Algeria: A warning for Turkey

[Al-khiyal]

The use of military action to curtail the growth of political Islam has only brought catastrophe:

May 8, 2007 -- Fifteen years ago a struggle for power between new forces of political Islam and a military establishment took place in Algeria, paralleling to an alarming degree what is happening in Turkey. This struggle ended in a military coup that plunged Algeria into a cycle of violence; so far 200,000 people have been killed, tens of thousands jailed, a million internally displaced, and tens of thousands exiled.

How could such a catastrophe have overtaken a country and political leaders whose prestige reached across the third world in the 1960s and 70s? Algeria is a warning to Turkey that even the towering legacy of Ataturk cannot protect it for ever.

Algeria's war for independence from France, under the iconic leadership of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), became a reference point for African and Palestinian anti-colonial struggles. Under President Houari Boumédienne the country was the political and intellectual centre of a confident, secular, socialist third world movement that collapsed with the end of the cold war.

But the FLN did not provide the solid political framework for building a country that was equally cursed with great poverty and great oil and gas wealth. The post-Boumédienne years of the 80s were marked by corruption and repression at home, while young Algerians drawn to the CIA-funded jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan would return home with an ideology very different to the FLN's.

When the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) won local elections in Algeria in June 1990 it was a political earthquake. The regime had simply not anticipated such a challenge to 30 years of hegemony, and responded by gerrymandering to reduce the urban share of the vote, and arresting the two main FIS leaders. However, the FLN received another drubbing in the parliamentary elections of December 1991, and the following month the military seized power with extreme violence, deposing the president and banning the FIS. Demonstrations were crushed; FIS leaders and organisers disappeared into prisons in the Sahara.

Having lived in Algiers in the mid-70s in the heyday of Boumédienne's personal ascetic socialism and the FLN's historic prestige, I was one of those observers who made the mistake of believing that this coup was justified in the cause of preserving the FLN and secular democracy.

The banal joke that circulated against the FIS was that they encouraged people to vote - just once, to end democracy. The sophisticated political Islam that has developed in Turkey in the past decade, for instance, was never seen as a possible evolution in Algeria. In fact, it was the Algerian generals - many trained in the French army - who ended any chance of democracy. Armed resistance to the coup was fought with the same violence, and every mechanism of manipulation, division, torture and disinformation that the French had used against the FLN.

It has taken 15 years for Algerian civil society to build a movement that confronts the military establishment with a politics that is a radical departure from the past. Over the years many FLN officials defected from military and civilian positions of authority if not of power, but mostly kept quiet. Exiles who published stunning exposés of the security service methods rarely escaped misgivings over their credibility. Given the fear of the long reach of Algiers into Europe, the deep mutual suspicion between the Islamists and the fractured secular opposition, and the very real confusion about the true responsibility for the appalling massacres in the country, few of those in exile were prepared to commit themselves to working for a political future at home.

After the attacks of September 11 and the launch of the US war on terror, the regime in Algeria became a significant ally of the west, with an American listening post set up in the south of the country, a joint US/French intelligence centre in Algiers, and exercises carried out with the Israeli army in Greece. It was a disaster for the opposition.

The Rachad Movement that was launched in London last month got wide coverage in the Arab media, partly because of the intellectual calibre of the leadership, but also due to its unique bridge between the secular/military and political Islam. Rachad is not a political party and will not be visible in next week's local elections. But the movement has been building for two years, against a climate of considerable popular unrest, and most of the funding and support is coming from inside the country. Mass street rallies have changed the political scene in countries as different as Lebanon, Georgia and the Philippines. Could it finally happen in Algeria too?

Algeria: A warning for Turkey

[nesreen]

what is happening in Turkey is discrimination against the practising Muslims . i was shocked to see that in Muslim turkey , ok , turkey wants to stay Secular but at least respect those who want to practice their religion and want to feel proud of their being Muslims . I know for a fact that Ataturk was not only secular but he also hated islam but changing even the Turkish Alphabet from Arabic letters to Roman Letters , and encouraging western clothes , and forbidding muslim hijabs and head Gear to men .

women in Turkey can not enter University or work for the goverment if they wear the Hijab , isnt that discriminatory ?
during Ramandan , there were more people in the Streets praying on the pavement than inside a small mosque . the people in charge said they sent a request to buy 2 shops nearby and expand the size of that mosque , and their request has been waiting for over 2 years . the Army got worried and said more than 65% of Turks fasted during ramadan . Islamic shools are also experiencing difficulties to operate or open new branches . families said the Islamic education at schools is being reduced so we are educating our kids at home .