He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap. My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth, and the teachings of science.” — Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (Father of Modern Turkey)
If you’ve been reading the headlines, the 2024 BRICS assemblage of twenty heads of state has just concluded in Kansan, Russia. If you thought host Vladimir Putin lacks friends beyond China and North Korea, then you’re mistaken.
BRICS, in fact, is growing. This year’s consortium includes new members Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates in addition to its founding members: Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa (thus the acronym).
What you wouldn’t expect, being both a NATO member and EU candidate, is Türkiye’s applying for BRICS membership (September 2, 2024).
It would certainly surprise Mustafa Atatürk, Türkiye’s George Washington, who promoted Westernization, leading to the separation of religion and state, the ending of polygamy, the abolishing of the veil, the emancipation of women and the adoption of a Latinate script, replacing Arabic.
It’s past time to soft-pedal Türkiye, a subversive entity increasingly out-of-touch with the values of Western democracies.
Allow me to enumerate its transgressions:
1. Türkiye continues to discriminate against its 175,000 Christians in a country 95% Muslim. The primary lure of visitors to Istanbul is the famed Hagia Sophia cathedral, founded by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 537 CE. The conquering Sultan Mehmet II converted it into a mosque in 1453 CE. Atatürk, however, rescinded that action, designating it a museum. Türkiye’s high court annulled that decision in July 2020, a move hailed by Erdogan as “the second conquest of Istanbul.”
In the years 2018-2020, Türkiye deported more than fifty foreign Christian pastors on the pretext of constituting a threat to Turkish national security. As is, Christian ministers have no indigenous seminary, their future uncertain.
There was the notorious imprisonment of American Presbyterian pastor Robert Brunson, a 20-year resident of Türkiye on charges of collusion with Kurds, undermining national security. In response, Trump doubled tariffs in 2018 on Türkiye’s aluminum and steel, sending the lira into a steep decline. Brunson was released shortly after, having been imprisoned for two years (Imprisonment).
Space does not allow for numerous other instances of religious intolerance
Middle East Forum
2. Türkiye continues to deny the Armenian Genocide (1915-1917) with its displacement, forced marches, compulsory Islamization, and mass murder of 1.1 million Armenians, along with expulsion and massacres of its Greek population. No serious historian denies its factuality.
3. It refuses to grant its sizable Kurdish minority a right to its culture and self-government. In July, 2024, President Recep Erdogan made clear his plan to promote demographic change in Kurdish northern Syria by resettling three million Syrian Arab refugees there, along with building a city dedicated to their presence (Refugee Resettlement).
4. In Europe, Erdogan stubbornly resisted Finland and Sweden’s membership in NATO, holding out for fighter jets.
5. At home, Erdogan rules with a heavy hand, crushing political dissent, the right of free assembly and a free press. Scores of journalists, academics, judges, and civil servants have been imprisoned (Amnesty International).
6. As for Türkiye’s gifted literary community, intimidation has become ubiquitous, with some writers jailed or ostracized in the press. They include the journalist Can Dündar, poet Ilhan Sami Çomak, and politician Selahattin Demirtaş, who wrote three novels in jail. Nobel literary laureate Orhan Pamuk retains a security guard (Dial World).
7. And then there is Türkiye’s most renowned writer, Elif Shafik, who has resided in London since 2013 and no longer writes in Turkish. Since 2010, fringe nationalists and Erdogan loyalists have confiscated her books and slandered her reputation.
As Shafak trenchantly observes, “It is tiring to be Turkish. The country is badly polarised, bitterly politicized. Every writer, journalist, poet knows that because of an article, a novel, an interview, a poem or a tweet you can be sued, put on trial, even arrested. Self-censorship is widespread”(Dial World).
8. Discrimination against the LGBTQ community is pervasive, extending to workplace, social settings, housing, and healthcare. Türkiye’s government officials, including Erdogan, have not been shy in disparaging gays. In Istanbul and Ankara, LGBTQ events have been frequently banned as affronts to public morality (RFI).
9. Türkiye has conducted an aggressive foreign policy, menacing its Mediterranean neighbors, pursuing illegal drilling that violates international maritime law. In response, the European Council has imposed sanctions.
It supported Azerbaijan with weaponry in the Nagornal-Karabakh conflict.
Türkiye has militarily intervened in Libya and Syria; in the latter, attacking Kurds aligned with U.S. forces opposing Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and a growing ISIS insurgence.
10. Of major concern is Erdogan’s brokering a $2.5 billion deal with Putin to purchase the Russian S-400 surface to air missile system, compromising American defense security, leading to previous president Trump’s curtailing shipment of F-35 jets to the country.
Unfortunately, efforts within Türkiye to check Erdogan’s growing powers have failed.
What can be done?
Not much, as no specific measure exists for expelling a NATO member. Such action would be unlikely anyway, pragmatists arguing the country’s considerable military strength and role as a buffer to Russian and Iranian interests in the Middle East.
As for the US embargo on jets, following Erdogan’s finally approving Sweden and Finland NATO membership, the Biden administration agreed to send Türkiye 40 F-16 fighter jets. The two nations have further set a goal of $100 billion in bilateral trade, up from $30 billion in 2023 (Reuters, September 23, 2024).
What remains a disciplinary possibility is that the EU may ultimately deny an intransigent Türkiye highly coveted EU membership. That’s probably wishful thinking, opponents arguing Türkiye formidable military as a necessary offset against Russian and Iranian hegemony in the region. Strategically, it controls the Bosporus Strait, linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean .
It doesn’t help that there exists a lucrative tourism, grossing 40 million visitors in the first eight months of the current year, an increase of 7.1 % over the previous year.
Indeed, tourism is likely to increase, despite the US State Department’s issuing an advisory in October on traveling to the country. Terrorists have targeted tourist locations and the government has imprisoned thousands, including Americans, on scanty evidence of alleged ties with terrorists (Advisory).
Still, it isn’t all doom and gloom, Erdogan’s ruling party, the AKP, finishing second in the March 24, 2024 local elections.
Meanwhile, informed citizens committed to human rights will understandably refrain from traveling there.
–rj
Brimmings: up from the well 