In the same week both President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt undiplomatically declared how much they were disturbed and alarmed by the American position that attributes an exemplary role to Turkey as a moderate Islamic country that has reconciled religion with democracy. For the president of the republic this is equal to blasphemy because any relationship between religion and politics is part of an obscurantist agenda that undermines the secular state. This is true for the ruling elite of the country because Kemalism (coined after the political philosophy that is attributed to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the republic) has “subdued” religion to the state. For Kemalism, religion is an individual matter rather than the social-cultural reality of the masses.
The roots of Gen. Büyükanıt’s anti-American stance are somewhat different. For the general, along with the majority of the Turkish people, the US has unleashed a wave of Kurdish nationalism that could lead to the dismemberment of the country and other countries in the region harboring Kurdish enclaves. American (the Bush government’s) foreign policy is destabilizing the entire Middle East. The already existing frustration with the American presence in Iraq is further exacerbated by the US administration’s reluctance to forbid Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) forays into Turkey from its safe havens in northern Iraq that are under de facto American control.
Frequent criticisms or warnings by American politicians or military commanders regarding the possible intervention of Turkish armed forces are met with dislike and disbelief by the Turkish political-military elite. The reason is simple: America warns against a “foreign power intervening in the internal affairs of Iraq” while it is the US that has invaded and demolished most of Iraq to “liberate” and to democratize” it.
It looks like black humor to Turks who seek the understanding and support of the US to eliminate a harmful terrorist organization when the US has claimed to be waging a global war on terrorism while it is oblivious to the harm done by a terrorist organization launching attacks from a territory under its mandate. Is this because the US wants to add a part of Turkey inhabited by Kurds to the budding Kurdistan under its protection? With this suspicion, many Turks hold the US accountable for designs to divide up Turkey.
Given this backdrop, it is obvious that the frustration of many Turks with the US is twofold: Promoting moderate Islam and undermining the secular character of the Kemalist state on the one hand, and American efforts to create an independent Kurdish state by allowing it to carve out a part of Turkey on the other.
It is obvious that both issues are closely related to Turkey’s national identity. The official view that has crystallized in the legal system is pretty clear: Turkey is inhabited by the Turks; the existence of others is accidental. They are tolerated only as subservient elements to Turks and the Turkish state. That is why anti-Americanism voiced by the nationalist Kemalist establishment overlaps with growing anti-EU feelings because the EU promotes multiculturalism and minority rights in Turkey.
Liberalization of the system is perceived as a prelude to dissolution of national unity. If this is one reason for existing anti-EU feelings, the reluctance of some EU national elite to deny Turkey full membership and acting hypocritically in this regards is another. An increasing number of Turks do not believe in the sincerity of Europe to honor the acquis as an equal-opportunity legislative body.
These feelings are expressed by Sezer and Büyükanıt, who no longer feel diplomatic because they have lost hope in Turkey’s traditional allies, who are perceived to be foes rather than friends. That is why they have both declared that Turkey is facing a danger that has never been witnessed since the declaration of the republic. Such a statement cannot be pronounces haphazardly or independently if a shared climate of fear and anxiety were not present.
We are witnessing salvos of big cannons aimed at the West, specifically at its sincerity, integrity and its pluralist and democratic credentials. These high-level officials see enemies on the march when either the EU or the US talks about solving minority issues through political methods or elevating democratic standards to higher levels. In the end, the preservation of the status quo turns into conservation of a system that is increasingly incompatible with the modern world. That is what Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the republican state, dreaded most. Are we really protected by today’s Kemalists or threatened by their passé protectionism that produces neither democracy nor welfare?
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