Turkish Premier’s #MyJihad or Slander Across the USA

The pro-government daily Today’s Zaman reports that a ‘pro-Israeli, anti-Islamic extremist group, known for running anti-Muslim ads in the New York subway, has depicted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a terrorist in ads targeting the concept of jihad in Islam. The anti-jihad ads were designed by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) as a response to “MyJihad,” a public education campaign that seeks to share the proper meaning of jihad as believed and practiced by the majority of Muslims. MyJihad has been running various ads on buses and trains in cities across the US, in which it has tried to show the global values of Islam with such slogans as “My Jihad is not to judge people by their cover. What’s yours?” and “My Jihad is to build friendships across the aisle. What’s yours?” The AFDI, widely known for its controversial attacks on Islam, apparently designed its ads in the same way but with the opposite aim. One of the ads shows the angry face of Erdoğan next to a passage from a poem by Ziya Gökalp, a Turkish sociologist and writer, that Erdoğan famously recited in 1998. The poem reads, “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers,” and next to this, the AFDI had added the sentence “That’s My Jihad. What’s yours?”’. [1]

As long ago as 2010, I wrote in the same newspaper that “[n]owadays the term jihad is much bandied about and used and/or abused at will by Muslims as well as non-Muslims the world over. The historian and Islam specialist Mark Sedgwick maintains that the concept of jihad was developed in the eighth century, when it basically functioned as a “mixture of the Army Regulations and the Geneva Conventions, appropriate for the circumstances of the time.” At the time of the Islamic conquests (seventh-eighth centuries), the world was divided between the House of Islam (Dar al-Islam) and the House of War (Dar al-Harb) and international relations between both spheres were primarily military in nature. But as the centuries progressed and relations between Muslims and the outside world achieved a quasi-peaceful status quo, punctuated by commercial exchanges and trade links, the idea of jihad changed as well. There is the well-known distinction between the greater jihad (al-jihad al-akbar) and the lesser jihad (al-jihad al-asghar), between a personal struggle in the way of Allah (crf. Surah 29:69) and an armed struggle to protect believers against oppression and violence perpetrated by unbelievers. In other words, jihad evolved from a code of war into a defensive mechanism, tantamount to a religious duty leading to religious rewards”.[ii]  So much for the meaning of Jihad, either greater or lesser. Returning to Tayyip Erdoğan’s countanace in ads in the New York subway: in ‘1999, Erdoğan served four months in jail after being convicted of “Islamist sedition” for reading Gökalp’s poem at a political rally in Siirt when he was the mayor of İstanbul for the now-defunct Welfare Party (RP). His conviction came two years after an unarmed military intervention on Feb. 28, 1997, often dubbed a postmodern coup, which resulted in the fall of a coalition government led by RP leader Necmettin Erbakan . . . Apart from the attack on Erdoğan, the AFDI created similar ads, with the alleged words of Osama Bin Laden and Times Square bomber Faisal Shazad, and an alleged anti-Semitic sentence from a Hamas-owned TV channel. A lawyer from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) recently sent a letter to the AFDI claiming ownership of the MyJihad ads and stating that the AFDI is violating MyJihad.org’s common law trademark and trade dress, or design, rights’.[3]

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[1] “Anti-Islam extremist group depicts Erdoğan as terrorist in public ads” Today’s Zaman (05 March 2013). http://www.todayszaman.com/news-308855-anti-islam-extremist-group-depicts-erdogan-as-terrorist-in-public-ads.html.

[2] C. Erimtan, “The war in Afghanistan: jihad, foreign fighters and al-Qaeda” Today’s Zaman (29 September 2010). http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?load=detay&link=222918.

[3] “Anti-Islam extremist group depicts Erdoğan as terrorist in public ads”.

Alleged Killers of US Envoy Apprehended???

On Thursday, 4 October 2012, the Turkish English-language daily Hürriyet Daily News reports that two ‘Tunisian citizens accused of being behind the recent murder of the U.S. ambassador to Libya in Benghazi were apprehended last night by police at Istanbul Atatürk Airport while trying to enter Turkey with fake passports, according to private channel Kanal D. The suspects, who were not identified, were detained by members of Turkey’s anti-terrorism squad and subsequently taken to the Istanbul Police Department in the city’s Fatih district for questioning, hurriyet.com.tr reported. Envoy Chris Stevens, as well as three other American diplomatic staff, were killed on Sept. 11 by suspected militants in the middle of a protest in Benghazi over The Innocence of Muslims, a U.S.-made film that mocks Islam’.[1]

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[1] “Alleged killers of US envoy apprehended in Istanbul: Claim” Hürriyet Daily News (04 Oct 2012). http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/alleged-killers-of-us-envoy-apprehended-in-istanbul-claim.aspx?pageID=238&nID=31723&NewsCatID=359.

Syrian National Council Elects New Leader

Syria’s opposition party the Syrian National Council names Adbul Baset Saida its new president (10 June 2012).

Will this PR stunt convince Syria’s minorities, Kurds and Christians primarily, that the opposition is not hell-bent on establishing an Islamic state after they succeed in toppling the Assad regime. In Today’s Zaman, Sinem Cengiz thinks that the “election of Abdelbasset Sida, a Kurd, to lead the Syrian National Council (SNC), Syria’s main opposition umbrella group in exile, is expected to help enlist the support of the 1.5 million-strong Kurdish community, which has largely stayed on the sidelines of the 15-month uprising in Syria”.[1]  Turkey’s wily Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu declared that ““[Irrespective of his ethnicity] the new elected leader’s Syrian identity is enough for us. It is important to see our Kurdish brothers in a management position. Any injustice towards the Kurds will be considered an injustice towards us. We defended this brotherhood, which has a long history, and will continue to defend it forever”.[2]  Funny that . . . Davutoğlu was apparently talking about the Turkish-Kurdish compact in place since the days Sultan Selim I and his attempt to invade Iran in the early 16^th century. Turkey has been dealing with the PKK insurrection since the mid-1980’s and currently, Turkey’s Kurds appear more restive than peaceful. Transposing this Turkish “brotherhood of Turks and Kurds “ to the current situation in Syria, Davutoğlu’s words appear to indicate that Turkey’s support for the Syrian opposition and the SNC will not waver, in spite of the new Kurdish element in the mix. A Turkish diplomatic source told Today’s Zaman that “The most important thing is that Syrians were deciding their fate”, reiterating Turkey’s pseudo-Ottoman stance of strict non-interference and non-aggression.[3]

Clarifying matters, Cengiz explains that “Sida . . . is a secular member of Syria’s minority Kurd community . . . [who has been] living in exile in Sweden for several years, [and who] was the only candidate for the three-month presidency to replace liberal opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun, who had presided over the council since it was created last August”.[4]  So, now the Kurds have been given three months to join the fray and oust Assad . . . Fawaz Tello, a prominent dissident who resigned from the SNC last May, gives this assessment: “Sida was in exile for 40 years. He is not supported by the Kurdish majority in SNC, including the Kurdish individuals and activists. He is also not supported by the Kurdish majority who are not in the SNC, for instance, the Kurdish political council”.[5]

 In other words, it remains unclear what the election of Adbul Baset Saida will bring and how he would be able to mobilize the Kurds (and other minorities) into joining the opposition . . . it seems that his election is nothing but a delaying tactic that should allow more forceful elements to prevail in Syria, in an effort to persuade the UN to intervene and topple Assad in a manner comparable to the Libyan debacle.

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[1] Sinem Cengiz, “Election of Kurd as SNC head may pull Kurds into uprising” Today’s Zaman (10 June 2012). http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=283130.

[2] Sinem Cengiz, “Election of Kurd as SNC head may pull Kurds into uprising”.

[3] Sinem Cengiz, “Election of Kurd as SNC head may pull Kurds into uprising”.

[4] Sinem Cengiz, “Election of Kurd as SNC head may pull Kurds into uprising”.

[5] Sinem Cengiz, “Election of Kurd as SNC head may pull Kurds into uprising”.

Aya Sofya or Hagia Sophia: Church, Mosque or Museum???

The news agency Reuters reports that ‘[t]housands of devout Muslims prayed outside Turkey’s historic Hagia Sophia museum on Saturday [, 26 May] to protest a 1934 law that bars religious services at the former church and mosque. Worshippers shouted, “Break the chains, let Hagia Sophia Mosque open,” and “God is great” before kneeling in prayer as tourists looked on. Turkey’s secular laws prevent Muslims and Christians from formal worship within the 6^th-century monument, the world’s greatest cathedral for almost a millennium before invading Ottomans converted it into a mosque in the 15th century. “Keeping Hagia Sophia Mosque closed is an insult to our mostly Muslim population of 75 million. It symbolises our ill-treatment by the West,” Salih Turhan, head of the Anatolian Youth Association, which organised the event, told the crowd, whose male and female worshippers prayed separately according to Islamic custom. The government has rejected requests from both Christians and Muslims to hold formal prayers at the site, historically and spiritually significant to adherents of both religions. The rally’s size and location signals more tolerance for religious expression under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose party traces its roots to a banned Islamist movement. His government has also allowed Christian worship at sites that were off-limits for decades, as it seeks to bring human rights in line with the European Union, which it aims to join. Turhan told Reuters his group staged the prayers ahead of celebrations next week marking the 559^th anniversary of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet’s conquest of Byzantine Constantinople. “As the grandchildren of Mehmet the Conqueror, seeking the re-opening Hagia Sophia as a mosque is our legitimate right,” Turhan said in an interview. Worshippers refrained from entering the museum, one of Turkey’s most-visited tourist destinations and whose famous dome is considered a triumph of Byzantine architecture. Some devout Turks believe that barring worship at Hagia Sophia is an affront against Sultan Mehmet, who designated it as a mosque and who, like other Ottoman leaders, served as caliph to the Islamic world. Under Erdoğan, many Turks have come to embrace their imperial Ottoman past and question the more austere, Western-oriented reforms that followed the last sultan’s overthrow in 1923. The shift coincides with a stalled EU bid and declining expectations Turkey will ever join the mostly Christian bloc. The government’s active diplomatic engagement in the Middle East with lands that once belonged to the Ottoman empire has also prompted Turks to reexamine the NATO member’s Western tilt. Meanwhile, some Orthodox argue Hagia Sophia should be returned to its original state as a Christian basilica. In 2010, 200 or so Greek American Orthodox aborted plans to pray at Hagia Sophia after the Turkish government threatened to block their entry into the country on security grounds. The Ecumenical Patriarchate, spiritual leader of the world’s 250 million Orthodox, does not support efforts to revert its former dominion into a church. “We want it to remain a museum in line with the Republic of Turkey’s principles,” said Father Dositheos Anagnostopulos, the patriarch’s spokesman. “If it were to become a mosque, Christians wouldn’t be able to pray there, and if it became a church it would be chaos.” Only a few thousand Greek Orthodox faithful are left in Turkey, but the patriarch’s seat remains in Istanbul, a vestige of the Byzantine Empire’.[1]

In fact, Sultan Mehmed II, also known as Abu’l-Fath or simply Fatih in current Turkish usage, was no Caliph . . . When he conquered the city in 1453, the Sultan was but young man and it was only his descendant Sultan Selim who acquired the Caliphate for the Ottomans upon his capture of Cairo and the Holy Cities in 1517. As for Mister Turhan, he has been leading the Anadolu Gençlik Derneği or Anatolian Youth Association since August last year. And he has set himself the task of reviving national and moral values amongst Turkey’s youngsters, probably quite in line with the Prime Minister’s recent calls for “breeding” pious generations to come.

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[1] “Thousands pray for Istanbul landmark to become mosque” Reuters (27 May 2012). http://www.todayszaman.com/news-281595-thousands-pray-for-istanbul-landmark-to-become-mosque.html.

Insulting Islam: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkey

People stumbling across the following piece in Today’s Zaman must have been somewhat surprised, while Turkey’s so-called secularists are probably feeling vindicated now, albeit primarily perturbed and worried too: a ‘prosecutor has proposed charging an internationally renowned Turkish pianist and composer with insulting Islamic religious values in comments he made on Twitter. The state-run Anatolia news agency reported on Friday [, 25 May] that an İstanbul court will decide whether to accept the proposed indictment against Fazıl Say, who has played piano with the New York Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and Tokyo Symphony. The prosecutor accuses 42-year-old Say of inciting hatred and public enmity and insulting “religious values.” Say, who has served as a culture ambassador for the European Union, allegedly mocked Islamic beliefs on Twitter. Last month, Say sent controversial tweets questioning whether heaven in Islamic belief is like a brothel or pub because the Quran says there are rivers of drinks and houris, or very beautiful women, in heaven for those who commit good deeds while they are on earth’.[1]

In his tweet Mister Say posed the somewhat rhetorical question whether heaven (“cennet”) was a whorehouse (“kerhane”) or a tavern (“meyhane”), and given that the Turkish nation consists of dedicated followers, his facetious comment also got to the attention of a number of people who appear to lack a sense of humour but instead possess a dedicated attachment to the Islamic Heaven. Fazıl Say was obviously referring to the Quranic verse describing the rivers of heaven: “Therein are rivers of water unpolluted, and rivers of milk whereof the flavour changeth not, and rivers of wine delicious to the drinkers, and rivers of clear-run honey; therein for them is every kind of fruit, with pardon from their Lord”.[2]  In other words, the Quran clearly indicates that believers will be drinking wine in heaven, and that they will enjoy the experience. And Turkish believers have officially known these delights since 1926: the “proclamation of the Republic . . . liberated Turkish citizens from the restrictions of Islam and the Şeriat [Shariah].” As a result, Republican Turks were meant to enjoy this world and its delights to the fullest and the decision to let Turkish citizens “partake of the delights of the mortal world was arguably crystallized in the consumption of alcoholic beverages. A strict interpretation of Islam explicitly prohibits the drinking of intoxicants in this world.” Hence, the issue of unrestricted access to beer and other alcoholic intoxicants has now assumed political, if not ideological, importance [in Turkey]. Turkey’s Muslim citizens have had legal access to alcohol since 1926. Turkey’s Islamic neighbor states do not grant their citizens equally easy access to the forbidden delights of alcohol. As a result, some Turks regard the issue as critical to the definition of secularism in the country. In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) also defines secularism as “Concerned with the affairs of this world, wordly; not sacred”, as I wrote some time ago in Hürriyet Daily News.[3]  Now, the pianist Fazıl Say has succeeded to move the debate concerning the consumption of alcohol to loftier spheres. His second query, then, was a reference to those eternally virginal lady-companions one will encounter in heaven: “Thus (it will happen,) and We will marry them with houris having big dark eyes” (44/54); “Relaxing on lined up couches”. And We will marry them with big-eyed houris” (52/20); “The houris, kept guarded in pavilions” (55/72); and finally, “And (for them there will be) houris, having lovely big eyes” (56/22).[4]  These Quranic references to other delights awaiting believers in heaven constitute the meat of the first half of his flippant question (“kerhane”).

The big bulk of Turkey’s population has always been quite pious, but nowadays the presence of the AKP government in Ankaraseems to give certain pious busy-bodies the courage to pursue an active exercise in social control in accordance with the Islamic Way. Mister Say, in the company of his lawyers Metin Feyzioğlu and Meltem Akyol, has now appeared in front of the İstanbul Cumhuriyet Savcılığı (Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office), located in Çağlayan.[5]

Recently, a similar thing happened in Afghanistanas well: an ‘Afghan journalism student sentenced to death for insulting Islam denied the charges before an appeals court Sunday [,13 May 2012], saying he only confessed to questioning the religion’s treatment of women because he was tortured. During an hour-long hearing, a judge read aloud a transcript of the Jan. 22 proceedings against 24-year-old Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh at the primary court in northern Balkhprovince. It was the first time the public and the media heard full details from the closed-door trial, which highlights the influence of conservative religious attitudes in post-Taliban Afghanistan’s still-nascent justice system. Kambakhsh was studying journalism at BalkhUniversityin Mazar-i-Sharif and writing for local newspapers when he was arrested Oct. 27 [,2011]’, as recorded by AP.[6]

In neighbouring Pakistan, the present blasphemy legislation has also led to numerous assaults: the BBC informs that ‘offences relating to religion were first codified by India’s British rulers in 1860, and were expanded in 1927. Pakistaninherited these laws after the partition of Indiain 1947. Between 1980-86, a number of clauses were added to the laws by the military government of General Zia-ul Haq. He wanted to “Islamise” them and also legally to separate the Ahmadi community, declared non-Muslim in 1973, from the main body of Muslim population . . . The laws have been contentious since the formation of Pakistan in 1947, but have been especially in the spotlight since a Christian mother-of-five, Asia Bibi, was sentenced to death in November 2010 for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The following January Punjab Governor Salman Taseer – a prominent critic of the law – was assassinated by his bodyguard. The assassination divided Pakistan, with some hailing his killer as a hero. In March 2011 Religious Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was shot dead in Islamabad[as well]’.[7]

Do Pakistan and Afghanistan now represent the shape of things to come inTurkey???  Or has the Istanbul Public  Prosecutor’s  Office merely overreached and will there now be a “secular” backlash on the streets  of Turkey???  Or, is this but the beginning of the slide down the slippery slope???

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[1] “Turkish pianist who insulted Islam on Twitter faces jail time” Today’s Zaman (25 May 2012). http://www.todayszaman.com/news-281534-turkish-pianist-who-insulted-islam-on-twitter-faces-jail-time.html.

[2] “Sura 47 Muhammad, line (15)” Quran Explorer. http://www.quranexplorer.com/quran/.

[3] C. Erimtan, “Secularism, beer and bikinis” Hürriyet Daily News (10 March 2011). http://tiny.cc/6msiy.

[4] Cfr. Quran Explorer. http://www.quranexplorer.com/.

[5] “Fazıl Say savcı karşısında” gerçek gündem (16 May 2011). http://www.gercekgundem.com/?p=458918.

[6] “Afghan Journalist Charged With Insulting Islam Appeals Death Sentence” AP (18 May 2012). http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356525,00.html.

[7] “Q&A: Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws” BBC News South Asia  (22 March 2011). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12621225.

Bin Laden Died of Natural Causes, in 2006???

The Iranian state-sponsored broadcaster Press TV reports that an alleged ‘former agent of the CIA has revealed that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has died of natural causes five years before the US announced his death. In an interview with Russia’s Channel One, Berkan Yashar, who is also a Turkish politician, said theUS has not killed the al-Qaeda leader’.

Who is this agent claiming to know what really happened to the U.S.enemy of the state # 1???  A reporter at the Kavkaz Center, Amir Kashirov had this to say: “Berkan Yasar (AKA “Abubakar”), [a] baldish unsuccessful journalist [who now] turns out to be a CIA agent! Pretty tough! In reality, in the midst of the Chechen diaspora in Turkey that “agent” is known as a usual scam artist”.[1]  Turkish nationalists are unusually fond of the Chechen resistance, claiming ethnic affinities as well as a shared devotion to the religion of Islam. Now this scam artist has found another way to exploit the gullible for financial gain. Last month, the British-Turkish translator and journalist Haluk Demirbağ did a piece on the Chechen and his new claims: “Osama bin Laden died a natural death nearly 5 years before it was announced that he was eliminated by the American commandos. This sensational statement was made by a Turkish politician, and a former U.S. intelligence agent [or rather con artist and fraud by the name of Berkan Yaşar]. In an interview with Russia’s Channel One, he said that the Americans simply found and opened the tomb of the leader of al-Qaeda. The journalists of Channel One first met this man in 2008. At the time he was featured in the documentary “Plan Caucasus,” talking about the attempts of the western intelligence services in the early 1990′s to separate the Northern Caucasus and, in particular, Chechnya from Russia”.[2]

Demirbağ expands on his contention by divulging that “Berkan Yashar is now a Turkish politician ,’ (though) Chechen by nationality], but in [the 1990’s] he was one of the ideologists of Johar Dudayev. He asked for a meeting, promising to tell the truth about the death of Osama bin Laden whom he met in the early 90-ies in Chechnya”.[3]

In Turkey, conspiracy theorists and charlatans are quasi-ubiquitous, hence my surprise reading that Demirbağ apparently takes this Chechen opportunist seriously . . . Mister Yaşar appears to have made the following statement: “In September of 1992 I was in Chechnya, that’s when I first met the man whose name was Bin Laden. This meeting took place in a two-story house in the city of Grozny; on the top floor was a family of Gamsakhurdia, the Georgian president, who then was kicked out of his country. We met on the bottom floor; Osama lived in the same building” and with regard to the above-mentioned spectacular claim, he continues that “[e]ven if the entire world believed [that Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Forces] I could not possibly believe it. I personally know the Chechens who protected him, they are Sami, Mahmood, and Ayub, and they were with him until the very end. I remember that day very well, there were three sixes in it: 26 June 2006. These people, as well as two others from Londonand two Americans, all seven of them, saw him dead. He was very ill, he was skin and bones, very thin, and they washed him and buried him”.[4]

 Like all Turkish intellectuals and public figures, this Chechen scam artist turns out to be a total megalomaniac, as explained by Demirbağ: “Berkan explained why he informed the journalists of Channel One: he feared for his life. According to him, only wide publicity around the world can protect him from the CIA. However, just in case, the Turkish secret services, according to him, provided him with guards and weapons”.[5]  As for the question whether or not Osama died in Abbottabad, I can only say that time will tell . . . or maybe not.

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[1] Amir Kashirov, “The Caucasus Plan and Olympic Sochi” Boycott Sochi (26 September 2009. http://boycottsochi.eu/other-reasons/164-the-caucasus-plan-and-olympic-sochi.

[2] Haluk Demirbağ, “Former CIA Agent Claims Americans Did Not Kill bin Laden” Turkish News (18 March 2012). http://www.turkishnews.com/en/content/2012/03/18/former-cia-agent-claims-americans-did-not-kill-bin-laden/.

[3] Haluk Demirbağ, “Former CIA Agent Claims Americans Did Not Kill bin Laden”.

[4] Haluk Demirbağ, “Former CIA Agent Claims Americans Did Not Kill bin Laden”.

[5] Haluk Demirbağ, “Former CIA Agent Claims Americans Did Not Kill bin Laden”.

Turkey, the United States, and Bahrain: Strengthening Ties Again

Always keeping abreast of what is happening to Shi’ites in the Middle East and further afield, Iran’s Press TV reports that ‘Turkey has expressed its support for the Bahraini dictatorship by warmly receiving Bahraini Interior Minister Sheikh Khalifa Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa amid the Manama regime’s ongoing crackdown on peaceful anti-government protests. Sheikh Rashid paid an official visit to Turkey as the head of a Bahraini delegation on [Wednesday, ] May 9. Turkish President Abdullah Gul welcomed the Bahraini delegation at the Çankaya Presidential Palace. The Bahraini interior minister claimed during the meeting with Abdullah Gul that Manama will continue to implement reforms’.[1]

A security cooperation agreement between both states has been in effect since 2006. Before meeting Turkey’s President, Sheikh Rashid had a meeting with Turkish Interior Minister İdris Naim Şahin. And on Thursday, 10 May, the Bahrani minister toured a number of factories in the Istanbul region and also declared the following: “Bahrain has been able, thanks to its wise leadership, to overcome the crisis and present a bold leading model in tackling issues by taking effective steps that earned international appreciation and projected the kingdom’s real image”.[ii]  Meanwhile Turkey is not the only one to strengthen its ties with the repressive Gulf state, as reported by the news agency Reuters: the ‘United States will resume some military sales to Bahrain, a key Gulf ally facing Iran, despite human rights concerns linked to months of popular protests against the island kingdom’s rulers, the State Department said on Friday [, 11 May]. The Obama administration notified Congress that certain sales would be allowed for Bahrain’s defense force, coast guard and national guard, although it would maintain a hold on TOW missiles, Humvees and some other items for now, the department said in a statement . . . U.S. officials said among the sales now allowed to go forward would be harbor security vessels and upgrades to turbo-fan engines used in F-16 fighter aircraft as well as legislation which could pave the way for a future sale of a naval frigate. Items still on hold, besides the missiles and the Humvees, include teargas, teargas launchers and stun grenades’.[3]  At the same time, Reuters’ Andrew Hammond pointed out on Tuesday, 8 May that “Bahrain vowed on Tuesday to crack down harder on anti-government protests as a leading opposition figure said the government had put a stop to talks on addressing the political grievances that fuelled last year’s pro-democracy uprising. Bahraini media have reported a new security plan to “restore order” to the Sunni-ruled Gulf monarchy and, in recent days, authorities have detained a leading activist and warned a top Shi’ite cleric to stop alleged incitement to violence”. [4]

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[1] “Turkey supports Bahraini dictatorship amid ongoing crackdown” Press TV (12 May 2012). http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/05/12/240851/turkey-supports-bahraini-dictatorship/.

[2] “Turkey supports Bahraini dictatorship amid ongoing crackdown”.

[3] “US to resume arms sales to Bahrain despite human rights concerns” Reuters (12 May 2012). http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/47397323/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/.

[4] Andrew Hammond, “Bahrain “to get tougher” on protest as talks stop” Reuters (08 May 2012). http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-08/news/sns-rt-us-bahrain-crackdownbre8470tp-20120508_1_protesters-in-shi-ite-villages-shi-ite-cleric-sheikh-isa-qassim.

Korea March 2012: Tayyip meets Barrack, or the Syria Intervention

In the Washington Post, Alice Fordham remarks that the “U.S. and Turkish governments on Sunday discussed sending non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition, a move that could represent an incremental change in U.S. policy but comes as Syrian authorities seem to be regaining control of the country. After a meeting on the sidelines of a summit in South Korea, President Obama and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey told reporters that they agreed on the importance of preventing more bloodshed in Syria, where for more than a year the government of President Bashar al-Assad has battled an uprising. The two leaders considered channeling medical and communications equipment to the opposition, according to a U.S. spokesman”.[1]  In Turkey, on the other hand, the pro-government Today’s Zaman stresses that the “two leaders held a long discussion on Sunday before an international nuclear security summit in the South Korean capital of Seoul”.[2]  The operative phrase being “a long discussion”, which some sources describe as 2 hours and fifteen minutes and others as one-and-a-half hours. . . Turkey’s new-found stature as a pseudo-Ottoman regional power still continues to fill the local press with pride. Calling Erdoğan “outstanding partner”, President Obama declared that “We worked on a common agenda in terms of how we can support both humanitarian efforts . . . and the efforts of Koffi Annan to bring about much needed change”. The Turkish PM, in turn, stated that “As people with consciences, we cannot remain spectators and we must do something [about Syria] via international law”.[3]

But then there are who say that Turkey and the U.S. have already been ‘doing something’ for quite some time.[4]  In spite of Obama and Erdoğan’s rather peaceful words, Ausama Monajed, spokesman for the prominent Syrian National Council opposition group, is unequivocal in his tone and demands: Assad “has to step down, pull his troops and militias from the occupied cities, towns and villages, release political prisoners, allow peaceful demonstrations. Then we can negotiate with his deputy. There’s no meaning for negotiations without that”.[5]  In other words, the name of the game seems to be regime change rather than peaceful solution . . . On 1 April, Turkey will host a ‘Friends of Syria meeting that would include opposition groups, along with senior officials from nations supportive of them’. As reported by the AP: a ‘so-called “Friends of Syria” meeting of nations that seek Assad’s downfall, planned for April 1 in Istanbul, runs the risk of yielding just another bout of handwringing over the government crackdown in Syria. The United Nations says more than 8,000 people have been killed in the yearlong uprising, but international horror over the shelling of the city of Homs has already started to fade. Analysts suggested Assad, though weakened, still holds the initiative, partly because Russia and China have shielded Syria from U.N. action’.[6]

On his way to Korea, Erdoğan told Turkish reporters that “We may take a step towards cutting our ties [with Syria] at any time. The Foreign Ministry is currently working on that. I can say that we have very little diplomatic presence remaining in Syria”.[7]  While he was saying these words, the Turkish embassy in Damascus was being vacated, leaving only a small Turkish consulate in Aleppo as the sole diplomatic presence of Turkey in Assad’s country, as reported by AFP. An anonymous Turkish diplomatic source declared that “[a]ctivities at the Turkish embassy have been suspended from this morning”.[8]  Behind the scenes, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are said to have been arming the opposition all along while actively importing Islamist fighters to oppose the Assad regime . . .

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[1] Alice Fordham, “Obama, Turkish leader discuss non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels” The Washington Post (26 March 2012). http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/obama-discusses-non-lethal-aid-to-syrian-rebels/2012/03/25/gIQAbwaVaS_story.html.

[2] “Erdoğan, Obama discuss Syria in detail, agree to send aid to opposition” Today’s Zaman (25 March 2012). http://www.todayszaman.com/news-275401-erdogan-obama-discuss-syria-in-detail-agree-to-send-aid-to-opposition.html.

[3] “Erdoğan, Obama discuss Syria in detail, agree to send aid to opposition”.

[4] “Syria, Turkey, and Libya: Exporting Revolution and Resuscitating Awakenings???” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (17 February 2012). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/syria-turkey-and-libya-exporting-revolution-and-resuscitating-awakenings/.

[5] Alice Fordham, “Obama, Turkish leader discuss non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels”.

[6] “With no int’l consensus, Turkey and allies run out of options on how to stop Syria’s Assad” AP (21 March 2012). http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/with-no-intl-consensus-turkey-and-allies-run-out-of-options-on-how-to-stop-syrias-assad/2012/03/21/gIQAJhM6QS_story.html.

[7] “Erdoğan, Obama discuss Syria in detail, agree to send aid to opposition”.

[8] “Turkey shuts embassy in Damascus: diplomat” AFP (26 March 2012). http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Turkey+shuts+embassy+Damascus+diplomat/6357986/story.html.

Paul Auster and Tayyib: A Confrontational Story about Censorship and Imprisonment

The renowned author Paul Auster, who is also a personal favourite of mine, has now become involved in a verbal spat with Turkey’s ever-popular PM, Tayyip Erdoğan . . . One of Auster’s book was recently released in Turkish and thus he was supposed to come here in order to boost sales – Kış Günlüğü, a translation of his autobiographical Winter Journal. But, the author decided not to do a book tour in Turkey, which led to the current war of words between a Prime Minister and a writer. The outset of the current spat is Auster’s statement in the Turkish English-language daily Hürriyet Daily News: “I refuse to come to Turkey because of imprisoned journalists and writers. How many are jailed now? Over 100?”.[1]  As I noted quite some time ago, journalist and writers have been sent to prison in Turkey for quite some time ow.[2]  In fact, just the other day another writer got lucky again: ‘Aziz Tekin, a correspondent for the Kurdish-language newspaper Azadiya Welat, had the misfortune of becoming a news item himself over the weekend when he became the 105th journalist in Turkey to be put behind bars’.[3]  According to David Rosenberg, Tekin’s arrest “places Turkey – a country usually hailed as an exemplar of democracy and Islam – ahead of such repressive regimes as Iran and China with the largest number jailed journalists in the world according to the Platform of Solidarity with Imprisoned Journalists”.[4]

 

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has now come out in a fighting mood: the “American writer Paul Auster recently gave an interview to a Turkish daily. He said he refuses to travel to Turkey since he finds Turkey anti-democratic. He said he would not travel to Turkey because of jailed journalists. He said he also refuses to go to China. As if we need you! What difference would it make if you came or not? Would Turkey lose prestige?”, mindful of his own one minute of fame in Davos some years ago, he continued. “This writer paid his most recent visit to Israel in 2010, as if Israel is a democratic, secular country where human rights are limitless. What an ignorant man you are. Israel is a religious state. Isn’t Israel shelling Gaza?”.[5]  The opposition CHP, on the other hand, has taken Auster’s side, and the party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has made salient statements to that effect. As a result, Erdoğan took hold of this opportunity to criticize the erstwhile establishment party of the Republic of Turkey: “There are actually hundreds of . . . documents [that prove the CHP’s pro-censorship stance]. All bear the signature of İsmet İnönü [a former CHP leader] as president. All 16 of these documents bear the signatures of CHP officials. They banned the Elifba [Arabic alphabet] book. This is the CHP mentality . . . They banned all signs in Arabic. They closed down many newspapers, namely the Cumhuriyet daily, and stopped their publications. They banned the books of [authors] Aziz Nesin, Rifat Ilgaz and Sabahattin Ali with whom they [the CHP] shared the same views”.[6]  The Indian writer and blogger Chandrahas Choudhury reflects on the CHP’s record regarding the suppression of freedom of speech and imprisoning writers thus: in “1938 [Nazım] Hikmet [1902-63], who like a great many poets of his time (Pablo Neruda, for example) was a committed Marxist, was sentenced to 28 years in prison on charges of sedition for a long poem about a fifteenth-century rebellion against Ottoman rule. Hikmet’s case . . . received wide international attention. [The] figure of Hikmet [eve] looms in [Orhan] Pamuk’s . . . remarks (in an essay in the New Yorker) about his country’s historic persecution of writers, and his joke that it is only with his trial that he has become “a real Turkish writer”. In 1949 an international committee, including on its rolls Picasso and Sartre, was formed to campaign for Hikmet’s release, and in 1950, the year he was released by Turkey’s first democratically elected government, he received the World Peace Prize. Hikmet continued to be harassed even by the new regime, and eventually had to seek refuge in Poland”.[7]  As a committed Muslim and conservative, Erdoğan seems to have forgotten about this celebrated case of a persecuted writer of global acclaim.

 After Release From Prison

 Awake.

Where are you?

At home.

Still unaccustomed-

awake or sleeping-

to being in your own home.

This is just one more of the stupefactions

of spending thirteen years in a prison.

Who’s lying at your side?

Not loneliness, but your wife,

in the peaceful sleep of an angel.

Pregnancy looks good on a woman.

What time is it?

Eight.

That means you’re safe until evening.

Because it’s the practice of police

Never to raid homes in broad daylight.[8]

Returning to the present day and Paul Auster, the decidedly pro-government Today’s Zaman explains that ‘Erdoğan said his government has become a target of unfair criticism because a number of journalists have been jailed in connection with ongoing investigations in Turkey. He said these individuals, who happen to be journalists, have not jailed due to journalistic activities but rather due to charges that include participation in a terrorist activities, killing policemen and the illegal possession of firearms’.[9]  Turkey’s opposition has now taken up Auster’s cause and Kılıçdaroğlu has opened his arms to welcome the New York writer and has even stated that the American’s presence in Turkey would help the cause of Turkey’s imprisoned writers.[10]  Auster, in turn, added that “there are nearly one hundred writers imprisoned in Turkey [(a)ccording to the latest numbers gathered by PEN], not to speak of independent International publishers such as Ragip Zarakolu, whose case is being closely watched by PEN Centers around the world . . . [and turning to Tayyip’s remarks on Israel,] [a]ll countries are flawed and beset by myriad problems, Mr. Prime Minister, including my United States, including your Turkey”.[11]

 

On its website, PEN declares the following: ‘PEN International is deeply concerned that as [2011] closes, 30 writers are held in Turkish prisons, more than 70 others are on trial, and that there were 25 new arrests in recent days. This, alongside increasing surveillance, is having a chilling effect on writers and raises concerns for the coming year. PEN calls for a halt to the arrests, and the release of writers and journalists who are detained for the legitimate practice of their right to free expression, a right to which Turkey is committed under the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights. PEN has on its records 30 cases of writers in prison in Turkey, and over 70 more on trial. On 20 December, a further 20 to 25 journalists were arrested. The most widely used legislation in these cases is the Anti Terror Law (ATL), a law that is applied so broadly that crimes of membership or support of “illegal organisations” encompass a wide spread of commentary, ranging from writings on Kurdish issues to allegations of inappropriate links between the police and religious figures. Over the past year, Turkish writers, publishers and journalists have told PEN that surveillance has risen markedly, and this, accompanied by the escalating arrests, has increased anxiety and is having a chilling effect on free expression. Among the detainees is the well-known publisher Ragıp Zarakolu who has campaigned for free expression for decades. He was arrested on 28 October [2011] and is facing trial under the ATL for “membership of an illegal organisation”, reportedly for a speech he made to the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and articles he has written. Taken to prison the same day on similar charges is the respected academic and writer Büşra Ersanlı. She is an expert on constitutional law and had been working with the BDP’s Constitutional Commission at the time of her arrest. Zarakolu’s son, Deniz, also an academic and translator, was arrested two weeks earlier for similar reasons . . . Zarakolu and Ersanlı were arrested under what is known as the Democratic Society Congress (Koma Civaken Kurdistan – KCK) operation that has been under way since 2009 and which has led to several hundred, some say over 1,000, arrests and trials. The KCK is seen as the civil/political wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Among the organisations being linked to the KCK is the BDP despite the fact that 30 of its representatives took their seats in the Turkish parliament on 1 October [2011]. Among the early KCK operation arrests was Muharrem Erbey, a lawyer and writer arrested in December 2009 who is still detained, one example of the extremely lengthy pre-trial detentions. On 20 December [2011], there were further arrests under the KCK operation that included around 20 to 25 journalists who were taken from their homes in various cities including Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Diyabakır. All are journalists working for various pro-Kurdish newspapers and agencies. It is not clear how many remain detained today, 22 December [2011]. Other high profile writers in prison include Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık arrested on 6 March 2011 for being members of ‘Ergenekon’. Since June 2007 there have been a series of arrests of leading figures in the military, politics and police, as well as writers, academics and journalists. Now numbering over 200, they are accused of membership of a neo-nationalist organisation known as Ergenekon. Its aim is said to be to overthrow the government and it is linked to several assassinations. Şener and Şık are detained for their research into and writings about Ergenekon. Şener’s book, Fetullah Gülen and the Gülen Community in Ergenekon Documents is one of the sources of the charges. The Gülen movement is an Islamic organisation that promotes inter-faith dialogue. It is thought that Şener’s arrest is linked to his research into suggestions that the movement holds undue influence in the Ergenekon investigation. Ahmet Şık has also written on Ergenekon and he too is said to have looked into the alleged affiliation of police to Gülen. That two writers investigating Ergenekon should find themselves on trial for being members of the group they are researching is absurd, a view shared by 125 Turkish writers who, in November 2011, publicly announced their support for Ahmet Şik by publishing in print his book that was seized from his computer files and banned. The writers had all played a role in editing the book, and are listed as co-editors and proof-readers, willingly making themselves liable for prosecution . . . Writers are also among those arrested as Ergenekon suspects. One is Mustafa Balbay, a well-known contributor to the Cumhuriyet newspaper, an outspoken opponent of the government and secularist. He has been detained since July 2008 and remains in pre-trial detention three years later. Evidence against him is said to be notes he took during meetings with various figures who themselves were arrested under Ergenekon, and that Balbay was aware of plans to stage a coup, charges he denies. Zarakolu, Şık, Şener, Erbey and Balbay are all members of PEN Turkey. Among the 70 and more other cases of writers before the courts being tried under numerous and diverse legislations, are the obscenity trial against the publishers and translator of the Turkish edition of William Burrough’s Soft Machine. Also under way is that against the owners of another publishing house accused of defaming religion for producing a 2010 calendar featuring quotes from secular writers including George Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein and James Joyce’.[12]

 

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[1] David Rosenberg, “Turkey’s Jails Filling Up With Journalists” The Medialine (01 February 2012). http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=34317

[2] “Conspiracy Theories alla Turca: Ergenekon, Balyoz, Fethullah Gülen and The Movement” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (11 March 2011). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/conspiracy-theories-alla-turca-ergenekon-balyoz-fethullah-gulen-and-the-movement/

[3] David Rosenberg, “Turkey’s Jails Filling Up With Journalists”.

[4] David Rosenberg, “Turkey’s Jails Filling Up With Journalists”.

[5] “Erdoğan dismisses Paul Auster’s Turkey boycott” Today’s Zaman (01 February 2012). http://www.todayszaman.com/news-270179-erdogan-dismisses-paul-austers-turkey-boycott.html

[6] “Erdoğan dismisses Paul Auster’s Turkey boycott”.

[7] Chandrahas Choudhury, “Nazim Hikmet in prison” The Middle Stage (20 December 2005). http://middlestage.blogspot.com/2005/12/nazim-hikmet-in-prison.html

[8] “#356 Nazim Hikmet” Poem Hunter. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/after-release-from-prison/

[9] “Erdoğan dismisses Paul Auster’s Turkey boycott”.

[10] “Kılıçdaroğlu, Auster’i Türkiye’ye davet etti” Zaman (04 February 2012). http://www.zaman.com.tr/haber.do?haberno=1239937&title=kilicdaroglu-austeri-turkiyeye-davet-etti.

[11] “Paul Auster to Erdogan: Unlike Turkey, Israel still has free speech” Haaretz (02 February 2012). http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/paul-auster-to-erdogan-unlike-turkey-israel-still-has-free-speech-1.410566

[12] “News: TURKEY: Year Closes with 30 Writers in Prison, Over 70 on Trial and 25 new arrests” PEN International (22 December 2011). http://www.pen-international.org/newsitems/turkey-year-closes-with-30-writers-in-prison-over-70-on-trial-and-25-new-arrests/

Inside Story: Secure Afghanistan? (5 November 2011)

Following another Afghanistan meeting in Istanbul on Wednesday, 2 November, Al Jazeera asks whether peace possible in the  country without Taliban involvement?

On 3 November, the ISAF Joint Command Headquarters issued this statement: ‘Gen. John Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and Ambassador Simon Gass, Senior Civilian Representative of NATO, welcome the outcomes of the conference in Istanbul on regional security and cooperation for a secure and stable Afghanistan. The presence at this meeting of  Afghanistan’s neighbors and its friends and partners from beyond Central Asia shows collective commitment to the security and prosperity of Afghanistan within a secure and prosperous region. We welcome  the start of the Istanbul Process which will, we hope, lead to practical progress towards greater economic and security cooperation in Afghanistan and the wider region’.[1]

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[1] “ISAF/NATO leadership in Afghanistan welcome Istanbul conference outcomes” dvids (03 November 2011). http://www.dvidshub.net/news/79503/isaf-nato-leadership-afghanistan-welcome-istanbul-conference-outcomes.