However, we tend to be late in issuing the necessary warnings and taking proper measures in such cases. The potential for conflict is growing and spreading throughout the entire region. Clashes are seen not only between the followers of different sects of the same religion, but also between practitioners of different religions and even members of separate ethnicities. In the eyes of Sunnis, “Shiite” Iran and the “Alawite” Assad administration are treating dissidents in Syria as the “other,” while Shiites perceive Saudi and Bahraini efforts to suppress Shiite protesters in Bahrain as Sunni tyranny. Someone is telling Sunnis in Syria and Iraq that Iran-backed and Shiite-supported Alawites are spilling their blood, while this same someone is propagandizing that Sunnis are killing Shiites in Bahrain and Iraq. We are thus being pulled into a perfect atmosphere of fitnah, or dissension.
Amid this atmosphere of chaos, two states appear to be acting without wisdom or forethought: Iran, which tends to see itself as the leader and patron of Shiites and even Alawites and Zaydis in the region, and Saudi Arabia, which, similarly, markets itself as the boss and protector of Sunnis. The Saudi-Iranian conflict is leading to a sectarian confrontation, urging other governments and sects to pick a side.
Pakistan and Iraq are two countries that are considerably hampered by sectarian conflicts. Although they are supposed to come together under the unifying umbrella of the same religion, Muslims are spilling each other’s blood unjustly, thereby committing a cardinal sin.
In April 2011, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced that 76,000 people had died and 14,000 people had gone missing in the sectarian clashes that started in 2006. Other resources tell us that this figure is above 10,000. For Maliki, the main cause of this was that “someone is meddling in the domestic politics of Iraq at will and supporting certain sects.”
Sectarian clashes aside, religion-based and ethnicity-centered conflicts also have the potential to plunge the region into hell. Indeed, religion-centered clashes may emerge unexpectedly in every country with a diverse demographic structure. For the time being, Egypt and Nigeria are the most likely candidates. Lebanon has always been a potential area for conflict and it is highly vulnerable to religion-based and sectarian conflicts.
Given the policies pursued by the countries in the region as well as the views expressed by various media organs and intellectuals in these same countries, the odds of preventing religion-centered, sectarian and ethnic conflicts looks unlikely. We thus expect such a conflict to erupt anywhere in the region, including Turkey.
Everyone should call on their respective politicians, rulers and opinion leaders to be more responsible. Some countries may be taking sides with certain religion-based, sectarian and ethnic conflicts in the hopes of deriving short-term political benefits, but this does not give us a legitimate justification to act in the same manner. Indeed, such conflicts will bring no one long-term or permanent advantages or benefits.
Historically, there were too many tiny principalities in Anatolia before the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, and the rulers of these principalities fought each other to further their small interests. But, Osman Gazi, the first Ottoman sultan, came and united them all. He concentrated their efforts against the common enemy: Byzantium. Those whose seek to derive power and strength from sectarian or ethnic conflicts for the sake of internal/national groups or for the sake of external/global powers will end up in disappointment and loss because they will drag their countries into bloody clashes for no reason at all.
In this respect, Turkey should be more attentive, cautious and responsible than others. We have already been experiencing an ethnic conflict that has cost the lives of 40,000 people over the past 30 years. Sunni-Alevi provocations have led to deaths and tragedies in Çorum, Kahramanmaraş and Sivas. In other words, Turkey sits on a number of ethnic and sectarian fault lines. We are increasingly forced to adopt a “sectarian” attitude in our policy concerning the region. But we must avoid sectarian policies and we must stay away from turning our foreign policy into a sectarian minefield.
