October 6, 2002New York Times
The Bush administration likes to say that the establishment of a democratic government in Iraq could be a model for political reform in the Islamic world. That is no doubt true, and a desirable objective. Unfortunately, while the United States is preparing to fight a war in Iraq in part to achieve that goal, it is doing little to address undemocratic practices nearly everywhere else in the region.
Washington's democracy agenda must not begin and end with Iraq, where political life has been stunted by dictators for decades. Other predominantly Muslim countries, like Turkey, Pakistan, Morocco, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt, offer more fertile ground, with important elements of democratic culture and politics already in place.
Turkey, Iraq's northern neighbor, is the most striking example of Washington's hypocrisy. With a little help from the United States, Turkey could be the shining example that the White House imagines Iraq can become if Saddam Hussein exits. In many respects, Turkey already resembles a Western democracy, with regular elections, a secular constitution, civil rights for women and a lively independent press. But its democratic institutions remain warped by the influence of a meddling, authoritarian military leadership.
The United States, Turkey's most influential ally, could easily help shift the country's political balance toward civilian rule, but declines to do so. The reason is no secret. Turkey's armed forces have long provided Washington with valuable military bases. During the cold war, Turkey offered proximity to the Soviet Union. Today, it provides air access to northern Iraq. Washington regularly sides with Turkey's generals over its democrats, especially when the generals claim to be defending secularism against elected Islamic politicians.
Last month, under pressure from the military, Turkey's highest electoral authority banned Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of the country's most popular political party, from running in this fall's parliamentary election. At a political rally five years ago, when Mr. Erdogan was mayor of Istanbul, he recited a combative poem that advocated the advancement of the Islamic faith in Turkish society. The verse was ruled a crime, inciting religious hatred, and Mr. Erdogan was convicted and stripped of his political rights.
Although Mr. Erdogan's party had been leading by a wide margin in the polls, he is now ineligible to serve as Turkey's next prime minister, even if his party comes in first. It is hard to see how excluding the leader of a party favored by nearly a quarter of the voters strengthens democracy. Yet Washington failed to deliver a suitably strong protest.
Five years ago, the Turkish military similarly forced the ouster of another democratic Islamic politician, Necmettin Erbakan, as prime minister. It has also pressured civilian governments to support harshly repressive policies against Turkey's large Kurdish minority, measures that have led to the jailing of elected leaders and journalists.
If the Bush administration is truly interested in promoting democracy, it will also tell Pakistan's military dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, that it will no longer wink at his constitutional manipulations and fraudulent electoral exercises. It should increase its pressure on Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, to free Saad Eddin Ibrahim and other democracy advocates, end his intimidation of independent news media and permit genuinely free elections.
The events of last Sept. 11 underscored for Americans the dangers of embracing pro-Western autocrats in the Islamic world without regard for how they rule at home. If the Bush administration is prepared to send Americans into combat to advance the cause of democracy in Iraq, surely it can press harder for reform in countries where democracy can be promoted in far less costly ways.
