Democracy

Turkey’s foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, said last week that recent violence in Turkey did not presage a return to the “old days” of coups and military rule. We hope he is right.

In recent years, there has been much debate in Turkey over the conflicts between its secular constitution and many Turks’ conservative Muslim impulses. This month, a gunman shot five judges in a courthouse. Initial reports indicated that the assailant was enraged about a decision by the judges that strictly upheld Turkey’s ban on wearing headscarves in public buildings. The outcry was seen as a setback for Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party, in power since 2002, which supports a greater public role for religious expression. Turkey’s PM, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a conservative Muslim, but he also has overseen the pro-Western reforms that qualified Turkey to open membership talks with the EU. During the reform process, he stressed that democracy was the best way to resolve Turkey’s polarising issues. Now is the time for him to reassert that view forcefully. The US can help promote Turkish democracy by using its longstanding ties with Turkey’s generals to communicate zero tolerance for military meddling. Turkey borders Iran, Iraq and Syria and is an ally of Israel. The world can ill afford for it to become less democratic. — The New York Times