Image

Turkey: You reap what you sow (Fr. Joseph Varghese)

Published on 29 June, 2016
Turkey: You reap what you sow (Fr. Joseph Varghese)
Yesterday’s attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk airport has killed 41 people, at least 13 of them foreigners, and injured more than 230. This is the latest assault on Turkey’s international standing of a stable Islamic

Turkey’s biggest cities, Ankara and Istanbul, have been hit by a spate of deadly bombings. The latest, targeting Ataturk airport in Istanbul, is one of Europe’s busiest transport hubs, attracting more than 60 million travellers a year.

It is projected that being secular and a future role model for other mainly Islamic societies because of its rich history of secularism. America and the United Kingdom, and other nations, often claim that Turkey is a beacon of hope and that it is evidence that democracy and secularism can exist within a mainly Muslim nation state. However, during this so-called “golden age” of secularism it is clear that religious and ethnic minorities have suffered greatly in modern day Turkey. Therefore, how true is it that Turkey is secular?

If we look at the founding father of modern day Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, then it is clear that he himself supported Turkish nationalism and the destruction of Christianity which continued to take place after the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Orthodox Christian genocide of 1915.

Therefore, it is clear that Turkish nationalism and secularism is tainted by its anti-Christian nature and also its anti-Kurdish nature. After all, the nation state of Turkey was about Turkish nationalism and secularism did not protect the religious or ethnic minorities of this diverse nation.
In spite of this, the myth of modernity and secularism based on the founding father prevails and Western nations are very optimistic about Turkey. Yes, Ataturk faced many difficulties and from a Turkish point of view he was very astute because he preserved a Turkish state when it was threatened by others. Yet in order to do this he crushed others and therefore the “bedrock” from the start was “frail” because it was based on Turkish nationalism.
Ataturk did implement many reforms in order to modernize Turkey and he did lay the foundation stone for a secular based state. In this sense he crushed Islamist hopes of a Sharia Islamic state and he gave more rights to females which did not exist in the old Ottoman Empire. However, his legacy of modernity and secularism is tainted by the overt nationalism of old Turkey and this nationalism is still strong in modern day Turkey.
Therefore, if secularism means having the right to crush Christian minorities, moderate Muslim minorities like the Alevi, and ethnic minorities like the Assyrians, Syriacs, Armenians, and Kurds, in modern day Turkey; then it is not the secularism which I support. Given this, modernization and secularism is tainted by this overtly nationalist nation state and of course the Sunni orthodox mindset means that religious inequality is the norm?
In the 1990s the Alevi Muslims witnessed an upsurge in attacks against them. For example, David Zieden, who wr ote an article called The Alevi of Anatolia, states that “Renewed inter-communal violence is sadly on the rise. In July 1993, at an Alevi cultural festival in Sivas, a Sunni fundamentalist mob set fire to a hotel where many Alevi participants had taken refuge, killing 35 of them. State security services did not interfere and prosecution against leaders of the riot was not energetically pursued. (41) In 1994, Istanbul municipal leaders from the Refah Islamic political party tried to raze an Alevi tekke (monastery) and close the Ezgi cafe where young Alevis frequently gathered.”

Meanwhile, if we focus on recent times then it is clear that persecution is still continuing. After all, in 2007 three Christians had their throats slit. Two of the victims had converted from Islam to Christianity, therefore, Necati Aydia, 36, and Ugur Yuksel, 32, were killed by Islamic fanatics on the grounds of merely leaving Islam. While the other murdered Christian, Tilmann Geske, 46, was a German citizen. One of the killers stated in the Hurriyet newspaper, that “We didn’t do this for ourselves. We did it for our religion. May this be a lesson to the enemies of religion.”

There is also a realization that in Iraq, ISIL has the support of Sunni tribes and elements of the former Baath Party, which became deeply disenchanted by the discriminatory and repressive policies of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Turkey’s declared policy towards the future of Iraq and Syria is very much in line with that of the United States as it seeks the reconstitution of Iraq and Syria within their existing borders with regimes more representative of their diverse populations. Yet, there is also recognition that the region is undergoing tremendous instability and transformation that may lead to unforeseen future territorial and political configurations. The Turkish government is consciously aware that Turkey is a neighbor to this geography and hence likely to continue to err on the side of caution and avoid direct military involvement with ISIL. This sense of vigilance is also fueled by the complicated situation that the Kurds are under attack by ISIL in Rojava (the Kurdish belt of north and northeast Syria where the city of Kobane is situated) creates for Turkey.

In turn IS sees Turkey as enemy because it sees its government as being un-Islamic and too close to its Western allies in Nato. IS is also feeling the pressure as the Turkish authorities move to close down its networks inside Turkey.

Turkey’s other main foe, Kurdish separatists, have carried out many attacks over the years but their primary targets have tended to be Turkish policemen and soldiers.

Turkey’s aid of Al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria has developed from an open secret to an accepted fact. In November 2015, a footage emerged of Turkish border guards leisurely conversing with ISIS militants in Kassab. There is a deluge of evidence that Turkey is supplying ISIS with weapons via trucks driving through the border. US Vice President Joe Biden admitted that his Turkish ally was responsible for allowing ISIS into Syria. The statements were an attempt to deflect blame for ISIS away from the US and solely onto its allies. Russian president Putin also openly called out Erdogan as an ‘accomplice of terrorism’. Russia has previously revealed reconnaissance footage showing ISIS oil trucks smuggling Syrian oil into Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently taken control of six churches in the war-torn southeastern city of Diyarbakir in his latest move to squash freedom of speech and religious movement. The state-sanctioned seizure is just the latest in a number of worrying developments to come out of increasingly hardline Turkey, which is in advanced talks with the EU over visa-free travel for its 80 million citizens. Included in the seizures are Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches, one of which is 1600 years old.
Join WhatsApp News
മലയാളത്തില്‍ ടൈപ്പ് ചെയ്യാന്‍ ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്ക് ചെയ്യുക