The Guardian published an article by Wadah Khanfar headlined ‘Those who support democracy must welcome the rise of political Islam’. From Tunisia to Egypt, Islamists are gaining the popular vote. The author suggests that the region has suffered a lot as a result of attempts to exclude Islamists and deny them a role in the public sphere. Undoubtedly, Islamists' participation in governance will give rise to a number of challenges, both within the Islamic ranks and with regard to relations with other local and international forces. Islamists should be careful not to fall into the trap of feeling overconfident: they must accommodate other trends, even if it means making painful concessions. Our societies need political consensus, and the participation of all political groups, regardless of their electoral weight. It is this interplay between Islamists and others that will both guarantee the maturation of the Arab democratic transition and lead to an Arab political consensus and stability that has been missing for decades.
According to another Guardian expert, Rime Allaf, the notion of a modern political awakening in the Arab world was first whispered more than a decade ago in Syria, when an assortment of intellectuals, artists, writers and activists lit the spark of what would become known as the Damascus spring. Having risked carefully crossing the regime's red lines in the last years of Hafez al-Assad's reign, they continued to push the boundaries after his son Bashar inherited power in July 2000, willing themselves to believe that he would support a gradual transition to a more pluralistic political system. The author suggests that the sooner the Syrian people get their long-awaited democratic system, the more likely they can reach the right balance.
Meanwhile, Syria is facing stiff sanctions imposed by the Arab League after President Bashar al-Assad refused to allow observers into the country to monitor violence that claimed dozens more lives at the weekend. Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Sunday agreed a package of measures designed to force Assad to end his security crackdown, free prisoners and launch reforms to find an end to the eight-month uprising.
The Hurriyet Daily News reported that opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said Prime Minister Erdoğan’s recent apology on Dersim massacre may bring an internal conflict within Turkey. “The prime minister uses faith-based discrimination in his statements, which is very dangerous. These statements plant the seeds of hate in society. If Erdoğan maintains this attitude, Turkey may quickly come to the point of internal conflict,” Kılıçdaroğlu said in Brussels on Saturday. Prime Minister Erdoğan’s apology for killings in the military operation in 1938 against a rebellion in the eastern province of Dersim, now Tunceli, and accusations against the CHP enflamed a stormy debate between the government and the CHP. Erdoğan had insisted the CHP, which ruled Turkey under a single-party regime at that time, was responsible for killings and should also apologize.
