Arab Spring Risks Bearing Islamist Fruit, CHP Warns

by AK Group

Turkey's main opposition party has raised concerns that the wave of revolt across the Arab world could give way to the rise of Islamist movements and result in new authoritarian regimes.

"We are questioning whether the Arab Spring may turn into an Islamic Spring and that the new administrations in these countries may evolve into authoritarian regimes," Umut Oran, a deputy from the Republican People's Party, or CHP, told the Daily News Monday.

Oran backed Turkey as a model in the Middle East, but questioned "which Turkey" the Arabs should be looking at. He charged that the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, had eroded the standards of Turkish democracy and the rule of law and "made secularism the subject of controversy."

"Turkey is definitely a model, but Republican Turkey and the AKP's Turkey are very much different," he said. "It is Republican Turkey that should serve as a model for the Middle East."

Kılıçdaroğlu met with a German delegation including Michael Link and Johannes Vogel of the Free Democratic Party, or FDP, Alexander Lambsdorff of the European Parliament and a representative of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Kılıçdaroğlu questioned whether "moderate Islam could shift to authoritarian regimes, suspend democracy and then move to a rule based on sharia law," party sources said.

Kılıçdaroğlu decried increasing government control of the judiciary and the imprisonment of journalists, lawmakers and students under the AKP, casting doubt on how the ruling party could be an inspiration for others in the region.

"The vision that the AKP is promoting does not [reflect] the secular, democratic and social state based on the rule of law," he was quoted as saying. "Yes, Turkey should be a model. But it should be the Republican Turkey and not the AKP's Turkey."

In a related development, a delegation of female members of the CHP crossed into unrest-hit Syria over the weekend for a visit to observe the situation on the ground. They were invited by Syrian women's organizations. The team, led by CHP deputy chairwoman Birgül Ayman Güler, is scheduled to return home Wednesday.

AK Group

Source: http://www.hudson-ny.org/2555/arab-spring-risks-bearing-islamist-fruit-chp-warns

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