By Andrew L. Jaffee

The question of the day: Will Turkey have an Islamist president? This question is important because of Turkey’s strategic position in the Middle East, its potential accession to the EU, and perhaps most importantly, whether the current conflict between the country’s Islamists and secularists can be settled peacefully and democratically. Yes, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (AKP), with his “autocratic tendencies,” was elected democratically, but he has been steadily moving Turkey away from its secular roots, planted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and towards Islamist “ideals.” To reframe the question: Can there be an Islamic democracy? In Islam’s current state, I doubt it. We may end up seeing Turkey’s secular military intervening rather undemocratically, but necessarily.

Some sophists argue that Islam has already embraced democracy:

John L. Esposito… argues that “Islamic movements have internalized the democratic discourse through the concepts of shura [consultation], ijma’ [consensus], and ijtihad [independent interpretive judgment]” and concludes that democracy already exists in the Muslim world, “whether the word democracy is used or not.”

Huh? David Bukay counters:

If Esposito’s arguments are true, then why is democracy not readily apparent in the Middle East? …

Only after eviscerating the meaning of democracy as the concept developed and derived from Plato and Aristotle in ancient Greece through Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in eighteenth century America, can Esposito and his fellow travelers advance theories of the compatibility of Islamism and democracy.

Prime Minister Erdoğan’s AK party is trying to shove an Islamist president down Turkey’s throat:

Turkey’s ruling AK Party has asked parliament to approve an early general election amid deadlock over who should become the country’s new president.

The party proposed 24 June for the poll, which had been set for November.

The move comes after Turkey’s constitutional court annulled last Friday’s vote to elect a new president.

Secularist opposition parties boycotted the vote to prevent the ruling party candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, from winning.

They accuse Mr Gul of having a hidden Islamist agenda and say that if he became president it would threaten Turkey’s secular tradition.

Thankfully, not all Turks are buying Erdoğan’s manuvering:

More than a million Turks rallied here [Istanbul] Sunday in support of secular democracy amid an unprecedented stand-off between the Islamist-rooted government and the army over the country’s next president.

…and…

The army has warned that it will not permit Turkey’s secular traditions to be compromised…

I’m not sanguine with military intervention in the democratic process, but does Erdoğan’s AK party have any intention of maintaining democracy? His past actions show the opposite — his ultimate goal is the implementation (enforcement) of Sharia. Will there be any other choice than military intervention to preserve Turkey’s secular roots?

As Michael Rubin puts it, “The future of Turkey as a secular, Western-oriented state is at risk.”

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Related: Islam, Turkey, War Against Islamo-fascism

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