Submitted by Robert Ven, Aug 30, 2007 10:44

I have no idea who the writer of this editorial is. Frankly I don't care. Advocating a coup is something that I find astonishing. The president got there democratically. As long as the electorate is free to choose between differing political options and figures the government there is legitimate. Indeed democracy itself acts a check against extremist religious ideas. IIIran was allowed real democracy the mullahs would be thrown out.

It is also quite bizarre that the author claims that a coup is needed to protect Turkey in that it is analogous to advocating to setting a house on fire to save it from a flood. The fire too destroys the house. One of the reasons why Turkey is not very prosperous is because of constant political instability caused by numerous coups by the military there. It never seems to occur to the writer that a coup is treason and any subsequent government illegitimate.

The writer talks about Mustafa Kemal Attaturk. His cronies were involved in a little thing called Armenian genocide. He was committed to secularism but not to liberal democracy. Indeed he actively suppressed his opponents. In the 1930s he also suppressed the Kurds. He led the rewriting of history to glorify the Turkish past and created an illusionary nationalism. Hardly someone of worth.

Turkey needs Liberal democracy. That is something very new for the country. The current government, although it has Islamic roots is the closest thing to a liberal democratic government. The economy has been run responsibly, economic growth is way up. Corruption has been significantly reduced, something that was endemic amongst the authoritarian nationalistic followers of Atttaturk.

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