Alwaght- The Republic of Turkey since its establishment has witnessed a slew of developments both at home and abroad. Being a linking bridge between Europe and Asia, this country has undergone diversified security conditions. In some periods the country saw stability and security while in others it was hit by insecurity. With rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power, a new course was followed in the Turkish domestic and foreign policies.
Economic growth, political reforms, and bidding for membership of the European Union together with the pro-Ankara Western media promotions presented Turkey as a model for the Muslim world. But after eruption of popular uprisings and other forms of developments in West Asia and North Africa, the AKP-led government of Turkey immersed itself in the dream of leading the Muslim World in the new era. This pushed Ankara in an illusionistic and costly period. Ankara’s faulty foreign policy approaches which were powered by neo-Ottomanist ideology were a strategic mistake for Turkey, especially that in addition to bringing about foreign consequences they made the country face internal troubles. The anti-government parties organized protests, the major of them was the Gezi Park rallies in Istanbul in 2013. Revelations about corruption of the top government officials in the same year tarnished the face of the ruling AKP. Finally, the failed military coup of June 2016 dealt a serious blow to the political image of Turkey.
To make sure that everything was under control, the government systematically and undemocratically cracked down on different walks of society. The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan granted greater powers to the country’s security services to act against Fethullah Gulen, the former ally of Erdogan, and Hizmet Movement which is labelled by the Turkish government as a “parallel state.” Such a leverage to the security agencies over time produced pressures on the media. Many of newspapers as well as radio stations and TV networks were shut down as part of the security crackdown. At the same time, Erdogan undermined the independence of the country’s justice system, and also proposed to the parliament a shift from the parliamentary to presidential system. The clampdown went farther: the government ended plans that eyed openness to the Alawites of the country and settlement of the Kurdish cause at home.
So a combination of the above-mentioned actions ushered in a period of insecurity and instability in Turkey. An array of issues including overt interventions in Syria's and Iraq's internal affairs, political and economic crises, deadly bomb attacks, clashes with Kurds from different fronts, crackdown on civil freedoms, detention of the critical elites and the journalists, political purges of figures in connection with Fethullah Gulen movement, grappling with influxes of refugees fleeing the war in neighboring Syria and Iraq, and shrink in foreign investment and tourist arrivals to the country produced ongoing troubles for Ankara.
Meanwhile, one of the key security challenges Turkey is dealing with is social gaps existing in the country. Currently, there are several gaps in Turkey’s society; some of them are active while others are dormant for now:
Ethnic gaps: An obvious manifestation of the ethnic gap in Turkey is the Turkish-Kurdish division. It has been strongly active since the past, leading to emergence of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant group engaged in deadly battles with Ankara. Along with insecurity and instability, this division has made Turkey sustain big economic damages.
Religious gaps: Such a division in Turkey has shown face in two forms. The Turkish society is now seeing secular-religious and Sunni-Alawite divides. Both of them are now firmly active in the Turkish society. Over the course of past years, the country has been scene for confrontation of the religious and secular layers of the society. This encounter made the political power handed between them. On the other side, whenever the Islamist minds led the government, the Sunni-Alawite gaps saw activation. This division gets even more active when the centers of power in Turkey move toward Sunnist ideology. An example is the time of rule of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, a period in which the Alawites suffered improper conditions. In recent years that the Ankara government once again embarked on a Sunnist doctrine, the Sunni-Alawite gaps resurfaced.
Class gaps: Like other countries, in Turkey people are divided in three layers: lower, middle, and upper class. In recent years, the gaps between the social classes grew wider. On the one hand, the imbalanced economic growth created deep divisions between the lower class and upper class of the society and on the other hand it produced a new middle class majorly inconsistent with and align to the Islamist doctrine adopted by the government. At the present time, the effects of Turkey’s imbalanced economic growth have come to surface. The poverty has set to rise in the country, and so have the class gaps and poor social justice.
Furthermore, gaps between the rural and urban areas saw an increase in recent years. While people in 14 provinces of Turkey are earning enough and their economic conditions are in favorable levels and are even comparable to the world’s modern cities, people in other 27 provinces are suffering from gloomy economic conditions. Such an economical situation perhaps explains why Turkey is experiencing social and economic discontent.
Generation gaps: A deep generational gap has appeared in Turkey. Wide age gaps between the young and old people led to differences in the types of demands. Although this division is not active yet, the role of the youths in the anti-government protests indicates that the dormant generation gaps carry the potentials of activation.
In general, the Turkish society is suffering from a kind of social division. Activation of secular-religious divisions, along with already-active ethnic divisions, can negatively affect the Turkish social developments and political consistency.
