of their support for the AK Party. In comparison, the PKK and its close associate, DTP [Kurdish Democratic Society Party, founded in 2005 as a successor to the Democratic People’s Party (DEHAP), which was closed by the Turkish authorities], lacks both the financial resources and the ideological appeal of either militant organizations like Hezbollah or the Sufi orders.
The DTP’s brand of secular nationalism is a very new phenomenon for Turkey’s Kurds. The results of the July 22 election suggest that it is already losing ground to Islam.
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