Militant Laicists, Muslim Democrats, and Liberal Secularists

Abstract

Since the election of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkmma Partisi, AKP) to national government in 2002 (and again in 2007 and 2011), Turkish society has existed on a political knife-edge. Rumors of a military intervention have been fueled by the detailed publication of a number of aborted coups plotted by the Turkish Armed Forces, one that even included a plan to bomb the major mosques in Istanbul as pretext for action.¹ An investigation into a covert organization named Erjjenekon, which has used the networks of the state to organize the murder of political opponents and others as prelude to and as acts of provocation for a military intervention is ongoing.² Erjjenekon too has been closely associated with sections of the Turkish armed forces. Reactions to both the leaks and the investigation vary wildly, from calls for a new constitution that might depoliticize the military, to claims that the AKP is engaged in a political witch hunt.