Tayyip goes to Africa: Rising MIST!!!

On Monday, 7 January 2013, one can read in Hürriyet Daily News that ‘Turkey aims to increase its trade volume with African countries to $50 billion by 2015, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told journalists at Istanbul Atatürk Airport before his departure to Gabon. “Turkey has been exerting efforts in the development of Africa,” Erdoğan said. The prime minister will visit Gabon, Niger and Senegal in his first foreign trip abroad in the new year, where he will meet with heads of state, chair meetings between the countries’ officials, participate in business forums and sign several agreements during the six-day African tour. In Gabon, Erdoğan is set to meet with Gabonese President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba and the country’s prime minister, Raymond Ndong Sima, as well as appear in a joint press conference. Accompanied by a large delegation of Turkish businesspeople, Erdoğan will speak at a Turkish-Gabonese business forum that would seek opportunities for cooperation in trade and investment. Erdoğan will then visit Niger on Jan. 8 on the second stop of his African tour and meet with President Mahamadou Issoufou. On Jan. 10, the last stop of the tour, Erdoğan is set to arrive in Senegal to meet with President Macky Sall and Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye. Turkey’s exports to Senegal stood at $109 million in the January-October period of 2012, down from $116 million over the same period a year earlier. Turkey has opened embassies in 19 African countries in the last three years to bring the total number of its top diplomatic missions in the continent to 31’.[1]

The Financial Times’ Turkey correspondent Daniel Dombey puts forward that over “the past three years, Turkey has opened 19 embassies on the continent [of Africa]. It now has 26 south of the Sahara and will have opened delegations in Chad, Guinea and Djibouti by the end of January [2013] as Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister, visits Gabon, Niger and Senegal”.[ii]  Dombey explains further that these diplomatic efforts are “part of a concerted push by Turkey deep into Africa, as it follows China, Brazil and India in seeking to secure economic and political influence on the continent. As Ankara looks to diversify away from the stuttering European economy, it is searching not only for new markets but also a more prominent role on the world stage”.[3]

And this is part of yet another trend, step aside BRIC here comes MIST: ‘Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who came up with the now-mainstream “BRIC” catch-all for four quite different economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China – has done it again. “MIST” – or Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey – is O’Neill’s latest rhetorical agglomeration, pulling four more far-flung countries together and talking-up the next tier of large “emerging economies”. Pundits might have a field day with this, with MIST obviously more vapid and perhaps lacking the solidity of its BRIC antecedent. Still, all four have in common a number of factors: a large population and market, a big economy at about 1% of global GDP each, and all are members of the G20’.[4]

As an up and coming MIST country, Turkey is attempting to crack the African market now. In previous months, Turkey’s commitment to Somalia was apparent as part of its more overt Islamic image; but now, the cold reality of economics seems to be taking a front seat. But, the ever-diplomatic Turkish PM instead appears to use his trip to criticise Europe for its colonial legacy, highlighting Turkey’s difference and suitability as an equal business partner with no harmful colonial heritage. In Niger, for example, attending a Turkish-Niger Business Forum in Niamey, he stated plainly: “That is why we are in Niger today. We do not aim to take this country’s oil, gold and diamonds, but to show how we can build brotherhood, make an effort to advance development and fight for freedom of a colonial logic that has endured here for centuries”.[5]  According to Today’s Zaman, ‘Erdoğan said [further that] Ankara will continue supporting Turkish small businesses to increase their investment in Niger and that Turkey will be delighted to see its construction companies take part in Niger’s development projects’.[6]  But Turkey is not just an interesting destination for smart investors and relaxing tourists, ‘up to 50 intrepid Arab tourists arrive in Istanbul every day to undergo [a certain] procedure [to do with facial hair]. Moustaches are seen as a sign of virility and seniority in many Middle Eastern countries, and visitors are arriving in Turkey in droves for procedures designed to provide thick and impressive hair on their upper lips. The surgery is performed under local anesthetic, with doctors taking hair follicles from more hirsute areas of the body and implanting them in the face. Costing anywhere up to $7 000, the procedure has seen a spike in popularity in patients from the Middle East. In fact the job has become bread and butter work for Turkish cosmetic surgeon Dr. Selahattin Tulunay, based in the fashionable Nisantasi district, the so-called Beverly Hills of Istanbul, and who performs up to 60 follicular transplants a month’.[7]  In fact, about a month ago, the Young Turks did a piece on this very topic.

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[1] “Turkish PM Erdoğan sees $50 billion in African trade” Hürriyet Daily News (07 Jan 2013). http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-pm-erdogan-sees-50-billion-in-african-trade.aspx?pageID=238&nID=38502&NewsCatID=344.

[2] Daniel Dombey, “Turkey flexes economic muscle in Africa” FT (06 Jan 2013). http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d9b175de-4849-11e2-8aae-00144feab49a.html#axzz2HHH5gKqZ.

[3] Daniel Dombey, “Turkey flexes economic muscle in Africa”.

[4] Simon Roughneen, “After BRIC comes MIST, the acronym Turkey would certainly welcome” The Guardian (01 February 2011). http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/feb/01/emerging-economies-turkey-jim-oneill.

[5] “Erdoğan: Turkey desires lasting cooperation with Africa” Today’s Zaman (08 Jan 2013). http://www.todayszaman.com/news-303502-erdogan-turkey-desires-lasting-cooperation-with-africa.html.

[6] “Erdoğan: Turkey desires lasting cooperation with Africa”.

[7] “Moustache hunters travel to Turkey for facial hair implants” AFP Relaxnews (06 Jan 2013). http://www.timeslive.co.za/lifestyle/2013/01/06/moustache-hunters-travel-to-turkey-for-facial-hair-implants.

Vladimir goes South: Putin meets Erdoğan in İstanbul, 3 December 2012

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN:

  Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen,

 The trusting & open spirit in which today’s talks took place and the level of our trade and economic ties give us every reason to consider that we have come to a friendly country. We have come not only to visit a partner and neighbour, but truly have come to a country that is our friend. The High-Level Cooperation Council, which just held its third meeting, has once again confirmed its importance as a bilateral partnership mechanism that has already proven its worth.

 The Council’s sector-specific expert groups have done a lot of preparation and ensured that we had a very substantive agenda indeed. We discussed in detail a wide range of issues.

 I note that our bilateral trade continues to develop fast. Russia is now in solid second place among Turkey’s trade and economic partners. Last year, despite the general decrease in global trade, our bilateral trade increased by 26 percent, and by a further 14 percent over the first nine months of this year. This is an excellent trend and a good result, especially when set against the global economy’s current difficulties. Our objective, as the Prime Minister just said, is to raise our bilateral trade to the $100-billion mark in the coming years. This is a completely realistic goal.

 We just signed the trade & economic and science and technology cooperation programme through to 2015. The programme aims to bolster our industrial cooperation and develop bilateral ties in construction, the metals industry and agriculture. It also contains measures to promote cooperation in science-intensive sectors such as telecommunications, space exploration and developing satellite systems.

 Of course, one of our big cooperation areas is the energy sector, and here, our work together is not limited to fossil fuels, even if they do play a very important part. As the Prime Minister knows, Russia is always ready to give our Turkish partners a shoulder to rely on at difficult times, and if there are any glitches with energy supplies from other countries, we will increase our deliveries at the first demand.

 We thank our Turkish friends for their decision on the South Stream project. Construction work will begin in a couple of days, and our Turkish partners and friends have been invited to attend this event too.

 I note too our joint plans to build Turkey’s first nuclear power plant at Akkuyu. This is a big and promising project involving substantial investment – $20 billion. Russia is taking care of the project financing completely. At least a quarter of the total amount will be spent on creating new jobs in Turkey itself.

 We have just overseen the signing of a number of financial sector agreements. Russia’s Sberbank acquired DenizBank, Turkey’s ninth-biggest bank, in September this year, in a deal worth a total of $3.6 billion. This is one of the biggest deals, if not the biggest, in Europe’s banking sector over the last year.

 The Council also discussed humanitarian matters at today’s meeting. Our bilateral public forum is beginning its practical work now.

 As far as humanitarian issues go, education and science are both important areas. I spoke about the nuclear project before, and I want to note that more than 100 students from Turkey are studying in this particular field in Russia. In other words, if the project goes ahead — and so far it is going to schedule — it will help to create a whole new high-tech professional sector in Turkey.

 There is the tourism sector too. As the Prime Minister noted, 3.5 million Russian tourists visit Turkey every year, and the figure will be even higher this year. This is a sign of our trust in Turkey and its government, a sign of our confidence in your country’s stability. This is what you could call ‘voting with one’s feet’ in the good sense of the term.

 Russia & Turkey are neighbours and we share many common pages in history, sometimes dramatic pages. It is very important that we treat this heritage with respect.

We have gone through all manner of events in our history, but this is all part of the past now, and we must look toward the future. It makes me very happy to see that our Turkish friends share this view and that this is what we do.

Of course, as was mentioned too, we also discussed the international agenda, including the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Syria, and the situation in North Africa and the Middle East in general.

Let me conclude by once more thanking the Prime Minister and all of our Turkish friends for these very constructive and productive talks. We have agreed to hold the fourth meeting of High-Level Cooperation Council in Russia in 2013.

Thank you for your attention.

Turkey: Day of the Republic 2012

‘Turkish police use tear gas and water cannons to try to break up a demonstration by tens of thousands of pro-secular protesters, but the march to mark the founding of the Turkish republic went on in defiance of a government ban. The celebration of the founding of the Turkish republic has in the past few years become a symbol of the divide between Prime Minister Recep Erdogan’s elected, Islamic-leaning government and its opponents who fear the country’s secular traditions are in danger. The Ankara governor’s office last week denied authorization for the march, citing security reasons, and declared the gathering illegal. Challenging the ban, tens of thousands of people assembled in the old part of Ankara, near the building housing Turkey’s first parliament, to march to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the secular republic 89 years ago after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (29 Oct 2012)’.

The pro-government daily Today’s Zaman reports that ‘[f]or the first time, Republic Day, which marks the foundation of the Turkish Republic on October 29, 1923, was celebrated at two separate events in Ankara, clearly indicating the divide between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and opposition groups, including main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) as well as some minor leftist parties. Official celebrations went ahead as planned in the Turkish capital, while the rally, organized by the opposition groups but banned by the Ankara Governor’s Office citing security reasons, saw some tense moments between protestors and the riot police. The opposition criticized the government for failing to pay due respect to a national holiday, and not respecting the values of the Republic. The government dismissed those claims, saying that the ban was imposed after intelligence indicated that some provocations might take place during a rally. The government added that everyone is welcome at the official celebration. The official event took place at the Atatürk Cultural Center following a ceremony at Atatürk’s mauseloum (Anıtkabir), and was attended by high-level state officials, military commanders and representatives of some political parties, including Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the CHP. The wife of the President Abdullah Gül, Hayrünnisa Gül, who wears a headscarf, also attended the official celebrations as a member of the official delegation for the first time. The president signed the Anıtkabir Special Register, writing: “Great Atatürk, we are celebrating the 89th anniversary of the republic you founded with great enthusiasm. We stand before you with the pride of a country that is improving its democracy, protecting human rights and freedoms, strengthening its economy and maintaining reforms. We are trying our best to surpass the level of contemporary civilization, to maintain the basic values of our republic . . . We, as a nation, bow before you with respect on this Republic Day and thank you. May you rest in peace.” After the ceremony in Anıtkabir, President Gül received greetings and congratulatory messages at the Çankaya presidential palace, a historic first, since this has traditionally taken place in Parliament’.[1]

The piece in Today’s Zaman continues by indicating that the ‘alternative, unofficial celebration was organized by a group of more than 30 civil society organizations led by the Youth Union of Turkey (TGB), known for their ideological proximity to the Workers’ Party (İP), in Ulus Square. The TGB is also known for its pro-Assad stance in Turkey and was one of the organizers of a conference in August held in the border province of Hatay to show solidarity for the Syrian government in its attempts to crush the 19-month-old uprising in Syria. A group of nearly 20 thousand people gathered at the rally, in defiance of a ban imposed by the Ankara Governor’s Office on the grounds that “some groups may seek to incite anarchy in the country” in front of the first parliament building which served as the base for Parliament during the Turkey’s struggle for independence. Groups arriving in buses from other cities to join the rally were initially stopped by the police at checkpoints around Ankara, but following mediation by some CHP deputies, the buses were allowed into the city. As they had previously announced, the demonstrators, including the CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu and some CHP deputies, wanted to march to Atatürk’s mausoleum to pay their respects. Initially, the police didn’t allow the rally participants to march in that direction, and used tear gas and water cannons to try to break up the demonstration. After about half an hour, however, the police removed the barricades and allowed protestors to continue on to Anıtkabir. “We are faced with a government which tries to prevent people from celebrating their holiday,” Kılıçdaroğlu told the Anatolia News Agency. “This is a shame for Turkey” he added, criticizing the government for being disconnected from the people. On Monday evening, President Abdullah Gül will give a reception at the Çankaya Presidential Palace celebrating the foundation of the Republic, but the CHP leader has already announced that he will not attend. Instead, Kılıçdaroğlu will fly to İstanbul to join the Republic Day march to be held in Kadıköy’.[2]

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[1] “Republic Day celebrations held amid controversy” Today’s Zaman (29 Oct 2012). http://www.todayszaman.com/news-296479-republic-day-celebrations-held-amid-controversy.html.

[2] “Republic Day celebrations held amid controversy”.

Turks Concerned with Erdoğan’s Syria Policy

As fighting drags on in Syria, the Turkish government continues to stand behind its campaign to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But as VOA’s Setareh Sieg reports, domestic opposition is growing against the government’s Syria position and Turkey’s acceptance of waves of Syrian refugees (24 Oct 2012).

Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation Meeting: Pseudo-Ottoman Dreams

During the the 28^th session of the COMCEC meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul, Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al Madani, the President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), announced that his institution would open an office in Istanbul.[1]  The IBD aims ‘to foster the economic development and social progress of member countries and Muslim communities individually as well as jointly in accordance with the principles of Islamic Law. The present membership of the Bank consists of 56 countries’.[2]  And now, Istanbul is set to become the hub of the financial world of Islam. In other words, Tayyip Erdoğan and Ahmed Davutoğlu’s dream of turning Turkey anew into the centre of the Middle East,[3] in pursuit of what I have termed their pseudo-Ottoman policy aims, is slowly turning into a tangible reality now.

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[1] “Islamic development bank to open office in Istanbul” Live Trading News (11 October 2012). http://www.livetradingnews.com/islamic-development-bank-to-open-office-in-istanbul-89228.htm.

[2] “Islamic development bank to open office in Istanbul”.

[3] Cfr. C. Erimtan, “A pseudo-Ottoman policy: Turkey’s new station in the world” Today’s Zaman (04 November 2010). http://tiny.cc/6qkki.

The War in Syria: Turkey following America’s Lead???

Many people in Turkey accuse the country’s charismatic prime minister of being America’s lapdog . . .  and his personal relationship with the U.S. President appears to be cordial and close. The recent attacks on Turkey have now catapulted Turkey into the front seat. War sables are being rattled, while the U.S. appears to be looking on from afar. Now there are numerous voices claiming that Tayyip Erdoğan is readying Turkey’s Armed Forces to publicly intervene in Syria, acting as a proxy-army for the Obama White House. Is Erdoğan now really doing Washington’s dirty work or will he and the West wait till after the November elections to actively removed Assad from power???  On the other hand, Turkey and the U.S. have been supporting the so-called Free Syrian Army since April 2011.[1]

On Monday, Iran’s English-language propaganda broadcaster aired this analysis: ‘Prime Minister Erdoğan of Turkey has told his country to prepare for war against Syria relying on an unproven shelling that landed in Turkey from Syrian territory. The Turkish military has fired mortar shells into Syria for the fourth day in a row after a number of projectiles slammed into the southern border province of Hatay. Press TV has interviewed Michael Chossudovsky, Center for Research on Globalization, Montreal about the recent steps Turkey has taken and how the plan for NATO involvement inside Syria may unfold (8 Oct 2012).

Professor Chossudovsky’s words may very well be persuasive and insightful, but his assertion that Turkey has designs on Syrian territory seems nothing but far-fetched. On the other hand, it does sound good whether true or not. In the New York Times, then, Rick Gladstone posits that “Syria escalated tensions with Turkey on Monday [, 8 Oct.], accusing its neighbor and former friend of imperialist delusions reminiscent of Ottoman dynastic rule, as Syrian Army gunners exchanged artillery blasts with their Turkish counterparts across the border for the sixth consecutive day”.[ii]  Now, who is firing into Turkey???  Assad’s army, the FSA, or some as-yet unknown third party???

The vocal anti-NATO activist Rick Rozoff, for his part, opines that Turkey, “[h]aving shelled targets inside Syria daily for a week after a mortar shell landed inside its southeastern territory on October 3, which Ankara blamed on the Syrian military, the Turkish armed forces have again, as they did two months ago, moved tanks, armored personnel carriers, missile defenses and troops to the border and have deployed 25 warplanes to a base in Diyarbakır in the Kurdish region of the country, both actions allegedly targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) though in fact part of a general military mobilization that will not be limited to strikes against that group’s fighters and supporters. Turkey’s Doğan News Agency reported that 25 F-16 fighter jets and other aircraft arrived at the air base on October 8 and Today’s Zaman announced that 12 F-16s struck what were identified as PKK sites on Mount Qandil on the Iraqi-Iranian border. The following day Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh denounced the violation of his nation’s sovereignty, stating “These Turkish attacks on Iraqi territories are not acceptable and we will take the necessary diplomatic measures” and adding, “We do understand the reasons behind such acts, yet we do not tolerate such breaches.” Recently the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Iraqi parliament announced its intention to demand Turkish military forces leave the north of the country where committee member Safia al-Suhail stated there were 16 Turkish military bases inside Iraq near the two countries’ border. Revealingly, on October 8 Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Moscow where he visited the foreign ministry and will meet with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to discuss closer ties in the military and energy spheres”.[3]

Curiouser and curiouser, and the plot thickens. The PKK has been stepping up its violent campaign of late,[4] and Turkey’s Armed Forces are always keen to kill PKK terrorists . . . and sixteen military bases on Iraqi soil sounds like a definite attempt to deal a deadly blow to the terror network, operating with impunity from within the KRG’s borders. At the same time, the KRG also appears to function as a transit road for fighters willing to engage the Syrian army. Whereas, Maliki’s Moscow visit seems to foreshadow the opening move of another game of alliance-building – Russia, China, Iran, and now Iraq too. The projected and now defunct Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline would have been detrimental for the Gazprom Nation, but its age-old ties with Syria seem to have led the way to accommodating strange bedfellows. Rozoff continues: “Ahead of a two-day meeting of NATO defense chiefs, including the Pentagon’s Leon Panetta, to convene on October 9, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen proclaimed “I can assure you we have all necessary plans in place to defend and protect Turkey, our ally.” On the same day Turkey’s head of state, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threatened: “The state that is not ready for war at any moment is not fully developed. Turkey must be ready for war in any case.” Hürriyet Daily News cited an unnamed Turkish official as confirming that NATO “was active on the issue [of escalating military conflict with Syria] behind the scenes,” with his comments paraphrased as follows: “NATO has increased its military presence in the region with vessels patrolling in the Mediterranean Sea under Operation Active Endeavor and routine flights heading to its operations to Afghanistan, but these moves were not announced officially to avoid a reaction.” Last week, only hours before the shelling incident that has provided Turkey the occasion for authorizing ongoing military attacks inside Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters in Moscow that his country had warned NATO and its allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) against conspiring to manufacture pretexts for military intervention inside Syria such as demanding so-called humanitarian corridors or buffer zones inside the latter nation and launching armed provocations on the Turkish-Syrian border. He said, “In our contacts with our partners both in NATO and in the region, including on international forums, we have called on them not to look for pretexts in order to carry out a [military] operation.” The next day just such an incident occurred. [In early] October Ali Akbar Velayati, former Iranian foreign minister and current senior adviser to Ali Khamenei, accused NATO of laying the groundwork for war against Syria, stating, “Today, NATO is ready to issue a threat against Syria and intends to enter Syria under the pretext that one of the members of this organization [Turkey] has been threatened.” Turkish is harboring, arming and training thousands of so-called Free Syrian Army forces while conducting major air strikes inside Iraq and near the Iranian border and massing troops and military hardware on the Syrian border in a campaign to exterminate the PKK, a lawless rampage fully supported by the U.S. and NATO”.[5]

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[1] Cfr. “Op-Ed: The Road to Intervention in Syria” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (06 June 2012). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/op-ed-the-road-to-intervention-in-syria/; “Exclusive: Turkey’s Central Role in Syria’s Civil War” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (30 June 2012). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/exclusive-turkeys-central-role-in-syrias-civil-war/.

[2] Rick Gladstone, “Syria Rebukes Turkey as Artillery Fight Continues” The New York Times (08 October 2012). http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/world/middleeast/syria-turkey.html?_r=0.

[3] “Turkey Plotting NATO Attack on Syria by Rick Rozoff” Dandelion Salad (09 Oct 2012). http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/turkey-plotting-nato-attack-on-syria-by-rick-rozoff/.

[4] Cfr. “Turkey and Syria, as Seen by Iran” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (09 September 2012). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/turkey-and-syria-as-seen-by-iran/.

[5] “Turkey Plotting NATO Attack on Syria by Rick Rozoff”.

Tayyip’s Mosque: The Legacy Project

Writing a few days ago, Hugh Eakin posits that “late May of this year, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—Turkey’s powerful prime minister, a devout Muslim, and the self-styled leader of the new Middle East—announced that he would be erecting his own grand mosque above the Bosphorus. It will be more prominent than Suleiman’s [mosque in the old part of the city of Istanbul]. The chosen site—the Büyük Çamlıca Tepesi, or Big Çamlıca Hill, overlooking the city’s Asian shore—is 268 meters above sea level; it is easily the most conspicuous point of land in greater metropolitan Istanbul”.[1]

Building this big mosque would carry a lot of weight in Turkey. On a street-level, murmurs that Tayyip and his AKP government are moving Turkey down the slippery slope towards an Iranian state of affairs are always broodingly present and eerily upsetting to the average Turk, unencumbered by a strict observance of the Prophet’s rules and regulations and attached to the freedoms ushered in by Atatürk and his quasi-secularist establishment. In reality, Shia Iran appears far removed from the AKP’s pseudo-Ottoman designs for Turkey. Turkey’s secularist credentials have always been far from certain, in spite of erstwhile headscarf controversies and other distractions. The state’s firm hold on the nation’s religious institutions and on the population’s levels of piety has never been questioned or opposed.[2]  Still, an outside observer like Eakin can easily state that “[t]his is not the first time that Turkey’s deeply secular state has seemed to move in a more religious direction. As far back as 1967, a close replica of another sixteenth-century Sinan mosque was built in Ankara; a more daring, modernist design by Vedat Dalokay was rejected. Turgut Özal, who was prime minister in the late 1980s and is credited with beginning the economic opening to the world that has matured under Erdoğan, was a devout Muslim who went on the Hajj while in office. And Erdoğan’s own AKP party is a direct heir to the since-banned Islamist party of Necmettin Erbakan,[3] who briefly served as Turkey’s first Islamist prime minister in the 1990s (leading to a military coup in 1997). But what makes the recent changes particularly dramatic is that the Turks themselves seem to be generally embracing them: headgear has become a point of pride for many Anatolian businesswomen, and the recent alcohol bans appear to have been imposed as much by local communities—by some far more than others—as by higher authorities. Indeed, Erdoğan, now in his third term of office, has a huge base of popular support. And while the AKP has not quite gained the supermajority in parliament the prime minister has sought, it has had sufficient dominance to transform significant parts of the Turkish political system”.[4]

In his search for suitable spots to erect visible markers of his tenure at the head of Turkey’s state ship, Tayyip Erdogan has conjured up more architectural projects in Istanbul: under ‘the name [of] “Canal Istanbul“, [for example, ] Turkey’s prime minister [has also] announced his [self-styled] crazy project [in Turkish, “Çılgın Proje”]. He plans to build a canal on the European side of Istanbul which will link the Black Sea with Marmara sea and will allow large tankers to pass. Canal Istanbul will be around 30 miles long, 25 metres deep and 150 metres wide. Erdogan said “Istanbul will become a city with two peninsulas and an island”. This will of course be a big change for Istanbul. Also the real estate market around the area will rise. Erdogan didn’t mention the exact coordinations of the canal but name Catalca was mentioned during the conversation. Main aim of the Istanbul Canal project will be to relieve congestion through the Bosphorus Strait and reduce chances of an environmental disaster as tankers carrying oil and gas from Russia and Central Asia pass through the waterway separating the Asian and European halves of Istanbul. The project is planned to be completed in 2023 when the 100th anniversary of Turkish Republic will be celebrated. They also plan to build a third airport for Istanbul which will have capacity for 60 million passengers annually’.[5]  At the time, which was April 2011, the BBC reported that ‘Turkey will build a new waterway to bypass the heavily congested Bosphorus Strait, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced. He said the 150m-wide (492ft) “Canal Istanbul” would link the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara that opens to the Aegean Sea via the Dardanelles. Mr Erdogan said the canal would be about 45km-long (31 miles), describing it as “the greatest project of the century”. He did not disclose the exact location’.[6]  But Tayyip’s Kanalistanbul promises may have been nothing but pre-election rhetorical fluff, and his search for a legacy marker now seems to have found its true focus in the Çamlıca Mosque Project.

Last July, an architect involved in the project, Hacı Mehmet Güner stated in the Turkish daily Milliyet that “We will build an even larger dome than our ancestors made”, adding that the proposed house of worship will be erected in the “classical style”, will possess six minarets (like the famed Sultan Ahmed Camii, the popular Blue Mosque), minarets that will be taller than those of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, whose tallest minarets are 344 feet.[7]  In other words, Tayyip’s mosque will look like an Ottoman structure, while at the same time referring to the current centre of ‘Sunni Islam’, Saudi Arabia. Even though the Saudis actually regard all Muslims as apostates and unbelievers, only accepting their own brand of Wahhabi Islam as true to Allah’s precepts, their pious largesse is visible all across the Islamic, and the rest of the, world. On the website belonging to Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), one can read that ‘Turkish and Saudi foreign policy perspectives mutually support each other and create synergy. Mutual high level visits between two countries and the “High Level Strategic Dialogue Mechanism” which was established between Turkey and the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] in 2008 have become the driving forces for our activities towards the region. After the global economic crisis in 2009, Turkey-Saudi Arabia bilateral trade volume has been in recovery tendency. Trade volume between two countries reached 4.66 billion USD in 2010. The number of Turkish companies, mainly in contracting sector, which undertake huge projects in Saudi Arabia is increasing continuously. Similarly, there is a growing interest in Saudi business circles to Turkey. Saudi tourists visiting Turkey significantly increase every year since 2005. The recorded number of 84.000 Saudi tourists in 2010 is expected to rise considerably in 2011’.[8]

On 12 August 2010, the Global Islamic Finance Magazine reported that the ‘President [of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB)]‘s visit to Turkey [at that time] . . . enhances scopes for the expansion of trade among the member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. During his visit, the IDB President Ahmad Mohamed Ali met with top Turkish officials in Ankara; first with President Abdullah Gül, then with the State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, State Minister Cevdet Yılmaz, Treasury Undersecretary İbrahim Çanakçı and TİKA President Musa Kulaklıkaya’.[9]  This last visit appeared to have been extremely important. TİKA or the Türk İşbirliği ve Koordınasyon Ajansı is a Turkish government agency set up in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union to assist and encourage the development of the newly independent Turkic states in Central Asia. Since 1999 the agency has been linked to the office of the Prime Minister and since 2002 has been assisting in achieving Turkey’s newly articulated foreign policy goals,[10] which I termed pseudo-Ottoman some time ago.[11]  Getting back to the just-quoted GIFM piece: ‘During  the IDB President’s talks with TİKA President Musa Kulaklıkaya’, the IDB President Ali expressed his satisfaction with the mutual co-operation between the two administrations. He further outlined that the relations gained momentum with the Memorandum of Understanding signed between TIKA and the IDB in 2008, TIKA President Musa Kulaklikaya further stated that the development of existing co-operation would bring benefits to both sides’. [12]  Saudi Arabia’s busy agenda in the field of global proselytizing is well-known, and now, it would transpire, it even coincides with Turkey’s willingness to solidify its soft-power prestige across the world. Writing in the self-professed rightwing online publication Canada Free Press, Joseph Klein declared last year that the “Saudi government uses billions of dollars in oil revenues to promote Wahhabism in America and across the globe. David D. Aufhauser, a former Treasury Department general counsel, told a Senate committee in June 2004 that estimates of Saudi government spending went “north of $75 billion.”  The money financed thousands of mosques, schools and Islamic centers, the employment of thousands of propagandists and the printing of millions of religious teaching tracts”.[13]  And, as reproduced by an anti-jihadist blog, ‘[a]ccording to a major investigation by Washington Post reporter David B. Ottaway published on August 19, 2004, the Saudi government’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowment, Call and Guidance pays the salaries of 3,884 Wahhabi missionaries and preachers, who are six times as numerous as the 650 diplomats in Saudi Arabia’s 77 embassies’.[14]  Turkey, for its part, is not shy of promoting Islam and mosque-building either. As reported by the Xinhua news agency: the head ‘of Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs Mehmet Görmez visited China in 2011 and signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs. The two countries agreed to boost bilateral cooperation in religion affairs such as Islamic education, Quran printing and student exchange programs’, in addition to constructing mosques for Chinese Muslims, or Chinese-speaking practitioners of Islam known as Hui.[15]  And underlining this resolve to foster ties between an AKP-led Turkey and the People’s Republic of China, keen on pacifying its Chinese-speaking Muslims (or Hui), between 31 August and 7 September 2012, a “2012 China-Turkey Islamic Cultural Expo and Performances” was held at the Ali Emiri Culture Centre[16] in the Istanbul district of Fatih.[17]

Turkey and Saudi Arabia, cooperating to spread the Prophet’s word across the world. And , according to the above-quoted GIFM piece, the ‘ties between Islamic financial insitutions in Turkey [and Saudi Arabia are strengthened] and [these ties] can further help to diversify the growing sector of Islamic banking and finance which is set to soar to over $1.5 trillion US dollars by 2012’.[18]

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[1] Hugh Eakin, “Turkey’s Towering Ambition” The New York Review of Books (17 September 2012). http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/sep/17/turkey-towering-ambition/.

[2] “The Turkish Army: Guardian of Turkish Secularism???” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (09 August 2011). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/the-turkish-army-guardian-of-turkish-secularism/.

[3] “Turkey Loses its Islamist Figurehead: Erbakan has Died???” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (28 February 2011). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/turkey-loses-its-islamist-figurehead-erbakan-has-died/.

[4] Hugh Eakin, “Turkey’s Towering Ambition”.

[5] “Prime Minister Erdogan’s crazy project” Istanbul View (no date). http://www.istanbulview.com/erdogans-crazy-project/.

[6] “Turkey to build waterway to bypass Bosphorus Straits” BBC News (April 2011). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13207304.

[7] Hugh Eakin, “Turkey’s Towering Ambition”.

[8] “Turkey-Saudi Arabia Relations” Ministry of Foreign Affairs. http://www.mfa.gov.tr/turkey-saudi-arabia-relations.en.mfa.

[9] “The President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has made an official visit with delegates to discuss Islam” Global Islamic Finance Magazine (12 August 2010). http://islamic-finance.ru/blog/2010-08-12-102.

[10] “TİKA Tarihçesi” T.C. Başbakanlık TİKA. http://www.tika.gov.tr/tika-hakkinda/tarihce/1.

[11] Cfr. C. Erimtan, “A pseudo-Ottoman policy: Turkey’s new station in the world” Today’s Zaman (04 November 2010). http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?load=detay&link=226284.

[12] “The President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) based in Jeddah”.

[13] Joseph A. Klein, “Libya and Counter-Terrorism At The United Nations” Canada Free Press (21 September 2011). http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/40549.

[14] “Saudi Arabia’s Funding of American Mosques” Defeat the Third Jihad (15 September 2012). http://dttj.blogspot.com/2010/08/saudi-arabias-funding-of-american.html.

[15] “China to launch Islamic cultural pageant in Turkey (2)” Xinhua (30 August 2012). http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/102774/7929173.html.

[16] “Ali Emiri Efendi Kultur Merkezi” Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ali-Emiri-Efendi-Kultur-Merkezi/119242934818254.

[17] “China to launch Islamic cultural pageant in Turkey” Xinhua (30 August 2012). http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90782/7929166.html.

[18] “The President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) based in Jeddah”.

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”.

Azerbaijan, Eurovision, and the EU: The Pipeline Behind the Propaganda

Remembering Greg Palast’s 2010 report on BP in Azerbaijan,[1] here is Human Rights Watch’s take on the Azeri record with regard to the imminent Eurovision Song Contest: ‘This Human Rights Watch video shows why the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) should speak out againstAzerbaijan’s appalling record on freedom of expression in the lead-up to the Eurovision Song Contest. The EBU declined to show the video at a workshop about media rights inAzerbaijan it organized onMay 2, 2012, citing technical reasons. The EBU is an association of public broadcasters that oversees the Eurovision Song Contest (2 May 2012)’.

For one thing, the mere fact that the country is now being led by President Ilham Aliyev, whose main qualification is constituted by the fact that he is the son of Haydar Aliyev, seems like an anomaly in this 21^st century. Azerbaijan is a Turkic nation state, that has the distinction of being the only Shi’ite body inside the Sunni lands of Turkic Islam. According to World Bank data, in 2010 the Azeri population counted about 9 million, but the majority of the Azeri population seems unaffected by the country’s revived oil wealth. Throughout the Cold War, Azerbaijan’s oil wealth in the Caspian was largely off the world’s radar, in spite of the fact that in the ‘19^th century . . . the Rothschilds and the brothers of dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel turned Baku into a world oil center capable of challenging John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil for control of Europe’s kerosene markets’.[2]  But now that theSoviet Union has been securely confined to the dustbin of history and the free market rules supreme, Azeri oil wealth has become universally well-known once again.Azerbaijan’s newly rediscovered oil potential might also account for the fact that the country nowadays can partake in such “European” pastimes as the Eurovision Song Contest.

For decades, Azerbaijan’s western neighbour Turkeyhas been knocking on the EU’s front door.[3]  Many people inEurope openly question whetherTurkey is really part of Europe . . . albeit that Turkey’s mostly awful songs have for years been competing in the Eurovision. And didn’t Georgia’s “new” leader Saakashvili talk about joining the EU some time ago???

In fact, the EU-propaganda publication EurActiv reported last year that “Georgia remains committed to joining the European Union, said President Mikheil Saakashvili in an exclusive interview with EurActiv Poland. In a conciliatory gesture towards Moscow, the Georgian leader argued that closer ties between his country and the EU could also pave the way for more integration between Russia and the 27-nation bloc”.[4]  But, is Turkey really part of Europe???  Is the EU a Christian club managed by bankers???  Does Goldman-Sachs rule the world???  Saakashvili himself did not mince any words: “what is most important is that we have embarked on our path to the European Union. In carrying out reforms, we want Georgia to become a better candidate for membership. We do not have this status yet, but it is apparently possible in the future. This is a significant improvement”.[5]

But let’s go back to the Eurovision in Azerbaijan: ‘Eurovision is everywhere in Baku, the easternmost city to host the annual song contest, as the Azerbaijani capital seeks to present a glitzy and sparkling front to the world for its biggest ever event. The Eurovision symbol is emblazoned on the city’s new fleet of London-style cabs, flashes on video screens on metro platforms and even goes up in lights on LCD displays on skyscrapers overlooking the Caspian Sea. Locals strolling along the seaside promenade proudly point out to sea to the city’s newest landmark: the Crystal Hall, built at high speed to host the contest. Lit up with flashing lights, it stands on a pier with the sea on both sides, lined with flowers that workers were still putting in place on Tuesday evening [, 22 May] as guests dressed up to the nines arrived for the semi-finals. It’s best to ignore the sulphurous smell wafting off the water, the legacy of years of heavy pollution into the Caspian Sea. Also disguised by the shiny buildings are the controversies that have marred the contest, with activists accusing Azerbaijanof human rights violations and a bitter diplomatic row building with its neighbour Iran. Locals instead prefer to see the competition as a chance to put their city — which already boasts fine fin-de-siecle architecture and an enchanting old town — firmly on the European map’, as reported by AFP.[6]

On the other hand, is Turkey really part of Europe???  The main difference between Turkey and its eastern neighbour is oil . . . But Turkey is also doing its bit, and continues to push for the realisation of Nabucco, in spite of Russian opposition and the recent withdrawal of BP, arguably to Russian pressure and the company’s desire not to jeopardise its chances of cashing in on the future rewards the arctic region is projected to yield. But where there is a will, there is Turkey’s best friend, as voiced by US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland: “We strongly support Nabucco. We think it’s a very important project. It’s going to bring energy diversification on both sides and market diversification. I hadn’t seen the BP announcement, but as you know, there’s been a lot of company interest as well in Nabucco”.[7]  In other words, the interpersonal relations between Tayyip Erdoğan and Barrack Obama have not been futile. The U.S. clearly supports Turkey’s new pseudo-Ottoman programme, as a stable Turkey could very well become another rock for America to build its renewed bridges into the Arab world, following the recent “spring weather”.

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[1] Cfr. “RT- The Big Picture: BP, Azerbaijan, Oil and Gas Disasters, & Corruption” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (24 December 2012). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/rt-the-big-picture-bp-azerbaijan-gulf-of-mexico-oil-and-gas-disastersbp-azerbaijan-gulf-of-mexico-oil-and-gas-disasters/.

[2] Dan Morgan and David B. Ottaway, “Page Two. Grasping the Potential” The Washington Post  (04 October 1998). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/europe/caspian100498b.htm.

[3] “Turkey and the EU, 1959 — 2011” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (31 August 2011). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/turkey-and-the-eu-1959-2011/.

[4] “Saakashvili: Georgia ‘should never leave path’ of EU integration” EurActiv (09 November 2011). http://www.euractiv.com/europes-east/saakashvili-georgia-leave-path-eu-integration-interview-508800.

[5] “Saakashvili:Georgia ‘should never leave path’ of EU integration”.

[6] “Glitzy Baku seeks to sparkle at Eurovision” AFP (25 May 2012). http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/Chunk-HT-UI-TravelSectionPage-TravelStories/Glitzy-Baku-seeks-to-sparkle-at-Eurovision/Article1-860972.aspx.

[7] “US Firmly Backing Nabucco Pipeline despite BP Criticism” Novinite (26 May 2012). http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=139704.

euronews interview: Ahmet Davutoğlu

Ahmet Davutoglu is seen as the architect of the new Turkish foreign policy over the last decade — which I have termed pseudo-Ottoman in nature and intent. Political scientist and historian, he is often dubbed “the Turkish Kissinger”.Turkeyhas become an important regional political and diplomatic state, overcoming years of neighbourhood tensions. He has been talking to Euronews onSyria and the impasse in Turkey-EU membership talks (19 April 2012).