Turkey: Erdogan's Galloping Despotism: Burak Bekdil, Gatestone Institute, Nov. 2, 2016 — Both fascism and communism exercised a large influence on the Arab "Baathist" ideology…
Turkey’s Wars: Shoshana Bryen, Breaking Israel News, Oct. 30, 2016 — Turkish air and ground forces are attacking northern Syria.
Turkey’s Rogue Aggression Helps ISIS — and Threatens Wider War: Editorial, New York Post, Oct. 29, 2016 — Washington is recruiting in Syria for an offensive against Raqqa, the capital of the self-styled Islamic State.
Turkey à la Carte – Stretching the Boundaries: Editorial, Globe & Mail, Oct. 28, 2016 — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has a couple of times recently complained that Turkey didn’t end up with enough territory when its borders were settled at the end of the First World War, specifically in the Treaty of Lausanne.
Jews Die, Turks Celebrate: Robert Jones, Gatestone Institute, Nov. 1, 2016— Two important Jew have lost their lives lately: Shimon Peres, the ninth President of Israel, and Ishak Alaton, a Jewish businessman from Turkey.
Turkey’s New Maps Are Reclaiming the Ottoman Empire: Nick Danforth, Foreign Policy, Oct. 23, 2016
Erdogan’s Academics: Middle East Studies Scholars Shill For A Tyrant: A.J. Caschetta, Daily Caller, Oct. 28, 2016
The Politics of the Battle for Mosul: Melik Kaylan, World Affairs, Oct. 24, 2016
Why Turkey’s Jewish Population Continues to Decline: Robert Jones, Algemeiner, Oct. 30, 2016
TURKEY: ERDOGAN'S GALLOPING DESPOTISM
Burak Bekdil
Gatestone Institute, Nov. 2, 2016
Both fascism and communism exercised a large influence on the Arab "Baathist" ideology — "resurrection" in Arabic, and which started as a nationalist, Sunni Arab movement to combat Western colonial rule and to promote modernization. In Iraq, the despotic Baathist regime survived 35 years, largely under the leadership of Saddam Hussein. In Syria, it is still struggling under the tyranny of President Bashar al-Assad. These days a non-Arab, but Islamist version of the Baathist ideology is flourishing in an otherwise unlikely country: candidate for membership in the European Union (EU), Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's increasing authoritarianism is killing Turkey's already slim chances of finding itself a place in the world's more civilized clubs and turning the country more and more into a "Baathist" regime.
In 2004 Erdogan's government abolished the death penalty as part of his ambitions at the time to join the EU. Twelve years later, on Oct. 29, 2016, Erdogan addressed fans of his party, and said he would ratify a bill reinstating capital punishment once it passed in parliament despite objections it might spark in the West. He said: "Soon, our government will bring (the bill) to parliament … It's what the people say that matters, not what the West thinks".
EU officials had warned in July that such a move would kill Turkey's accession process. If Turkey reintroduces the death penalty, said Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief, it will not be joining the European Union. "Let me be very clear on one thing," she said, "… No country can become an EU member state if it introduces [the] death penalty." On October 30, Europe once again warned Turkey. "Executing the death penalty is incompatible with membership of the Council of Europe," the 47-member organization, which includes Turkey, tweeted.
The potential re-introduction of the death penalty is not the only "Baathist" signal Erdogan's Turkey is making. A court in the predominantly Kurdish province of Diyarbakir arrested Gulten Kisanak and Firat Anli, the Kurdish co-mayors, following their detention, in the latest blow to political opposition in Turkey. The co-mayors are being charged with "being a member of an armed terrorist group," while Anli is also charged with "trying to separate land under the state's sovereignty." "Arrest is a legal term, but [in Turkey] there is no law," said Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of a pro-Kurdish opposition party. "This is abduction and kidnapping."
Erdogan could not care less. He is busy strengthening his one-man rule. A governmental state of emergency decree on October 29 gave Erdogan powers directly to appoint presidents to nearly 200 universities in the country. Before that decree, he had to choose from three candidates offered by a central board that oversees higher education, based on free elections at universities.
Before the Turks could digest so many undemocratic practices they had to face in one week, they woke up only to learn that scores of journalists at a newspaper critical of Erdogan had been detained. On October 31, police raided the homes of 11 people, including executives and journalists of Cumhuriyet newspaper, after prosecutors initiated a probe against them on "terrorism" charges. Cumhuriyet said detention warrants were issued for 15 journalists. The prosecutor's office said the operation was based on accusations that the suspects were "committing crimes on behalf of two terror organizations."
Large crowds gathered outside the Cumhuriyet office in Istanbul to protest the detention of journalists, while leading press organizations also slammed the raids. The Contemporary Journalists Association released a written statement, saying: "This is about … abolishing all universal values including the right to live and social rights. The most explicit indications of it are the growing pressure against the Turkish press and the policies to destroy it. This is the process of the destruction of free thought." Precisely. "Universal liberties" and "Turkey" have already become a very unpleasant oxymoron. Erdogan's populism, based on religious conservatism and ethnic nationalism, are fast driving Turkey toward Arab Baathism instead of Western democratic culture.
Shoshana Bryen
Breaking Israel News, Oct. 30, 2016
Turkish air and ground forces are attacking northern Syria. The target is not ISIS – the presumed threat to Turkish interests – but rather Kurdish forces that have borne the brunt of anti-ISIS ground fighting and are key to the battle for Mosul in Iraq.
Since the July aborted coup in Ankara, the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been making internal war against what it calls the “Gülenist threat,” followers of Turkish cleric Fetullah Gülen, who Erdoğan believes engineered the coup. Tens of thousands of Turks have been arrested, dismissed from their jobs, and otherwise harassed. Turkey has also been conducting an external war – either overtly or by proxy – to control sensitive areas of Iraq and Syria and short-circuit any possibility of Kurdish independence or large-scale autonomy emerging from the wreckage of wars in both those countries.
After shelling Kurdish positions just north of Aleppo, the Turkish Air Force bombed headquarters, ammunition dumps, and shelters. Turkish sources claimed 200 dead; Kurdish sources said 10 people were killed. They were PKK, said the Turks – members of the Peoples Workers Party, which has carried out operations inside Turkey for decades. The People’s Protection Units (YPG), however, said in a statement that the airstrikes targeted fighters from the YPG-affiliated Jaish al-Thuwar (Revolutionary Front), which was advancing against ISIS in the city of Ifrin. Turkey makes little distinction among Kurdish groups. The U.S. takes a different tack, agreeing that the PKK is a terrorist organization but arming and training the YPG and finding it the most effective force on the ground fighting ISIS. A U.S. official says the particular Kurds targeted this time were not among those we have trained, so there were no Americans in the area of Turkish fire. This time. But the possibility of direct U.S.-Turkish confrontation is rising daily.
There has been little mention of Turkey’s wars in the American press, aided by the fact that militias, rebel armies, terrorist groups, and sub-state actors sound like alphabet soup: FSA, PKK, PYD, YPG, JAN, ISIS, AQI, and more fight in Syria and Iraq. Even when they have names, Americans are likely to find themselves confused. How does Jaish al-Thuwar relate to the Khalid ibn al-Walid Brigade, or the Free Syrian Army or the Authenticity and Development Group, the Sun Battalion, the Al-Qousi Brigade, or the Truthful Promise Brigade? Confusion is serving Turkey well.
There are an estimated 60 million Kurds in the Middle East and adjacent regions, divided among Turkey (25.8 million), Iran (11 million), Iraq (10.2 million), Syria (4 million), and Afghanistan (9 million). Another 2 million are estimated to be in Europe, primarily in Germany. Turkey adamantly opposes independence for the Kurds, and the U.S. had trouble gaining even reluctant Turkish acceptance of Northern Iraq’s regional autonomy after the 2003 ouster of Saddam from Baghdad. The dissolution of Assad’s control of Northern Syria and the possibility that Iraqi and Syrian Kurds might construct a contiguous Kurdish area appears to pose a greater problem for Turkey than the rise and spread of ISIS. It is against the Syrian Kurds, therefore, not ISIS that Turkey has been operating for months.In late August, Turkey directly intervened with tanks and planes to assist the Syrian Nour el-din el-Zinki rebel group in attacking Kurdish forces. The Kurds, members of the YPG militia, had captured the ISIS-held town of Manbij, but the Turks wanted them to hand the town over to its proxy. The U.S. caved to Turkish demands and ordered the YPG – its ally – out of town.
Following U.S. pressure on the Kurds, the Turks have increased the pace and lethality of their attacks. Unsurprisingly, Kurdish groups have begun to challenge reliability of the West – and the U.S. in particular. This round of fighting began just before a scheduled visit to Turkey by U.S. secretary of defense Ashton Carter. Carter, no doubt planning to ensure continued use of Turkey’s Incirlik air base to launch strikes against ISIS and to support Iraq, struck a conciliatory tone toward Ankara when asked about the airstrikes – something sure to rankle the Kurdish militias. “With respect to Turkey, our partnership is very strong in the counter-ISIL campaign,” he said. “We’re working with the Turks now very successfully to help them secure their border area.”
To many in the Middle East, the United States not only appears unreliable, which is bad enough, but seems to have frequently abandoned its friends and allies, which is worse. In the Obama administration, not only the president, but also the vice president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense bear responsibility for these impressions. While Turkey is, by treaty, an American ally and a NATO member, the U.S. has to either rein in the Turks or face the consequence of a powerful and reckless Turkish government shooting up Turkey and its neighborhood – and our allies…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]
TURKEY’S ROGUE AGGRESSION HELPS ISIS —
Editorial
New York Post, Oct. 29, 2016
Washington is recruiting in Syria for an offensive against Raqqa, the capital of the self-styled Islamic State. Unfortunately, the Syrian Kurds behind most of the success in the advance on Raqqa are . . . getting bombed by America’s NATO ally Turkey. The Pentagon’s warned that Raqqa needs to fall fast, since terror attacks against the West are being planned there. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says: “We are putting [further intervention] on our agenda . . . to remove the threat against our country.”
What threat? Since he reopened Ankara’s longtime war on Turkey’s own Kurdish minority, Erdogan’s worried about gains by Syrian Kurds of the YPG, or People’s Protection Units. Ankara sees the YPG as an arm of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, regularly accused of terrorist tactics in its decades-long insurgency. Washington sees it as a vital ally against ISIS. “The facts are these: The only force that is capable [of taking Raqqa] on any near-term timeline are the Syrian Democratic Forces, of which the YPG are a significant portion,” Gen. Stephen Townsend, who heads the international anti-ISIS coalition, told reporters Wednesday.
But Erdogan plainly doesn’t care: He’s been bombing YPG units for weeks now and threatens ground combat. In the operation Ankara calls “Euphrates Shield” (after the river that runs through Turkey, Syria and Iraq), Turkey aims to advance on the Syrian border town of al-Bab (held by the Islamic State), then march to Manbij, recently liberated from the terrorists by a YPG-led Syrian militia. There’s more: Erdogan is also demanding “a place at the table” in the ongoing fight in Iraq to free Mosul from ISIS. He’s already got troops nearby, uninvited — certainly not by the Iraqis whose territory he’s violated. Asked by Washington and Baghdad to pull out, he threatened to send in more. He may plan to stay: Erdogan’s also announced that Turkey will no longer “voluntarily accept the borders of our country” — a clear reference to his country’s claim to Mosul dating back to 1920.
In the past, Erdogan’s been all bluster, no action. But his recent moves are already Turkey’s most aggressive since the 1974 invasion of Cyprus. His response to the recent failed coup attempt has been to essentially end Turkish democracy, so all bets are off. At a minimum, Erdogan could undermine the effort to crush ISIS — but the risks run all the way to triggering a regional war. All this from a guy who just a few years back was widely known as President Obama’s favorite leader in the Muslim world.
TURKEY À LA CARTE – STRETCHING THE BOUNDARIES
Editorial
Globe & Mail, Oct. 28, 2016
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has a couple of times recently complained that Turkey didn’t end up with enough territory when its borders were settled at the end of the First World War, specifically in the Treaty of Lausanne. That might seem to be just pointless, resentful grumbling, but at a time when the very existence of a state called Syria is in question – with a number of rebel factions with their own territories, and the toxic entity known as ISIS/Daesh still in play – Mr. Erdogan may be staking claims with a view to a new settlement.
An article this month by Nick Danforth in the American journal Foreign Policy rightly points out the risks of reopening the borders set almost 100 years ago. He does not accuse Mr. Erdogan, however, of planning for a vast new Ottoman empire. Some of Mr. Erdogan’s flatterers seem to be pushing the envelope, however. The borders on a few Turkish maps have suspiciously crept beyond those set by the Treaty of Lausanne. Small but unmistakable chunks of Greece, Bulgaria (in the former European lands of Thrace) have “lost” land on their north and west. Similarly, in Western Asia, someone has taken bites out of Georgia and Armenia. More dangerously yet, one map appears to assert Turkish spheres of influence in both Iraq and Syria. This is particularly disappointing at a time when Greek and Turkish Cypriots are making better progress than ever toward peace, after many years of a divided Cyprus. With its ever-increasing Turkish nationalist and Islamist orientation, Ankara is most unlikely to encourage mutual accommodation on the island.
In the earlier phases of the Syrian civil war, the Erdogan government stood by passively on the Turkish-Syrian border, with a substantial military buildup, biding time, hoping that the ultra-Shiite regime of the Assad family would just collapse. But Vladimir Putin has no intention to let that happen, endangering Russia’s only Mediterranean naval base. Mr. Erdogan is risking new conflict, in a competition over the city of Mosul, between the Turkmen minority (akin to the Turks) and the Shiite government of Iraq. Instead, Mr. Erdogan should devise a constructive policy for a region that could certainly do with some peace and co-operation.
Robert Jones
Gatestone Institute, Nov. 1, 2016
Two important Jew(s) have lost their lives lately: Shimon Peres, the ninth President of Israel, and Ishak Alaton, a Jewish businessman from Turkey. Upon receiving the news of the deaths of these two men, many Turks rushed to Twitter proudly and openly to show off their hatred of Jews, according to the Turkish news site, Avlaremoz, which covers Jewish affairs…Some people might attempt to normalize these Turks' hatred of Peres by pointing out that Peres was an Israeli state leader. However, the reactions many Turks gave on social media after a Turkish businessman of Jewish origin died shows that these reactions are instead simply raw Jew-hate, which has little to do with the policies of the state of Israel.
Ishak Alaton, a Turkish businessman and investor of Jewish descent, born in Istanbul in 1927, died of heart failure on September 11, at the age of 89. This is how some Turks on Twitter paid farewell to him: "Ishak Alaton, the darling of Soros and the Jewish usurer, has croaked. Master Baphomet was not able to protect him. I wish the same for other Jewish vampires."… "Even those whose top expertise is making money eventually bid farewell to life. Ishak Alaton lost his life." … [Responding to a tweet that wished Alaton to rest in peace:] "Idiots, since when have non-Muslims been wished to rest in peace? You do not even know about that. You have nothing to do with religion." … "Even his air conditioners will not be enough to cool him down in the afterlife." … "It is cause for rejoicing that one more Jew falls before the Bayram [Eid al-Adha, the Islamic 'Sacrifice Feast']."
Alaton had contributed immensely to the Turkish economy, and culture, as well as to the efforts of democratization of the country. Between 1947 and 1948, he performed his military service in the Turkish army, compulsory for all male Turks. After studying and working in Sweden from 1951 to 1954, he returned to Turkey, co-founded the Alarko group of companies, and employed thousands of people. A prominent businessman and philanthropist, Alaton was granted the Swedish Order of the North Star and the Spanish Order of Civil Merit. Yet he preferred to live in Turkey. There he became the chairman of one of the most prominent businesses in the country and established the Turkey Foundation of Economic and Social Studies.
The Turks that spewed Jew-hatred after his death are evidently sure that no prosecutor in Turkey will hold them accountable … for their remarks calling for hatred and even violence against Jews. They seem to think that no matter what you say or write about Jews, you can get away with it. In fact, celebrating Jewish deaths on social media seems to be a tradition for some Turks. Following an attempted stabbing at the Israeli Embassy in Ankara on September 21, and the bombing attack in Istanbul's Taksim district which resulted in three Israeli deaths, many Turkish Twitter-users had filled Twitter with hate-filled messages again.
This should come as no surprise: 71% of the Turkish adult population harbors anti-Semitic attitudes, according to the 2015 Anti-Defamation League Global 100 Poll. "I do not think that there has ever been a period in this country in which anti-Semitism and hatred against Jews has decreased," said Isil Demirel, an anthropologist from Turkey and an author for Avlaremoz. "And during the current political atmosphere, hate speech against Jews in Turkey is even more commonplace."
The Jewish community in Turkey has also been exposed to deadly terror attacks at the hands of Muslim groups. On September 6, 1986, Palestinian Arab terrorists affiliated with the Abu Nidal Organization bombed and opened fire at Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul during a Sabbath service; 22 people were killed. On November 15, 2003, Islamist Turks and Al-Qaeda sympathizers exploded near-simultaneous car bombs outside two Istanbul synagogues — Neve Shalom and Beth Israel — both filled with worshippers. At least 23 people were murdered, and more than 300 wounded. According to Demirel:
"The attacks against synagogues in particular have made security an even more alarming issue for the Jewish community. That is why, for many years, synagogues and other Jewish institutions have been protected by safety measures…. The government should immediately recognize anti-Semitism as a hate crime and impose penal sanctions on the perpetrators. I think this is the most important step to be taken to help the Jewish community live in peace here."
But given the anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli statements of state authorities in Turkey, it does not seem realistic to expect them to make laws that would recognize anti-Semitism as an offense in Turkey. For example, on July 18, 2014, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: "The state that knows best how to kill children is Israel. The obvious reality is that Israel is the country that threatens peace in the world and in the Middle East. Israel has never been pro-peace. It has persecuted and continues the persecution…Israel might seem to be the winner now. But it will eventually be defeated. This will also bother the Jews living in certain parts of the world. We as Turkey and myself — as long as I am in charge — can never have a positive view of Israel."
According to a 2014 Pew Poll, Israel is the most hated country in Turkey, with 86% of respondents holding an unfavorable view of the Jewish state, and only 2% viewing it positively. Although the Jewish people have not been allowed to live free and safe lives in Turkey, they have resided there for millennia — as have the Armenians and the Greeks, who were also persecuted, and the Alevis and the Kurds who are persecuted now. "The Jewish presence in Asia Minor dates back to Biblical times," writes Professor Franklin Hugh Adler. "This is mentioned by Aristotle and several Roman sources, including Josephus…Jews, in fact, had inhabited this land long before the birth of Mohammed and the Islamic conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries, or for that matter, the arrival and conquests of the Turks, beginning in the eleventh century…At the beginning of the Turkish Republic, in 1923, the Jewish population was 81,454. Nevertheless, Turkey's current Jewish population has diminished to 15,000."…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]
Turkey’s New Maps Are Reclaiming the Ottoman Empire: Nick Danforth, Foreign Policy, Oct. 23, 2016—In the past few weeks, a conflict between Ankara and Baghdad over Turkey’s role in the liberation of Mosul has precipitated an alarming burst of Turkish irredentism.
Erdogan’s Academics: Middle East Studies Scholars Shill For A Tyrant: A.J. Caschetta, Daily Caller, Oct. 28, 2016 —In the days after the July coup attempt against his regime, Turkey’s tyrant Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused a group of scholars attending a conference in Istanbul of conspiring against him and directing the plot. After his widespread paranoid purge of Turkish academia, it seems Erdogan has now found a group of scholars he can live with.
The Politics of the Battle for Mosul: Melik Kaylan, World Affairs, Oct. 24, 2016 —The battle for Mosul is as much a political endeavor as its post-conflict status will be. The entire venture pivots on the trust between the allied factions: the Kurds, the Christians, the Yazidis, and the Iraqi army which has its own Shia-Sunni divisions—not to mention the Turks hovering on the horizon threatening to join the hunt. For the ground war to work the factions need to believe that they share a common goal for the long-term future of Mosul. That's a tall order because the major players have divergent, even opposing, agendas.
Why Turkey’s Jewish Population Continues to Decline: Robert Jones, Algemeiner, Oct. 30, 2016—“Due to deaths and emigration, there are now 450 fewer Jews [in Turkey] this year,” wrote Mois Gabay, a columnist for the Turkish-Jewish weekly, Salom. This, he said, is not only because the community is aging and has a decreasing birthrate, but as a result of “the traumas that every Jewish generation has endured” in the country.
