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Turkish
Islamists: Je Suis Kouachi!
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Originally published under the title, "Turkey's Dance
with Jihadists."
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Demonstrators
praise the Kouachi brothers in the courtyard of Fatih mosque in
Istanbul on January 16.
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On January 16, Muslims in Istanbul's devout Fatih district went to the
mosque for their usual Friday prayers. Before crowds appeared in front of
the mosque, everything looked normal. It was going to be just another day
of quiet prayers. But this time, mosque-goers gathered earlier than the
usual hour. They were there to hold funeral services (in absentia) for
the terrorists who perpetrated the murderous attack on Charlie Hebdo
in Paris -- the Kouachi brothers. Then the worshippers at the mosque held
a demonstration
with a banner and placards:
"If freedom of expression has no
limits, be prepared for our freedom to commit actions with no
limits."
"We are threatening (you)! Do you
dare?"
"We are all Kouachi" (in what
appears like the Turkish response to the Charlie Hebdo slogan 'Je
suis Charlie')
In a similar eulogy, members of the Aczmendi Lodge in Istanbul
conducted funeral prayers for the Kouachi brothers and praised them as
"martyrs." And a billboard
in the eastern town of Tatvan read: "Salute to the Kouachi brothers
who avenged the Messenger of Allah. May Allah accept your
martyrdom."
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A
billboard in the eastern town of Tatvan reads: "Salute to the
Kouachi brothers who avenged the Messenger of Allah. May Allah accept
your martyrdom."
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All of which prompted prominent Turkish columnist Anmet Hakan to ask
in the daily, Hurriyet: "Are Muslims who are killed by other
Muslims the orphans of the Muslim world?" He was curious why the
articles of the Turkish Penal Code that regulate "praising crime and
criminals" were never applied to Islamist protesters while Turkish
prosecutors, citing the same article, have the habit of indicting
thousands of other individuals. Good question. But it will most likely
remain unanswered. Forever.
The fact is, Turkey's ruling Islamists and their judges probably do
not view the Kouachi brothers as people whose praise should amount to
offence on the basis of praising criminals. On a de facto basis, perhaps,
the Kouachi brothers are not even viewed as criminals. But that should
not come as a surprise for a country whose prime minister has just
offered a red-carpet welcome
ceremony to Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas' political bureau.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu who, ironically, was among the many
statesmen from across the world who marched in Paris for solidarity with
the victims and denounce terror, thinks that Israel's Prime Minister,
Benjamin Netanyahu, is no different than the Kouachi brothers who left
behind 17 dead. Davutoglu
said that Netanyahu has committed crimes against humanity the same as
those terrorists who carried out the Paris massacre. Insane? Just Turkish
Islamism.
Rafael Sadi, one of tens of thousands of Turkish Jews living in
Israel, wrote an open
letter to Davutoglu:
I have just watched your speech
likening the Israeli prime minister to terrorists ... It is truly
saddening that the country whose prime minister who likened a man
defending his country against Arab terrorism that has been unstoppably
targeting it for the last 67 years is my first country ...
As the prime minister of a country that
has lost 40,000 citizens in terrorism, could you explain to me how should
we treat those who come to kill our children? You call the leaders of the
Hamas terror organization 'my brothers.' Your country, only last year,
sent $300 million to Hamas in financial aid. (The Turkish missile
company) Roketsan sent to Hamas, through the company Tewazun, 10,000
rocket parts... And shamelessly you liken a prime minister who has
devoted himself to protect his country to terrorists ...
I have felt pain [of your words], being
a Turkish Jew and an Israeli citizen. Turkey does not deserve a prime
ministerial attitude as such ...
Ironically, Turkey's systematic
euphemizing of Islamist terrorism comes at a time when the country
itself is at risk of being a target of it.
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Ironically, Turkey's systematic euphemizing of Islamist terrorism comes
at a time when the country itself is exposed to the risk of being a
target of the kind of men Turks praise as martyrs. Recently, a police
intelligence report raised red alert over 3000 or so people
in Turkey with links to the jihadist Islamic State [IS], which has
conquered parts of Syria and Iraq. The police are deeply concerned over
possible future acts of terror by IS "sleeper cells" in Turkey.
Worse, those 3000 pro-IS sleeper cell members in Turkey come in addition
to between 700 and 1000 Turks fighting for IS in Iraq and Syria. Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has admitted Turkey's concern over their
potential return to Turkey.
Davutoglu, Cavusoglu and their fellow Islamists in the Turkish cabinet
should have thought about that grim possibility much earlier. In October,
Metropoll, a Turkish pollster, found that "only a mere five percent
of Turks felt sympathetic to ISIL." So, jihadist sentiment in Turkey
was only marginal. But this author wrote at
that time:
If a mere 5% of Turks feel sympathetic
to ISIL, it means there are nearly 4 million souls residing in Turkey who
feel sympathetic to jihadists. And that is too many. If 10% of ISIL
sympathizers in Turkey decided to join the jihad, that would mean 400,000
new jihadists willing to fight across the border in Iraq and Syria, or
inside Turkey if they think Ankara allied with the West against their
Salafist comrades.
Davutoglu should be able to understand that if a terrorist decided to
strike Turkey in the name of jihad, his name will not be Benjamin
Netanyahu.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a
columnist for the Turkish daily
Hürriyet and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
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