Ethnically Bulgarian Alexiev works as the vice president for the Center for Security Policy in the United States. He is at the same time a consultant to the Pentagon and the CIA. In an interview with the Focus News Agency, this Bulgarian American talked about Turkey, saying: “Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s regime has waged an all-out war on the secular traditions of the Turkish society founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Turkish secularism is under an imminent threat in nearly all phases of the society from education to the judiciary, financial institutions, culture and particularly the [Turkish] Armed Forces. If Turkey yields to Islamism, our national security will face a very grave problem…” What Alexiev implies is, of course, “the security of the West.”During a conference he gave in Paris titled “Islamism in Europe and France,” Alexiev had this to say, “Islamic radicalism is on the rise in the Western Europe, becoming the dominant ideology and threatening the future of Europe.” He makes a distinction between Islam and Islamism and explains why measures should be taken against Islamism: “Islam is the name of the religion. Islamism, however, is the name of a political ideology close to fascism and communism, which are totalitarian in their essence. European leaders are not yet aware of the danger.” A small note: Cumhuriyet newspaper’s slogan, published every day above the masthead for a year, could be read as “Are you aware of the danger?” -- a question designed to encourage the military to intervene in civil politics.
The circles in Europe and the United States influenced by Michael Rubin and Alexiev categorically reject seeing Erdoğan as a representative of “moderate Islam.” In their opinion Erdoğan “is fighting the secular democratic system and the modern values and has a secret Islamic agenda which he has been implementing step by step.” The expectation of these circles is that the EU leaders, who have been strengthening religious politics by cooperating with Erdoğan and who have been trying to pacify the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), will wake up some day.
Because he is of Bulgarian descent, Alexiev doesn’t fail to make mention of the Muslims in Bulgaria. The Muslims in Bulgaria, devoted to Sufi traditions, are always very moderate but there have recently been radical groups in the country, Alexiev claims, adding that these radical groups have much funding and support behind them to buy and build mosques. The natural demand of Muslims in Bulgaria, who are growing in number, to build more mosques to meet their need is presented by their fellow countryman as a growing threat in this southeastern European country.
While heading a program called “Islamic Radicalism and International Terrorism,” Alexiev follows his initial remarks by claiming “America should use force against Islam in order to establish peace in the world.” In this program there was an attempt to benefit from the embarrassing memory etched in the Western conscience of millions of Jews murdered during World War II. By likening Muslims to Nazis they are using this sense of guilt to invent a “legitimate ground” for attacks and operations against the Islamic world. This is a very dangerous doctrine.
There are a few dimensions of the July 22 elections that we have to delve into however. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party), accused of having a secret Islamic agenda and having come out of the elections as the ruling party again after receiving 46.6 percent of the vote, has turned out to be a very demoralizing thing for those who had establish hegemony by “otherizing” Islam and Muslims. In the face of this new political scene, they will have to either review their conspiracy theories or opt for a more open way of saying that “Muslims are a threat altogether.” As a matter of fact, is this not what they have been trying to instill into the world’s subconscious using secret messages “between the lines”?
