Refelksi: Membandingkan Turki dan Indonesia, agaknya di Indoensia hanya ada fundamentalist.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/13/news/turkey.php Demonstrators waving national flags during an anti-government rally in Turkey's western coastal city of Izmir on Sunday. (Fatih Saribas/Reuters ) Secularists stage mass protest in Turkey The Associated PressPublished: May 13, 2007 IZMIR, Turkey: Choking the highways and crammed onto ferries, hundreds of thousands of Turks streamed into this port city Sunday to demonstrate opposition to the pro-Islamic governing party, increasing pressure on the government ahead of elections in July. About 1.5 million protesters carried anti-government banners, red-and-white Turkish flags and pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the secular republic in 1923. Turkish flags hung from balconies and windows, as well as buses and fishing boats and yachts bobbing in Izmir's bay. "I am here to defend my country," said Yuksel Uysal, a teacher. "I am here to defend Ataturk's revolution." Throughout the morning, thousands were trying to reach Izmir and highways leading to the city were at a standstill. The municipal authorities said 200,000 people sailed in on ferries. The political turmoil displayed the growing distance between secular and Islamic interests in this mainly Muslim country of 75 million that is campaigning for European Union membership and whose secular laws, enshrined in the Constitution, are fiercely guarded by the judiciary and by the military. Thousands of police officers were deployed a day after a bomb at an Izmir market killed one person and wounded 14 others. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, nor any evidence that it was linked to the demonstration. Izmir, located on Turkey's Aegean coast, is a bastion of secularism, and Islamic parties fare poorly there. The rally was organized as a show of strength ahead of general elections on July 22, and it follows similar demonstrations in Ankara and Istanbul last month. A military official in Izmir, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists, said the rally drew some 1.5 million people. The rallies increased pressure on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, which nominated a presidential candidate deemed by the secular establishment to be Islamist. The candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, was forced to suspend his campaign after the opposition boycotted the voting process in Parliament. But the political turmoil exposed a deepening rift in Turkey, which has a secular legacy designed to separate state and religion. Some protesters wore paper hats with the slogan: "No to Islamic law, no to military coups: a democratic Turkey" in a show that they did not approve of a military threat last month to intervene in the presidential elections in order to safeguard secularism. The military has ousted civilian governments in the past. "These rallies have been useful in forcing the government to take a step back," said one of the protesters, Neslihan Erkan. "The danger is still not over. These rallies must continue until there is no longer a threat." Gul, a close ally of Erdogan, gave up his presidential ambitions after pro-secular lawmakers boycotted two rounds of voting in Parliament, creating a political deadlock. Erdogan's government called early general elections and passed a constitutional amendment to let the people, instead of Parliament, elect the president. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
