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Erdoğan's
Western Enablers
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Originally published under the title, "Who lost
Turkey?"
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Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long been a darling of the West.
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The question [of who lost Turkey] is no doubt too late and futile to
ask. A quick, but realistic answer, is probably "the Turks
themselves," or, related to this, "it was destined to get
lost." After all, how Turkey is being governed today is a perfect
reflection of what constitutes the predominant cultural, sociological and
political values/norms in the country – each with economic derivatives of
same or similar variables.
We are all accountable by how rightly or wrongly we assessed the
political phenomena; journalists by what accuracy their archives dating
back to 10 or so years ago would produce, and politicians by their
statements in the same retrospect. Any randomly selected opinion in this
column since 2002 would too boringly portray the gloomy country we live
in today, often with a note that "wished to be wrong."
Then there were the naïve and/or myopic and/or morally corrupt
enablers who cared more about a "transactional plus," often the
product of short-sighted miscalculation based on the self-deception
"yeah, but we can work with them." Today, their fancy words in
recent political history could make a colossal anthology of "how not
to deal with Islamists." Here is an extremely summarized selection
(due to space limitations):
Western words about Erdoğan and
Turkey make for a colossal anthology of how not to deal with Islamists.
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Former President George W. Bush said in 2004
that Turkey demonstrated "how to be a Muslim country and at the same
time a country which embraces democracy and the rule of law and freedom."
Judging from where Turkey stands today in view of all the virtues Mr.
Bush mentioned, his statement is not even funny.
Condoleeza Rice argued
in 2007 that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) "has been
dedicated to pulling Turkey west towards Europe." Her homework in
2015 should be to write that line 200 times every day – until the day
Turkey becomes an EU member.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said
the AKP "is made up of profound European reformers." (2008).
This is one of my favorites. Mr. Bildt does not even need homework.
History will remember him as a politician with an exceptional foresight
into Turkish (and Islamic) politics.
President Barack Obama predicted
that Turkey and the U.S. could build a "model partnership."
(2009). And in 2015 President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is still wondering why
"I had very good relations with Obama when I first came to power …
but [now] we see things have started to develop in a different way, which
I barely understand." Why, really, does Mr. Obama refuse to be
cheated anymore? Why does he no longer see that his model partner is a
cradle of democracy and freedoms? Odd.
America, again. Former President Bill Clinton praised
Turkey for its "successful endorsement of secularism while letting
people express religious beliefs without imposing them on others."
(2009). What a visionary.
And, according
to former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a democracy like Turkey is
"proof that there is no contradiction between the Islamic faith and
an enlightened society." Maybe. But Mr. Schroeder's homework should
be to write 500 times every day that "Islam is different than
political Islam."
Stephan Füle, the EU's enlargement commissioner praised Turkey's
"remarkable advances in reforms." (2010). Very good. In Mr.
Füle's vision, Turkey should have become a member five years after he
diagnosed good health. Maybe this year it will? One feels tempted to
drink the same beverage Mr. Füle drinks: it must be causing mental
wonders.
Tony Blair, in his memoirs, praised
Mr. Erdoğan and his one-time ally and former president, Abdullah Gül, as
"sensitive and foresighted people … easy to reconcile with."
Mr. Blair's punishment should be to be appointed as U.N. special envoy
for oversight of democracy in Turkey.
Forget Time magazine's 2011 cover on which Mr. Erdoğan was Person of
the Year. Forget, also, Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and
other Commonwealth realms, and her "ah-but-Turkey-is-a-bridge-between-the-west-and-east"
parlance.
Among all contenders for the prestigious "1st Traditional How to
Most Tragicomically Read Turkey Prize," the winner, for this
columnist, is Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt for her
unchallenged: "I complimented the [Turkish] president on the
progress on democratic reforms and improvement of fundamental
rights." Ms. Thorning-Schmidt said that in 2014, which is why she is
also the front-runner in the "Naïve, Myopic and Morally Corrupt
Enablers" category.
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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