What are your thoughts about this recent article in Washington Post?

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Totally Blunt

I think he cannot follow events in Turkey properly.

1. It isn't Turkey that has turned to Middle East rather than the West, it is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

2. Sure, his core supporters have started to show their racist and Islamist faces, but they were already like that, and they arenot more than 20% of the voting population. The 53% that didn't vote for RTE and the disillusioned AKP voters cannot be said to participate in his rude and narrow minded worldview.

3. Even Islamist looking people are too involved with the West, doing business with them, shopping from them... Except for the religious practices and the obvious new riches, their lives aren't more Eastern than mine.

4. EU project may have stumbled because of Erdoğan, Sarkozy and the like, but it doesn't mean it has stopped. If the process is like a train, we can think this period like an extended pause in the AKP station.

5. BUT... if we cannot get rid of RTE in the upcoming parliament elections (not the nearer municipality elections) I cannot say anything about the future.

6. Erdoğan is said to be falling from grace in Fethullah Gülen's eyes. If this is true and the next prime minister gets to be a different disciple of Feto, I will be really afraid.

If I had to guess, I would say Soner Çağaptay is a youngish scholar who looks at Turkey through American goggles. Or, maybe he is part of the Orientalization and Islamisation of Turkey project, because this article is more like wishful thinking than walking the streets and making observations.

Edit: About the green money 01000 talks about... There have been Arab banks in Turkey for ages, just like Western banks, and noone complained.

The money we complain about is the uncontrolled billions that come to Islamist foundations like the Ensar Vakfı (chairman Kadir Topbaş) from uncertain American sources and is used to further their Islamic agenda.

We really don't think that their rhetoric only does the business. It is hard cash, distributed to supporters and used to form an organized non-governmental Islamisation force.

gugu

Well, Bix, first of all, you made me obliged to say that I read Washington Post on a regular basis and I'm Turkish. I think you are a bit prejudiced about Turkish people. We read things, Bix. : )

The writer of this article has some points, that's for sure, but sorry, there is no way that I take him serious. He clearly has no clue about certain topics. I can understand him for some of his worries but the examples he gives to support these worries lack merit.

Look at this quotation from Erdoğan's speech: "countries that oppose Iran's nuclear weapons should themselves not have nuclear weapons." The writer of the essay dumbly presents this speech as a proof for Turkey's close relations with Iran. C'mon, what's wrong with that speech? Everybody who has common sense and some intellect and some conscience has the potential to say these words. The writer should have found something else (if there is any.)

Secondly, The YouTube ban is not a work of AKParty, he should have known that.

The gender index he is talking about is a total bullshit, sorry to say. I have analyzed that index. I do not understand why we should blindfoldedly accept that index as an "a priori" knowledge. I don't understand anything about the mathmetics behind statistics, but clearly it is wrong. I mean how can Saudi Arabia or Libya or Kuwait be ahead of Turkey when it comes to the gender equality subject. Turkish women have the right to vote since 1930's, we had a woman prime minister once, the chairman of the board of TÜSİAD (Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association) is a woman, we have woman ministers, parliamentaries, ceo's, even fighter-jet pilots...
There is something wrong with that survey, that's for sure.

As I said before, he may be right about his worries but he lacks the intellectual capacity and knowledge to support his worries. He doesn't know where to look. He is clearly someone that we refer to as "so called intellectual"/"sözde aydın" or with Serdar Turgut's words "rokoko aydın" plus it is obvious that he hasn't been to Turkey for a long time.

P.S Is it really that easy to find a job at those think tanks?
P.S 2: Anyway, thanx for asking this.

slightly otaku

It is ironic that the article is written by a Turkish person. To me, it felt more like as if an American journalist put it into words. Overall, it seemed to make things look worse than they are and had a threatening voice like : "Be careful folks, or Mr. Obama won't like you!" as if Turkish people cared, because everyone is well aware that relations with Turkey are getting more and more vital for both the Middle Eastern and the European/American for the USA to put them at stake.

But if you ask if I am contented with AKP government; I'd say -at least on behalf of half of the country- "Certainly not."
There has been a great discontent and a mood of uneasiness since that government is in charge. Because people who have the ability to see the facts and think a little, do not and cannot trust them.

And about the stand of Turkish people about Israeli attacks, the general mood had nothing to do with anti-semitism or pro-radical-islamism, it was simply and quite rightly humanitarian. It is OK that you want to defend your country from terrorism, but why knowingly kill innocent people, kill babies for god's sake? The reaction of Turkish people was mainly due to the illegal and unhuman bombings of Israeli troops and to the rest of the world keeping silent -and even supportive- to the incredibly cruel situation there.

Anoosh

Times change, things change and very quickly, hopefully toward the bright future for allover the world.
And I think we have to wait and see...

010001100101100100000011010001

I know you hate Erdogan and I do not like the government either but still I am not going to tell you what you want to hear.

The partisans of opposition parties love to try to bash, slander and discredit the government. That's what I think. I cannot get it how he could claim that the improving ties with Iran are indicating Turkey is alienating itself from the West while Obama himself plans to talk to Iran without preconditions.

When the huge Arab investments in the West are growing insanely fast, there is no problem. But, when they start to make investments in Turkey, the same funds are called "GREEN MONEY" by western media. They publish columns as to "Green money is a threat to Turkish secularism" and "Turkey's Turn From the West". Turkey is a secular country and we are modern people. Even the idea of a theocracy is enough to make us shiver. It is our psychological weak point and this is only a psychological war. They want the money for themselves.

It is fine if Austria is boosting economic ties with Iran. It is still fine if the top three export partners of Iran are Japan, Italy and France and the top three import partners of Iran are Germany, France and the UAE. It is only bad for Turkey!

And, Israel is not the West as criticizing Israeli politics is not Antisemitism. What Erdogan said sums it all up: "As an individual, I have always declared that anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity. As a prime minister I have always been against anti-Semitism and my frustration is against the current Israeli government because they did not act fairly toward us." It is freedom of speech. They should start to deal with it.

BTW YouTube ban is a joke. When a reporter remarked that access to YouTube is blocked in Turkey, Erdogan replied: “I get in, you can do so as well.” Do you really think the government is the responsible for banning it? They are going to change the law:

http://www.cnnturk.com/2009/bilim.teknoloji/teknoloji/01/05/youtube.icin.yasa.degisikligi.hazirligi/507598.0/index.html

crazygirl158

I say (almost) right onnnn!!!
I, for the first time ever probably, understand Erdogan's stand against Israel because they killed civilians in gaza..
But about Iran and becoming less "liberal political" I definitely definitely agree with.
Its nice to see other people see my point of view and hopefully this problem in the government is reparable.

Zoi ((Ζωή))

Ok, I'll tell it in poor, everyday engish: Somebody paid the turkish journalist to write this article. This, on the other hand, doesn't mean that Erdogan's 'gesture' was percieved positively by the West.
I wouldn't trust ANY of the USA's and some of the english newspapers, it is more than obvious that they are trying to creat impressions.

Big countries and groups of interests try to influence 'mass opinion' through media.
POOR EXAMPLE...: CHILE, ALLIENTE, around 1970: CIA bribed the newspapers and TV channels to creat a negative impression for Alliente in his country, because he was trying to 'nationalize' natural sources and land of his country, to the expence of big American companies.

I believe that it was something that will be forgotten soon, and maybe US trys to approach some Arabs directly, new president don't need Turkey's support for his wars like he used to or...anything.
Isn't it Obama, who wants to promote 'Green energy' Industry or am I wrong?

Mica

I love Turkey. They are always in a very difficult position. They are Muslim but want to join the European Union. That would be much better for their tourism industry. I travelled there for the first time 10 years ago and they were talking about it then..

Qu'est ce que tu pense?

The article is simply trying to report the facts. I don't think there's any true "attacks" made by the writer, because most of it is statistics and events that have occurred. Of course the writer is taking all the bad events they could think of and compiled it into one article. In addition, I think the statistic about Women's rights are way off. Turkey placed after Saudi Arabia?? That's completely nuts. However, I think the writer striked on the subtle irony of this bit of information.

The only thing that I could agree on was the fact that Erdogan has slightly ruined our country. I wouldn't go so far as to say that our women's rights and our hopes of being more western have gone bad. Yet, it's not likely Turkey cares or not. I know in my opinion, I could care less whether Turkey is accepted by other countries and the E.U. Turkey is always the one to hold all the cards (so to speak) and there's no need for Turkiye to show it off.

BuseTurk

Hahaha this article looks like a joke to me. I was also surprised that a Turk would write this.

DanyBoy

erdoğan is a islamist facist that is destroying out great turkey atlest under the old regime (CHP) wich still never did a great job atleast are seculer state was not under threat.I wish for Recep Tayip erdoğan to be killed or hanged or anything.My only hope now is that i heard kemal derviş is coming back to turkish politics to be the mayor of istanbul and after that i hope our new PM (only hope i see for thiss country of ours) and i agree with the post but only think 1 thing is wrong and that is our reletionship with iran the main reason for that is an ti PKK misions done together because iran has Pjek.

And i dont worry till a point because after a point AKP will go why one day they will push the small bit they have left and the army will take over.

And i will say this as most of my turkish friend dissagre Islam is what runed the ottoman and might one day ruin us (im atheist) but thats not all i dont mean to insult islam as my family is islam there is noting wrong with being muslim or a jeww or even a satanist but once you threaten turkeys seculer and liberal wiew i will make it a problem so islam stay at hoem and out of Goverment

Esc | This is Islam

Amazing. I had no idea that things in Turkey were so bad. And they seem so with the support of the majority of Turks. My Turkish friends, you have ventured into the Islamofascist experiment that has destroyed Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Gaza, Algeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan Bangladesh, and countless others. Let political Islam, ties with Islamist regimes, anti-Semitism, deteriorating international relations, government interference, crackdowns on personal freedoms, clownish diplomats, and ensuing economic decline, i.e. Islamic Third Worldism, flourish in the name of Allah. And for all ye who are Kemalists, join me in my castaway world, where one takes refuge in calvados (while we can still afford it and before we get flogged for it) and Handel and Arch of Triumph like Ravic in prewar Paris himself. We all know the Great Islamic Revolution of the Republic is coming, but until it does let's have some cultured fun. Even if it's only for a few more days.

"Our reference guide is Islam. Our only goal is an Islamic state. They can never intimidate us. If the skies and the earth open up, if storms blow on us, if the lava of volcanoes flow on us, we will never change our way. My guide is Islam. If I cannot live according to Islam, why live at all? Turk, Kurd, Arab, Caucasian cannot be differentiated; because these peoples are united under the roof of Islam."

- Recep Tayyip Erdogan, December 6, 1997, Hurriyat

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