BY ULUC GURKAN
STAR- This week’s presidential elections in Palestine were the first step of the Middle East’s 2005 election timetable. The second will be in Iraq. Next partial local elections will be held in Saudi Arabia, and new presidents will be elected in Iran in June, and Egypt in October. What do these elections mean? Will the Middle East’s Islamic geography meet democracy this way? The answer to this question is relevant to what sort of a democracy the US wants in the Middle East because those polls in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt will be held as part of the US’ Greater Middle East Project (GME). Similarly, elections in Palestine were held this way. Can we say that these elections will be an initial step on the way to democracy? Some people argue for this. However, nobody thinks that this will be first-rate democracy, that is, nobody believes that the region will be remade on the basis of democracy. It will be a second-class democracy.
A nation under occupation elected the president in Palestine. If this situation doesn’t change and Palestine can’t become an independent sovereign state, can we speak of a democracy? How can Palestine become a state on its own territory? Firstly, towards this end, Israel should end its insistent policies based on the use of military force. This depends on the US putting pressure on Israel. Would the US pressure Israel for Palestine when it doesn’t trust the latter as an ally? The situation in Iraq is similar to that in Palestine. When Iraq is under US occupation and stuck in the swamp of terrorism, it will hold elections. It would be a miracle to expect a good outcome from elections under these conditions. Sad days await Iraq following the elections. In Saudi Arabia, there is only a little game instead of elections. Half of the municipal boards will be elected by men. Women have neither the right to vote nor run for office. Meanwhile, Egypt is considered the GME’S most important testing ground. For this reason, the results of elections there are important. Obviously, the US has no direct impact on Iran. However, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has been unable to carry out the reforms he promised and so the Iranian people are no longer excited about democracy. In this desert of dictatorships hemmed in by US occupation and interests, Turkey, as an oasis of democracy, holds out the hope of life to people. Is it possible not to voice our gratitude to Ataturk and his colleagues for this? However, we should seriously wonder how aware we are of this fact.