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Erdogan Basking In The Shadows Of The Ottoman Era

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It is hard to fathom why Turkey’s President Erdogan, who embarked on the most impressive social, political, and economic reforms during his first ten years in office, turned around and systematically destroyed all that he had achieved. In doing so, he transformed the country into a police state where Islamic nationalism runs supreme. It is no secret that Erdogan is an ambitious man who aspires to become the leader of the Sunni Muslim world and dreams of restoring the “glory” of the Ottoman Empire. He is sparing no efforts to extend Turkey’s wings over countries that he can manipulate and exploit in the Middle East and the Caucasus. Even a cursory review of his actions at home and abroad unmistakably shows that there is a pattern to his madness to resurrect not only images but the influence of the vanished Ottoman Empire that died disgracefully in the wake of World War I.

The Ottoman Empire will always be remembered by its last infamous chapter—the genocide of the Armenian people. Thus, when Erdogan recounts the presumed splendor of the Ottoman era, it should have a chilling effect on any country with which Erdogan seeks active bilateral relations, because there are always sinister intentions behind his overtures. To expand his regional influence, Erdogan has followed the footprint of the Ottomans by first taking extraordinary coercive measures to consolidate his absolute powers at home.

Following the July 2016 failed military coup, he ruthlessly cracked down on his real and perceived political adversaries, including anyone suspected of having an affiliation with his arch enemy Fethullah Gülen, whom he accused of being behind the coup. He took control over the civilian and government institutions by repeatedly extending the state emergency laws. Instead of continuing to promote freedoms and human rights to encourage creativity and competitiveness, he is choking the Turkish people’s natural resourcefulness and ability to excel. With little or no opposition at home, Erdogan moved to promote his Ottoman penchant to establish military bases in Qatar and Somalia, and military ties with Tunisia. Now he is scheming to build another military installation on the strategically located Sudanese Island of Suakin.

Erdogan intends to utilize the island as a military outpost, the way it had served during the Ottoman era. Egypt and Saudi Arabia believe that Erdogan’s military adventure will upset the regional balance of power, which is the recipe for instability and incessant violence. Thus, instead of alleviating the plight of the nearly 20 million Turks under the poverty line, Erdogan is spending billions on his foreign exploits. To seize on the chaotic conditions in Syria, Erdogan decided to undertake a military offensive to crush the Syrian Democratic Force (YPG), which he accuses of being supportive of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), against whom he has been fighting a war of insurgency for 34 years. Although he asserts that his purpose is the elimination of all terrorist elements to protect his people, his real objectives are: establishing a permanent foot-hold in Syria, which was ruled by the Ottomans; maintaining the support of his nationalistic constituency; demonstrating that he is independent and free to use his military as he sees fit; and most importantly, preventing the Syrian Kurds from cementing their autonomous rule.

Hence, instead of solving the conflict with his own Kurdish community, who merely seeks to preserve their culture, he invades Syria under false pretenses to secure his other objectives which are consistent with his Ottoman vision. In the Balkans, Turkey is systematically entrenching itself by increasing its commercial and cultural presence which is evocative of Ottoman rule. In Albania, Turkey is building the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline through the country to supply gas to Europe, and a Turkish consortium is looking to build the nation’s second airport. He is investing in Kosovo’sinfrastructure, building its only international airport, and managing the country’s energy. The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) is assisting the Balkan and Caucasian countries in the fields of industry, agriculture, infrastructure, finance, healthcare, and education. In addition, Erdogan is blatantly interfering in other neighboring countries—including Afghanistan, Albania, Georgia, and Kosovo—where he is exerting inordinate pressure on their governments to close all schools affiliated with the Gülen movement, threatening to use his economic and political levers against these countries unless they fire and replace the teachers with others who subscribe to his religious Islamist orientation.

Rather than investing in infrastructure, housing, education, and healthcare in the Southeast (Turkey’s poorest region), he is financing foreign projects aimed at influencing and preserving cultural heritage dating back to the Ottoman Empire, further solidifying Turkey’s regional outreach. Although theoretically Turkey still seeks membership in the EU, the accession process is basically frozen, and Erdogan certainly prefers to leave it that way because he is not willing to reverse course and reinstate freedom of the press and human rights, on which the EU insists as a precondition to discussing accession in earnest. Thus, instead of making Turkey a model of Islamic democracy that meets the principal requirements of the EU, he transformed Turkey into an authoritarian Islamic state that resembles the Ottoman governing style. Turkey’s role in NATO appears to be increasingly waning as Erdogan continues to gravitate toward Russia, which is considered the West’s staunchest adversary, cozying up to Putin who declared war on American democracy. Recently, he reached an agreement with Moscow to buy the S-400 Air Defense System, and to cooperate in building three nuclearplants – though for civilian purposes they could easily be converted to nuclear weapons production. This development severely erodes Turkey’s reliability as a NATO member and as a Western ally. The West must no longer invoke Turkey’s geostrategic importance as an excuse for doing nothing to arrest Erdogan’s adventurism. No punitive action should be ruled out to stop him from further destabilizing the region because of his ill-fated aspirations to resurrect some semblance of the Ottoman Empire and satisfy his lust for ever more power.

Alon Ben-Meir: Time To Kick Turkey Out Of NATO

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By Alon Ben-Meir,
The egregious violation of freedom of the press in Turkey has reached a mammoth proportion that places Turkey among the most oppressive nations for journalists. It is sadder than sad that the US and the EU, who champion free press as one of the main pillars of democracy, have largely left Turkey’s President Erdogan free to crush not only free press, but also freedom of speech and peaceful demonstrations.
The irony here is that Turkey, as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has violated every provision of NATO’s founding treaty regarding human rights. Indeed, each member state is required to fully adhere to “…safeguard[ing] the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law.” To be sure, Erdogan has given himself license to mock these principles without any noteworthy rebuke from other NATO members.
It is time to consider kicking Turkey out of NATO, regardless of how difficult and complicated this far-reaching measure may be. Turkey has long since forsaken Western values while becoming an increasingly zealous Islamic state. Indeed, contrary to Erdogan’s manipulative narrative about Turkey’s presumed democracy, the country under his watch is governed by an authoritarian regime that has no place among Western democracies.
The violation of free press and the systematic undermining of human rights demands that the West reevaluate its relationship with Turkey and stop searching for excuses to justify its self-conceit about Erdogan’s outrageous behavior. Here is a dossier of Erdogan’s gross violations of freedom of the press and his suppression of democratic values:
Turkey today has become the global leader of incarcerated journalists. The Stockholm Center for Freedom, a Sweden-based advocacy agency, reports that as of July 2017 the Turkish government has arrested 228 journalists and convicted an additional twenty-five. Reporters Without Borders’ 2017 World Press Freedom Index ranks Turkey 155 out of 180 countries.
President Erdogan has all but silenced any media outlets that have attempted any scrutiny of his policies, particularly his crackdown on anyone whom he perceives to be an enemy. As such, he has systematically denied the Turkish public any unbiased source of information from domestic newspapers, radio, and television.
He uses the criminal justice system to prosecute journalists on false charges of terrorism, insulting the president, or fabricated crimes against the state. Many journalists have been charged and convicted for reporting that the government is supplying weapons to the Islamic State (ISIS), when in fact the government did just that, and turned a blind eye to ISIS’ oil being smuggled into the country.
Erdogan regularly exerts tremendous pressure on various media organizations to dismiss journalists who write anything critical of the government, such as those who worked for the newspaper Cumhuriyet. Investigative journalism is viewed as treason against the state, which has de facto choked off any effort by journalists to investigate any wrongdoing by officials, especially in the rampant number of corruption cases that included several ministers and his own son.
He took over or closed down private media companies, including Feza Publications (parent company of Zaman and Cihan), and in many cases assigned trustees to media organizations, which is absolutely illegal and against Turkey’s own constitution, which he labored so hard to pass.
Many of Turkey’s business tycoons, who have extensive media holdings, are given major inner-city construction projects in exchange for keeping their reporters in check and forbidding them from publishing critical commentary about the government.
He regularly targets journalists and media outlets associated with the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of being a terrorist organization. Human Rights Watch reported that he closed nearly 170 media organizations and publishing outlets under the state emergency law that was enacted following the failed military coup in July 2016, severely undermining every aspect of human rights and the rule of law.
Erdogan targeted Kurdish journalists in particular and pro-Kurdish political activists who have expressed support for Kurdish rights, including prominent academics and mayors, accusing them of having links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In fact, none of the accused committed any wrongdoing—their arrests were arbitrary and lacked any semblance of legitimacy.
He stifled not only freedom of the press, but free speech in general. According to the Twitter Transparency Report, Erdogan demanded that Twitter remove any offending posts. Of the 33,593 Twitter accounts reported in 2016, over 23,000 were reported by the Turkish government, more than all other countries put together.
Fearing retribution from the police, even private news outlets no longer dare to report on anything which is not to the liking of the government—including demonstrations or clashes related to the Kurdish problem. Self-censorship by journalists has become a common practice, while quietening colleagues who try to protect the basic ethics of journalism.
Given that public demonstration is another form of free expression, Erdogan ensures that no demonstration can take place without a specific permit. In 2015, a bill was passed allowing the police to use excessive force to quell demonstrations and incarcerate those who participate in unauthorized demonstrations for up to 48 hours, presumably to maintain public order. Protesters wearing full or even partial masks could face up to five years in prison, especially if they are accused of disseminating propaganda for terrorist organizations.
Journalists are attacked for merely advocating for the resumption of peace talks with the PKK, or if they refer to PKK members as militants rather than terrorists. The Erdogan government has put freedom of the press under siege, and is bent on destroying journalism completely.
Erdogan’s crackdown on press freedom, however, is not limited to Turkish journalists and reporters; it has expanded beyond Turkey’s borders. As a case in point, Turkish consular officials in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, asked Turks in the country to report on any insult directed against Erdogan. Moreover, Turkey has targeted many foreign journalists, among them a French photojournalist who was arrested and expelled, and another reporter for a German television station who was denied entry into the country.
Turkish state officials have accused European and Western media organizations of being hypocritical in their representation of the media in Turkey, as Western states have their own standards of censorship on sensitive matters related to national security.
Although on a couple of occasions the European Union issued scathing reports about Turkey’s serious backsliding on press freedom, the EU and the US (along with the Council of Europe and the UN Human Rights Council) have unfortunately taken no punitive measures to stop Erdogan’s rampage against free press.
Sadly, the European community and the US are betraying their democratic values. They continue to treat Erdogan with kid gloves because he is presumably an important player against ISIS, and because he is allowing the US and its allies to use Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base to launch air attacks against ISIS.
To be sure, Erdogan has been successful in blackmailing the West. He skillfully uses his leverage to control the flow of Syrian refugees to Europe and cement Turkey’s geostrategic position as the hub for the transfer of oil and gas to Europe.
Turkey under Erdogan is not only violating freedom of the press, individual liberties, and the public’s right for peaceful demonstration; every stratum of Tukey’s governing authorities—including the police, the judiciary, the bureaucracy and the political echelon of the AK Party—is corrupt to the core and irredeemable.
NATO cannot allow one of its member states to erode the alliance from within and still expect it to be a viable force that can maintain and protect European security and its moral values.
No country led by a dictator that attacks US allies—such as the Kurds in Syria—should remain a member of NATO, and no country that sold weapons to ISIS should be a member of NATO.
No country that cozies up to and buys weapons from America’s enemy—Russia—should continue to be a member of NATO, and no country which is being transformed into an extremist Islamic state by a zealous leader should maintain its place as a member of NATO.
And no country that has violated every tenet of democracy, engages in gross human rights abuses, and wreaks havoc on its population deserves to stay in the NATO alliance.
Turkey under Erdogan is no longer a reliable nor trustworthy partner, and has become a liability rather than a viable and constructive member of the organization, which could severely impact NATO’s cohesiveness, effectiveness, and preparedness to meet any threat to European security.
For this reason, NATO should warn Erdogan that unless he reverses his policies and reinstitutes basic democratic principles, especially human rights and freedom of the press, Turkey will be kicked out of NATO.
Certainly, I am not holding my breath that NATO will act on this anytime soon, but I feel very strongly that a discussion on this critical issue within NATO should take place.

 

Syria: A Testament To International Moral Bankruptcy

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Alon ben meir

Alon ben meir

By Alon Ben-Meir,

Much has been written about Syria’s civil war which has engulfed the country for the past six years, but sadly the mounting death and destruction in Syria has long since become mere statistics. The international community grew comfortably numb to the horror, the likes of which we haven’t seen since World War II. Both internal and external players have been nurturing their vested interests by prolonging the deadly conflict, hoping to improve their position to serve their long-term objectives. The irony is that none of the external main players—Russia, Iran, US, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia—and the domestic actors (the Assad regime, Sunnis, and Kurds) will end up with such lasting gains that outweigh the horrifying losses that have been inflicted on the country and its citizens.
What happened to the sentiment of “never again” that was universally embraced in the wake of World War II to prevent calamities such as this from occurring? How low will the moral bar of the international community sink before we awake to the unfolding catastrophe?
How many more men, women, and children must die, and how much ruin can the country further sustain before we act to stop this madness that seems to infect every party involved, when nothing else matters but their criminal self-interest?
‘Crimes against humanity’ became a mere slogan, shaming every domestic and foreign party that could have stopped the slaughter but did nothing. They immunized themselves, assumed no responsibility, and discharged their moral culpability while the blood of innocent Syrian people continues to stream, marring what’s left of their conscience.
While Syrian men and women suffered untold losses, pain, agony, and deprivation, the children—yes, millions of children—have suffered beyond the pale of wrenching ache and anguish, quietly despairing for they remain helpless and destitute.
According to World Vision International, “millions of children under five are now more vulnerable than ever to physical trauma, injuries, communicable diseases, and malnutrition.” At least 8.2 million children inside Syria and across the region are now experiencing displacement, shattered health systems, and food insecurity, while over 2 million are growing up as refugees.
Nearly three million under the age of five have grown up knowing only war. One in four children is at risk of severe mental health disorders, with potentially lifelong consequences. Attacks on hospitals have left 43 percent of Syrian hospitals functional, while half of Syria’s doctors have fled the country.
As many as 80,000 children in Syria are believed to be infected with polio, which was eradicated in Syria in 1995. The ongoing bombing and shelling is the main cause behind the children’s psychological trauma that will leave indelible emotional scars from which they will suffer throughout their adult lives. During the five-year span of the conflict, life expectancy at birth has dropped by 15 years, and to top it all, tens of thousands of children were killed.
And if this is not enough, just think about the damage that has been inflicted on these children, who have been deprived of basic education with one in every four schoolsdamaged, destroyed, or used for displaced people. There were 400,000 more children out of school in 2015 than 2014, as more than 4,000 attacks against schools have made these educational institutions financially insolvent.
These are not mere numbers. We are talking about a catastrophe in the making for all to see. Just imagine, two generations have been lost; never again will they know normalcy but only anguish and uncertainty, while the world watches with complacency.
No one is talking about a solution that could bring this calamitous war to a conclusion. The UNSC has been inept at best. Russia’s veto-wielding power has and continues to prevent the passage of any solution that does not meet its total requirements. President Putin will continue to support Assad and spare no effort to maintain Russia’s presence in Syria as a springboard to enhance its regional influence.
Iran, who is fighting for regional hegemony, will continue to support Assad’s regime until the last Syrian soldier. The mullahs do so in the ‘name of the almighty,’ which gives them the ‘moral authority’ to ravage the country for as long as it takes to secure their hegemonic ambitions from the Mediterranean to the Gulf.
Turkey’s President Erdogan, who wishes to spread his wings throughout the Middle East, is fighting to secure a foot-hold in Syria. He is indiscriminately bombing the Syrian Kurdish fortifications, accusing them of supporting the PKK to prevent them from establishing their own autonomous rule, which can only further destabilize Syria.
The US was the only country that could have spared this horror, under the Obama administration. Sadly, Obama sat on his hands, allowing Russia and Iran to continue to pillage the country and consolidate their gains. President Trump, with all his boasting, has yet to lift a finger other than ineffectively bombing a Syrian air field in response to Assad’s use of chemical weapons only to show his bravado, while shamefully stopping the training of anti-Assad rebels and rendering them vulnerable to the merciless attacks by Syrian, Russian, and Iranian forces.
Saudi Arabia continues to provide money and materials to the rebels only to serve its interests as it continues to wage a proxy war against Shiite Iran for regional dominance, making Syria the battleground between the two sects while the Syrian people pay the price.
Leave it of course to Assad to rampage the country only to stay in power. Many dictators have treated their people with ruthlessness and cruelty to maintain their grip on power, but no despot in recent years has inflicted so much devastation, desolation, and despair on his own country like Assad has, while doing Russia’s and Iran’s biddings.
Take a look at the monstrosity that Assad has committed—that would squeeze the heart of any normal person with the capacity to feel. Nearly 500,000 Syrians have been killedsince the beginning of the civil war in 2011. An estimated 13.5 million people, including over 6 million children, are in need of humanitarian assistance and protection; 6.3 million people are internally displaced and nearly five million Syrians have fled the country and become refugees.
In addition to the staggering human toll, the cost of the conflict in Syria to date is estimated at $275 billion, and there is no end in sight to the astronomical losses. One would think that at a minimum the international community would respond to the human crisis by providing the necessary funding, but unsurprisingly in this area too, the international community falls appallingly short. The United Nations has requested a record amount of $8 billion in aid this year for Syria, and 65 percent of UNICEF’s appeal is underfunded, while over $1 trillion is spent collectively on the military by the five permanent members of the UNSC.
The dismal failures of all the governments and institutions involved directly and indirectly in the Syrian calamity leaves us nowhere but to appeal to the masses. People of conscience, regardless of their country of residence and irrespective of their religious, cultural, or ideological orientation, you must rise now and make your voices heard. Speak up for the voiceless Syrian people who have been betrayed by corrupt head of states and condemned to dispersion, destruction, and death, which is a dreadfully sad testament to the international community’s moral bankruptcy.