Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been busy lately boasting of the difference between the “New Turkey” it claims to have built and the “Old Turkey” left behind. This narrative tells us that we Turks have overcome a past of utter darkness, leaving all evil behind, and have opened up to bright horizons with all good ahead of us.

A sharp eye, however, would instead discern that the “New Turkey” is in fact a continuation of the “Old Turkey” in many aspects. So much so that even the big bugaboo of the “Old Turkey” — “the reactionary threat” — continues to exist today, even if with different names.

Let’s recall first what the “reactionary” threat was. In the Old Turkey, the term signified those who wanted to reverse the Kemalist revolution that put its mark on the second quarter of the 20th century. Accordingly, Ataturk had made a “progressive” leap by dismantling the Islamic Ottoman Empire and replacing it with the secular Republic of Turkey. So the “reactionary forces” were those who resisted this great achievement and longed for the old dark days.

But why did the “reactionary forces” emerge? An objective observer could have given the following answer: “They emerged because the sweeping changes the Kemalist revolution brought about in Turkey threatened the interests and values of certain segments. Those people felt marginalized, humiliated and ostracized. Hence, it was only natural for them to long for the pre-Kemalist era.”