An obsessively secular nation since its modern founding by Kemal Ataturk, Turkey on Nov. 3, 2002 elected an Islamist party, the Justice and Development Party, known as AKP, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then 48, as its prime minister. "Thank God, I am for Shariah," Erdogan had once said of Islamic law. "For us, democracy is a means to an end," and "One cannot be a secularist and a Muslim at the same time" had also figured in his pronouncements. Once elected, however, he restated his intention to win Turkey's admission to the European Union and continue its modernization.
Economically and politically, Erdogan succeeded. Turkey's economy boomed for most of the decade. He turned Turkey into a power broker in the Middle East (in 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared Turkey one of the world's seven rising powers) and in many ways a model of Islamic democracy. Turkey mediated talks between Syria and Israel, established diplomatic relations with Armenia, and sought a solution to its standoff in Cyprus. In 2007, the AKP became the first Turkish political party since 1954 to increase its share of the vote in reelection (by 14%).
The veil has reemerged as a symbol of conservatism in Turkey. Erdogan has encouraged its return despite Turkey's ostensible ban on Islamic dress in public places. Toward the end of the decade, however, the economy virtually crashed and unemployment rose to 15%. "The basic question," wrote Morton Abramowitz (a former ambassador to Turkey) and Henry Barkey (a professor of international relations at Lehigh University) in Foreign Affairs in November 2009, "is whether the AKP, by far the country's dominant party, both in terms of power and in terms of popularity, can avoid being held back by its Islamic past and the culturally conservative inclinations of its core constituents."
See Also:
- Turkey: Country Profile
- Profile: Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan
- What Was the Ottoman Empire?
- Turkey and the Armenian Genocide - A Guide to Documents, Facts and Figures
- Turkey At Loggerheads With Itself Over Veil Ban
- Leila Sahin and Turkey's Battle Over the Islamic Head Scarf
- UN Resolution 541 Condemning Turkish Land Grab in Cyprus