The Impacts of Iran’s Islamic Revolution upon Islamism in Turkey (2)

The Thought of the Islamic Revolution
The Impacts of Iran’s Islamic Revolution upon Islamism in Turkey (2)

4- The Approach of the Turkey New Government Toward Iran’s Islamic Revolution)

With the decline of the military power in 1982 and the coming into power of Turgut Özal and the Motherland Party in Turkey, the relationship of this country with the Islamic Republic of Iran and its attitude towards the Islamic Revolution greatly changed.

When the government of Özal took over, the early concerns arising from the inception of Iran’s Islamic Revolution towards Turkey had been terminated by the military government. Apart from this, Özal’s experience in the military government allowed him to take into consideration their sensitivity in regards to the revolution to prevent military intervention. Owing to this fact, Özal’s position toward the revolution, was bilateral. On one hand, in the foreign aspect, by repeating this matter that fundamentalism is not a serious problem and even Iran is not seeking to initiate it, he was trying to reduce the intensity of the inception of the revolution and not magnify its power. On the other hand, in the national aspect, with his awareness of the inclination of the new intellectuals and the Kurds towards Iran’s Islamic Revolution, by giving them controlled freedom, he strived to prevent the culmination of fundamentalism. It was under the influence of these matters that for the first time, Özal confessed about the presence of several millions of minority Kurds in Turkey and allowed the use of the Kurdish language. Likewise, during his reign, around 45 newspapers and weekly journals with an Islamic orientation were printed which in itself had a great influence on the Islamist orientation. 

During these years, the Saudi government entered the scene with a Salafist and Wahhabi Islamist orientation and due to their stronger financial power, it made the non-Shi’ah Islamic groups incline towards them. It was natural that the Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia did not pose a threat to the governments inclined to the Western countries. Turkey took advantage of this situation and practically made use of the extensive financial assistance from Saudi Arabia in constructing the religious centres. Consequently, the governing policy in the 1980s was propagating Islam in the Saudi style in opposition to the political Islam originating from Iran. Nevertheless, Özal’s government had not thought of this fact that with the propagation of the Islamic manifestations, the tendency towards Islamic thoughts will also increase. 

The economic policies of Özal based on the exports and subsequent foundations of capitalism in Turkey which were originating from the inception of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War and the Arabs’ interest in investing in Turkey, led to the strengthening of the economic foundations of the Islamists. As a result, with the support of this matter in the 1990s, the Islamists managed to put forward the Islamic political thought in the form of political Islam into the political scene of Turkey and turned into one of the triangular sides of political life; that is, the military, secularists and Islamists. 

It is worth noting that during Turgut Özal’s Islamist policies, he carried out considerable activities like the growth of graduates from İmam Hatip schools from 2,688 people in 1973 to 39,907 people in 1988, an annual construction of 1,500 mosques during the 1980s, the increase of the number of mosques from 54,667 in 1987 to 62,947 at the end of 1988 and granting permission for printing 4,057,942 copies of the Noble Quran by the Ministry of religion in Turkey. 

5. The formation of the Welfare (Refah) Party and Erbakan’s praise for Iran’s Islamic Revolution

The formation of the Welfare Party took place some years after the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. This party developed in such a way that it turned into the biggest party in Turkey. Two years after an overwhelming victory in the local municipal elections in 1994, the Welfare Party managed to elect its secretary-general to the Prime Minister post. This is something that had never happened before in Turkey. Without a doubt, the spread and impressive successes of the Welfare Party of Turkey were due to the influence of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. This is because, before the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, the National Health Party never attained the successes of the Welfare Party. Nonetheless, Erbakan was among the supporters of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the inception of the Islamic Revolution played a very significant role and was beneficial to his efforts in carrying out his activities in Turkey.

In reality, developing the democratic values especially during the reign of Özal, created a situation that enabled the Islamists to make the best use of them. In other terms, this feeling was created within the Islamist movement whereby they could attain some of their rights by utilizing this democratic situation and fostering democracy in Turkey.

6. The emergence and coming into power of other Islamist parties

After the military coup against Erbakan and the closure of the Welfare Party, the new relationship (that is the Fazilat (Virtue) Party) with the Islamic Republic of Iran did not enjoy its past friendliness. The reason behind that was also obvious; after the coup situation, the Fazilat Party was intimidated by the ruling system, the military and the extremist secularists and even the request for its closure was also filed with the Attorney General. Owing to this account, for the sake of its continuity, the Fazilat Party, withdrew most of the former programs and slogans of the Welfare Party. It even went ahead with dropping some members from the party and replaced them with the secularists.

Of course, “the period between 1997 until the emergence of justice and development, the relationship between Iran and Turkey has become more limited. These two countries summoned back their ambassadors and in more than a year, the embassy was being administered by a temporary clerk. This matter used to leave negative impacts on all the political, economic aspects and the relationships of the two countries in all the fields. Immediately, after the coming into power of Mesut Yılmaz in Turkey, and the cooling down of the relationship with Iran, the Republic of Turkey announced Iran as a potential threat against them. It thus accused Iran of supporting the Workers’ Party (PKK). This is because according to the Turkish authorities, Iran was the biggest supporter of this group within the region. Turkey always accused Iran of giving refuge to the opposition groups of Turkey and condemned its efforts to carry out its own revolution.”

This process went on until the Justice and Development Party in 2002 won the most seats in the Turkish parliamentary elections. On the other side, in Iran too, with the coming into power of Sayyed Mohammad Khatami and creating an international and regional environment in favour of Iran, the relationship between Turkey and Iran developed. In 2006, the relationship between these two countries became more steadfast.

Apart from deepening the economic and political relations in the form of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and also the strengthening of the ties, its major effect was the visit of Ahmadinejad from Iran. After the re-election of the Islamists in 2007 and the coming into power of Abdullah Gül who was an Islamist, his second visit to Iran and his meeting with the Supreme Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and also the visit of Erdoğan in 2010 and his meeting with the President of Iran and the Supreme Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution showed that the relationship between Turkey and Iran as two Muslim countries who have historical similarities and relationship had become even stronger.

7. The Sufi sects and Iran’s Islamic Revolution

In regards to the Sufi sects, an important point is that their followers are mostly unenlightened people and their position is also based on emotions and they follow the leader of the sect. On the other side, their knowledge concerning Iran’s Islamic Revolution is mostly from the non-Iranian media which does not offer a good picture regarding the revolution. “To cite an example, the Mahmut Efendi group which is a part of the Naqshbandi (a major Sunni spiritual order of Sufism) oppose the Islamic Revolution.”

Needless to say, those who had information in regards to this matter, and clearly comprehended the aspects of the popular movement of the Iranians, avidly supported and loved the revolution.

8. The ethnic minorities and the religious groups in Turkey and the impacts of Iran’s Islamic Revolution

1) The Alevis

In regards to the Alevis in Turkey (what is meant here is the total number of the Shi’ahs and the Alevi groups), different numbers have been mentioned whereby they are estimated to be between 20 to 25 million. This number which is almost the third of the Turkish population is a significant minority who had and still have a strong determination for accepting the impact of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. It is worth noting that the view of the Turkish government towards this minority like the Kurds, is not good. These people have always considered themselves to be victims of social discrimination.

2) The Shi’ahs

The estimated number of the Azeri-speaking and Twelver Shi’ahs of Turkey is around 1.5-3 million people. The dispersion of this group in Turkey is as follows:

One: East and Northeast Turkey: At the borders of Iran, Armenia and Nakhchivan, the cities and villages of this region like the Iğdır, Kars, Aralık, Tuzluca, and Akyaka cities are mostly populated by Shi’ahs.

Two: Northwest Turkey: They mostly reside in İstanbul, Bursa and İzmir.

Three: Central Turkey: Most of the Ja’fari Shi’ahs reside in central Turkey, Ankara, the capital city of this country and other big cities.

Four: Western Turkey in İzmir and Turgutlu cities.

Kars province in Northeast Turkey is one of the most vital centres of the Shi’ahs. The people of this province speak a language that is very similar to the Azeri language of Iran. Likewise, the Iğdır province too is considered to be one of the centres of the Ja’fari Shi’ahs.

Essentially, the Turks of Turkey refer to the Azeris as non-Turks (but rather Iranian descendants). The historical evidence also supports the matter that the Azeris and the Kurds are Iranian descendants. Nonetheless, after the sixth century, they were marginalized with the onslaught of the Oghuz Turks from the East. However, the core of the Shi’ah population emerged from different parts of Turkey who had their own mosque and preserved the culture and customs of their religious centres.

With these areas and by taking into consideration the above-mentioned factors, the question that arises is; what were the most significant examples and indicators of the impacts of Iran’s Islamic Revolution amongst the Shi’ahs of Turkey? Likewise, in what way did they manifest the reaction of the victory of the Iranian people?

Before the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, the only important factor of the spiritual relationship of the Shi’ahs of Turkey with Iran was the institution of the marja’ al-taqlid (source of emulation in Islamic laws). The Shi’ah believers of Turkey more or less had ties with both cities of Najaf and Qom. However, after the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, there emerged major qualitative and quantitative changes in this spiritual relationship and the number of Turkish-Azeri youths who used to travel to Qom for the sake of seeking religious knowledge, increased significantly.

A worthy point to note here is that one of the most important indications of the mosques and Shi’ah centres in Turkey is their lack of dependence upon the government which is essentially rooted in the tradition of Shi’ah clergy and religious zeal. Of course, amongst the secularists, some people are attempting to pretend that the Shi’ah clergy receive financial support from Iran.

At the present moment, there are two major Ja’fari Shi’ah groups who both have their centres in İstanbul. The first group, the Zeynebiye group under the leadership of Shaykh Selahattin Özgündüz are mostly Muslims who have migrated from the eastern regions of Turkey to İstanbul and have migrated for business activities. In the last years, this group has attained a lot of success whereby one of the reasons behind that is the political support from some members of the parliament. (Hakimpour and Marjani, 1994: 34)

Shaykh Selahattin and Hamit Turan, another Shi’ah scholar of the Zeynebiye group, began supporting the events taking place in Iran from the moment of the victory of the Islamic Revolution. Owing to this reason, the secular government sentenced them to prison.

The second group is the Kawthar group which is considered to be one of the active Shi’ah groups in Turkey and is governed by a council. The Kawthar group was formed almost thirteen years ago by a group of scholars that had studied in Qom and began their activities. The formation of that group can be considered in some way to be a direct impact of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Kawthar Publishers is the most organized and the newest publishing institution affiliated to this group that up to now, has published more than 60 volumes of books and the greatest work of this group is the translation and the publishing of the exegesis of the Noble Quran, that is, ‘al-Mizan.’

9. The susceptibility of the student organizations and groups

Generally, university students in any society represent a group that due to their psychological traits and the conditions governing them, are more influenced by internal and external changes than the other people in that particular country. The Turkish society too was no exception to this principle. The Islamic Revolution of Iran succeeded in creating an important change within this group of Turkish society. One of the influential student groups which were affected by the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution was the Akıncı group. The Akıncı refers to pioneers and used to be referred to as the student branch of the Party of National System and National Health under the leadership of Erbakan. They were enlightened Muslim students who enjoyed a significant magnitude and had almost 600 representatives in Turkey. Before Iran’s Islamic Revolution, the anti-Communist activities topped their agendas. Nevertheless, with the inception of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, they changed from the mere anti-Communist stance and adopted the slogans, “Neither the East nor the West, Islamic government” and the revolutionary spirit and struggle against the Western and Eastern bloc was created in them by the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

Conclusion:

It is important to pay attention to this matter that the republic of Turkey is a country with 99% of its population being Muslims and Islam is deeply rooted in their culture, belief and life. Although the secular and tyrannical governments like the Atatürk government struggled for almost two decades to eradicate the Islamic manifestations in this country, however, history has proved that the belief of those people was not something that could be easily forgotten due to pressure, punishment and torture. No matter the power and pressure applied by the Kemalists and secularist centres of Turkey, Islamism and the Islamist movements will always carry out their activities in this country.

Due to its neighbourhood with the Islamic Republic of Iran, significant factors like geographical affinity, historical similarities, strong and religious similarities, the Republic of Turkey was naturally influenced by Iran’s Islamic Revolution and all the evidence proves this matter. Needless to say, this matter must also be taken into consideration that this impact has caused the process of the development of Islamism in the Republic of Turkey to intensify with the inception of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Likewise, it also made the Islamist and popular movements make more serious demands in this arena from the secular government. This was in such a way that the secularist military of Turkey sensed danger and one year after Iran’s Islamic Revolution, they took power via a coup and ruled for three years.

It was after this coup that Turkey witnessed the formation of Islamist parties with popular bases which were strong and extensive. We are also witnessing the intensity of public acceptance of the Islamic rites, reviving the religious matters and rites in the Turkish society; these are things like the Friday congregational prayer, al-Quds Day protests and hijab issues. This process has gradually progressed until eventually and in a manner that has never been seen, an indigenous Islamist, that is, Necmettin Erbakan managed to win the Prime Minister’s post of this country in the mid-1990s and after almost seventy years, an Islamist became the ruler of a secularist country that was initially against religion. In this way, there is no doubt that Islamism in Turkey is like a dormant energy and with the inception of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, its hidden potential together with a special confidence emerged amidst the rigid and terrible barriers of the secular institutions and elevated itself to perfection.

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