An opposition motion to bring down the coalition government in Turkey led by the pro-Islamist Necmettin Erbakan was narrowly defeated last week. This failure was immediately followed by the prosecutors' application to the Constitutional Court to close down Erbakan's Welfare (Refah) Party for several violations of the Constitution and the laws. He had sworn oaths to uphold those articles.

Some of the Turkish politicians, including the veteran statesman President Demirel, frequently had said that they wanted a ``talking Turkey''.

``Talking Turks'' have now arrived at a point of debating the very principles of the Republic and their own identity. It looks that it has become more mandatory that the moderate, national, tolerant and democratic groups in Turkey find common ground on which to unite the majority of the citizens.

Erbakan's party, which drew 21 per cent of the votes in the 1995 elections and won the race for the mayors' offices, in Ankara and Istanbul as well, capitalised on the anger of the lower middle class as well as the shortcomings of its competitors, and promised to bring concrete solutions to problems ranging from air pollution to environment, from the price of bread to city transportation.

It tried to symbolise the response of the conservatives with a rural background to the cultural and ethical decay of the new rich. Those who come from poorer backgrounds see Islam as being able to save them from the many problems which they face.

But other Turks, who describe themselves as representing ``the 79 per cent of the votes against the pro-Islamists'', were afraid that the minority support for the Welfare Party, now sharing a coalition government with former prime minister Tansu Ciller's True Path Party, might be translated into interference in the secular way of life.

Soon, tough-looking, bearded young men started telling women on the streets to cover themselves. The pro-Islamist municipalities recruited only their own supporters. Some shops stopped selling liquor, and Turkey continued building 1,200 new mosques a year. Religious organisations mushroomed and prospered. Tariqats, or religious orders, closed during Ataturk's time, got reactivated.

When Erbakan offered their Shaikhs `iftar' supper during the last Ramadan in his official residence, they pulled up in their luxurious cars, all wearing special Islamic headgear and robes. The secular elite felt that a Turkish Prime Minister could not do that in the wake of intense debate on the misuse of religion, exhibiting further several violations of law.

Religious orders were forbidden. Such clothing could be worn only by officials and during ceremonies. These were the constitutional articles the Prime Minister had sworn to uphold. But the tariqats had become reservoir of financial contribution, power and vote.

At a ``Jerusalem Night'', conveniently organised on the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's revolution in Iran, in Sincan, a town near Ankara, an inscription on the wall read: ``The foundation of Shariah will be laid here.'' The Iranian ambassador had to leave Turkey for a statement he had made there. The next day, tanks rolled Sincan streets. All of Turkey knew that the army had delivered a message.

There has been an explosion in the sale of pump-action rifles. Many fear that the Welfare members were buying them, in preparation to secure power by force if necessary. The present level of registered weapons is 8,10,000, and there are reportedly upto three times unregistered ones.

One section of a Welfare student dormitory has been found to be a firing range. A Welfare mayor urged Muslims to ``nurse and preserve the hatred and revengefullness they felt inside until the very day would come.'' Another Welfare mayor said: ``If they try to close the religious schools, blood will be shed. It will be worse than Algeria. This is what I want.''

What the secular-minded people in Turkey want, on the other hand, is the Constitutional Court to review all such activites and decide whether the Welfare Party may be allowed to exist in a democratic framework.

The writer is professor of international relations at Ankara University in Turkey

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.