"Turkey is a democracy." If so , the US is a military dictatorship.

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Jul 25, 2007 at 18:30

> They are not all despots. Indonesia for one is a democracy. Lebanon is a struggling democracy. Turkey is a democracy.

> If so, then how can anyone make the claim that Osama Bin Laden is the most popular person in the Islamic World? Is Lebanon also a police state? How about Indonesia (the largest Islamic nation in the world)? How about Turkey? Last I checked Indonesia and Turkey were flourishing democracies.

Lebenon is a state torn by anarchy still suffering from the aftermath of the civil war and Moslem unrest. It has lost soveriegnity over large parts of its territory. Under such condition a democracy is a misnomer. It can't work as it is unable to impose its laws on its own territory.

Indonesia is one of the most dangerous places to live in for a non-Moslem. It is the Moslem mob that seems to rule this country through regular pogroms and atrocities.

As to Turkey it has always been a covert or overt (3 times) military dictatorship. After the 1980 coup d'etat the army is still the real master of Turkey. It exercises its power through the National Security Council (Milli Güvenlik Kurulu), an organ chaired by the president as provided for under Article 118 of the constitution. The NSC gives the military a say on the issues "with regard to the formulation, establishment, and implementation of the national security policy of the state." "National security policy" includes almost all issues, both foreign and internal and thus makes the army omnipotent. In Turkey there is no freedom of speech. Critical journalists are regularly killed and persecuted by the military, newspapers are censored and "graded" by the military censors. Woe to them if they get a low grade! Critical books are banned. National and religious minorities are persecuted. Criticism of the regime is punished under articles 301 of the Penal Code with 3 years in prison. To name just a few attributes of this "flourishing democracy".

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