Democracy in the Middle East
Turkish Prime Minister Receives Warm Welcome

FORUM l On a visit to the Kennedy School in January, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan painted a picture of a Middle East where democracy will one day flourish. Flanked on the podium by more than half a dozen security guards, the head of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party was greeted warmly by the standing-room-only crowd, with many in the audience waving the Turkish flag and chanting his name as he rose to speak.

Dismissing the widely held view that the culture of Islam is incompatible with democracy, Erdogan pointed to Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country with a democratically elected prime minister, as evidence to the contrary. “Democratization in the Middle East is an outcome that must be attained. Therefore, the question is not whether such democratization is possible, but instead, how to meet the yearning of the masses in the Middle East for democracy; in other words, how to achieve democratization in the Middle East.”

Democracy in the Middle East, he said, should not be defined as a process of merely parliaments and elections, but as an “organic process” or “deep democracy” that preserves the rule of law, separation of powers, and is participatory and pluralistic.” To succeed, the Arab-Israeli conflict must move toward resolution, said Erdogan, who added that, for Turkey, any resolution must include Israel’s right to exist, as well as the creation of a Palestinian state with recognized and secure borders. A multilateral forum to support and encourage democratization should also be created, he said.

The inclusion of Turkey into the European Union (EU) is a critical step toward bringing democracy to the region, said the prime minister. “If you want to prove that civilizations can harmonize and meet, the example of the unification should be the European Union, and this can only happen by Turkey integrating into the EU,” he said.