The revolutions and uprising that have been sweeping across the Mideast are widely believed to have begun in Tunisia. In fact, the first seeds of revolution were planted in 2002 in Turkey, as its Justice and Development Party began the long, arduous battle against disguised military dictatorship.The 510,000-man Turkish armed forces, NATO's second biggest after the U.S., have mounted four military coups since 1950. Turkey's current constitution was written by the military after its 1980 coup.
Ever since the era of national hero turned strongman Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey has been run by its powerful military behind a thin façade of squabbling politicians. In the process, it suffered widescale political violence, Kurdish secessionism, rigged elections, and endless financial crises.
Americans always liked to point to pre-2002 as the ideal Muslim state. "Why can't those Arabs be more like the sensible Turks?" was a refrain often heard in Washington. Its proponents chose to ignore, or simply failed to see, that Turkey was an iron-fisted military dictatorship.
Under AKP, Turkey has moved closer to the European Union's legal norms than, for example, new members Bulgaria and Rumania. But France and Germany's conservatives insist Turkey will never be accepted in the EU. Europe—particularly its farmers—don't want 75 million mostly Muslim Turks.
Largely unseen by outsiders, AKP has relentlessly pushed Turkey's reactionary military back to its barracks. This long struggle culminated in attempts by the military, known as the Ergenekon affair, to again overthrow the civilian government.
The plot was broken: numbers of high-ranking officers were arrested and put on trial. So were journalists and media figures involved in the plot—probably too many. Investigators are examining questionable arms deals between Turkey's military and Israel.
For more: Turkey: The Mideast's Real Revolution
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