Is Turkey Poised to Become Iran Number Two?

It seems, yet again, that history is repeating itself. That any attempt at separating mosque and state eventually becomes just another blip on the historical landscape. We are witnessing this in the tragic fall of "moderate" Muslim democracy, Turkey. Ataturk is going the way of the horse and buggy. The enormous leaps Turkey took into modernity after removing the shackles of the sharia will recede into oblivion like the basic human rights afforded non-Muslims living under Islamic rule.

Many of us saw this coming with the Prime Ministerial election of the devout Erdogan. I called it immediately upon Erdogan's win in August 2007 (here.) The Turkish military (responsible for holding to Ataturk's secular model) warned then of "threats to the secular constitution."

While participating on a Middle East panel of the Academy of Achievement in Chicago in September of 2007, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned against religious definitions of terrorism and specifically objected to the phrase "moderate Islam." Erdogan said, "Turkey is not a country where moderate Islam is sovereign. First of all, the 'moderate Islam' concept is wrong. The word 'Islam' is a simple word -- it is only Islam. If you say 'moderate Islam,' then an alternative is created."

Religious study is now mandated in state schools in Turkey.

The Judiciary becomes subservient to the government (The PM).

Further in 2007, Turkey and Iran formed a military alliance. Ryan Cuomo has a look at Turkey’s Islamization: One Step Closer (hat tip Armaros)

And Obama is chuffed. "Israel analysts see Turkey radicalizing, becoming 'Iran No. 2,'" from the World Tribune, September 15 (thanks to all who sent this in):
TEL AVIV -- Israel's defense community has assessed that Turkey was moving toward becoming a radical and nuclear Islamic state.

Officials and leading analysts asserted that the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan was rapidly dismantling the secular Turkish state. They said Erdogan could turn Turkey into another Iran, a radical Muslim state with nuclear weapons.

"There could be a deep strategic change," Amos Gilad, a senior Defense Ministry official, said.

Officials cited Turkey's referendum that would revise the secular constitution. They said the 26 amendments approved by 58 percent of voters on Sept. 12 would significantly increase the authority of Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party while marginalizing Turkey's military.

Leading officials expressed concern over Erdogan's growing power in Turkey and his success in intimidating the once-powerful Turkish military. They said Erdogan could use his referendum victory to expand Turkey's alliance with neighboring Iran and Syria while fomenting another crisis with Israel....

"If there is not a change in personality, then Turkey will become Iran No. 2," former National Security Council director Uzi Dayan said.

UPDATE: And this from Julia Gorin, "Please note that the “flotilla” incident was in fact a joint Syrian-Turkish military operation. And the link to this is a Syrian intel guy who has been operating for years in Bosnia."

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