Turkish people are laicists, contrary to what many foreign experts think

[Prof. Dr. Mukerrem Hic]

It appears that the Turkish Constitutional Court, in its recent
decision on the case against AKP, has been influenced by political and
economic factors. A ruling to close down AKP would have ushered
immense political problems with the USA, the EU. More importantly, the
domestic political arena would have received a severe shock, effecting
the economy negatively.

I should underline this point in detail: The EU and US circles should
stop pampering AKP on every occasion while turning a blind eye to its
anti-laicist activities and look more realistically at the fears of
laicists. They also need to stop thinking that laicists are only a
minority of elites and Kemalists, as opposed to a pro-AKP, “mild
Islamic” majority. This is only a misleading view of the breakdown of
the 2007 elections and 2007 parliament where AKP has a majority.

Recent surveys show that even though AKP is still the #1 political
party with 42% of the votes, 73% of the respondents said that they
want AKP to reform itself of the issue of laicism. The fact that only
13% of the respondents said that they would vote for CHP does not mean
that the percentage of laicists in Turkey is 13%. CHP has many other
deficiencies that turns the voters away. More strikingly, the army is
still by far the most reliable public institution, with 87% of the
votes.

I would reiterate once again that the foreign so-called “experts” and
policy makers on Turkey should read and know Turkish history as well
as Islam much better. Any catastrophe in Turkey would affect not only
Turkish people but the entire region adversely.