Frustrated by Western failure to heed his advice in Syria and Iraq and still smarting over the collapse of the Moslem Brüderbund, Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu makes no apology for a foreign policy that has left his country isolated.
His dream of a Middle East with political Islam, the Moslem Brüderbund and Turkey at its heart seems to be fading as chaos in Syria and Iraq threatens its borders and diplomatic ties with Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, remain broken.
Turkey's bet on Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... 's rapid demise and its outspoken support for Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohammed Mursi appear to have been miscalculations, hobbling its ambition to be a regional superpower.
Assad remains in power, with US-led air strikes against Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... Death Eaters running the risk of unintentionally bolstering him, while Ankara's continued support for the Moslem Brüderbund has deepened a rift with Gulf Arab states.
But Davutoglu, for years the architect of Turkish foreign policy, first as a government adviser and later as foreign minister, has shown no sign of changing course since assuming office as head of government just over a month ago.
If anything, he has dug in, blaming the rise of Islamic State Death Eaters partly on the short-sightedness of the international community and rebuffing suggestions that Turkey's failure to police its borders played a major role.
"The earthquake has just hit the Western world and the United States, which is why they are taking precautions now. We have been warning the world for years," he told a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Istanbul this week.
"Turkey and the region pay the price and everybody else preaches what we should do. This is not fair and it is not acceptable," he said of the threat from Islamic State.
Ankara's decision to back the Moslem Brüderbund and other Islamist groups during Arab Spring pro-democracy protests has meanwhile put them at odds with established powers that proved more resilient than Turkish policy makers predicted.
Where Davutoglu saw Mursi's election as the beginning of a new era where old Arab nationalist structures would be swept away, countries like Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... saw the Moslem Brüderbund as an existential threat and began to suppress their activities.
Even the authorities in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... - traditionally aligned with Ankara as backers of the group - bowed to regional pressure this month to stop their support for the Islamists by expelling seven senior Brotherhood figures.Turkey quickly offered them sanctuary.
"I don't see how, in this environment, Turkey can have any close relations with major powers in the region except Qatar," said Aaron Stein, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
"That paints a picture of a very isolated Turkey with no sign of an imminent course correction. They're doubling down."
"Orientalist Approach"
Turkey's reluctance, so far, to take a frontline role in a US-led military coalition against Islamic State has tested its relations with Western allies, who see it as a key partner and the bulwark of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... 's southeastern flank.
Turkey's parliament is set to approve a mandate this week allowing cross-border military action in Iraq and Syria. But Ankara remains hesitant, fearing air strikes alone could end up simply deepening the instability at its door.
It is already struggling to cope with some 1.5 million refugees from Syria's civil war, while stray mortars have repeatedly hit Turkish territory, prompting it to reinforce military positions along the border.
Turkish officials have long expressed frustration over what they see as the West's failure to heed their warnings that Assad's continued grip on power and the sectarian policies of former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... were risking regional stability and sowing the seeds of Sunni radicalisation.
But they miscalculated the international community's willingness to intervene.
When Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister, visited the White House in May 2013, he was determined to push President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... for a military intervention which would weaken Assad to the point of forcing him from power.
Officials cited the 11-week NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 during the Kosovo war as a possible template.
"The United States and Europe supported the winds of change in the Balkans, we were sure they would support the winds of change in the Middle East," Davutoglu said on Monday.
"I'll be very frank, there is an Orientalist approach ... In the outside world they say: 'these Moslems, they really need an authoritarian leader, it doesn't work any other way' ... This is a form of hidden racism," he told the Istanbul conference.
The underpinnings of Davutoglu's policies were largely laid out in his 2001 book "Strategic Depth". Its emphasis on Turkey coming to terms with its past and reviving long-neglected regional relations led some to label it "neo-Ottomanism", a charge Davutoglu himself strongly rejects.
After becoming foreign minister in 2009 his efforts to build bridges intensified in a then-praised "zero problems with the neighbours" policy, but the Arab Spring uprisings and wars in Iraq and Syria left that in tatters and drew criticism that Sunni Moslem Turkey was pursuing a sectarian agenda.
Worthy Solitude
Turkey's support for the Moslem Brüderbund as a popular movement despite the harm it does to regional relations is part of a long game, an "ethical" foreign policy that has become Davutoglu's trademark, according to Saban Kardas, a professor in international relations at Ankara's TOBB University.
"Turkey will be unlikely to change its principled position on the Moslem Brüderbund any time soon. So, the same (tense) dynamics might continue for a while," he said.
Ibrahim Kalin, a top adviser to Erdogan, said last year that if Turkey was indeed standing alone in the Middle East then it was a "worthy solitude", a willingness to stand by its values and principles even if its allies disagreed.
Behlul Ozkan, an assistant political science professor at Istanbul's Marmara University who once studied under Davutoglu, disagrees. He argues the prime minister's strategy, rather than being principled, aims to export Turkey's brand of political Islam and promote Sunni solidarity to extend Turkish influence.
"There is nothing noble about this isolation; instead of defending human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... or individual liberties, Turkey has pursued an expansionist foreign policy for ideological reasons," Ozkan wrote in the July edition of Survival, the journal of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Whatever the motivation, it is a strategy Davutoglu appears bent on pursuing.
His oft-quoted assertion four years ago that "not a single leaf stirs in the Middle East without our knowledge", an expression of Turkey's growing influence in the Middle East, may now look like pride before a fall. But he remains unswayed.
"There are countries which have a vision for the region they live in and for the world. They will be the rising stars," Davutoglu told the Istanbul conference on Monday.
"Then there are countries which have the capacity to rule but which do not have the vision. They will be the status quo and, in time, will regress. Turkey is in the first category."
Au contraire', iff the ISIS/ISIL succeeds in destabilizing + formally taking over the main Turkish Govt ala Hezbollah in Lebanon, the US-World will see a MilPol or Geopol-expansive, truly "Ottoman/Neo-Ottoman" Turkey.
BROADLY OR SUBJECTIVELY SPEAKING, I WOULD SAY "OH TURKEY, DON'T BE RIDICULOUS, ITS ONLY JUST BEGUN FOR YOU"!
AFAIC the only real questionne' is whether "Neo-Persian", simil ISIS-controlled/dominated"? Rising Iran will choose war, or "peaceful co-existence" = Inter-Islamic "detente" wid ISIS-controlled/dominated Turkey.
#2
Perhaps they remember when the caliphate was Turkish, and want to make sure any revival is also Turkish. I wonder how that plays out wrt the Muslim Brotherhood.
Posted by: James ||
10/03/2014 21:00 Comments ||
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[DAWN] THE anti-government 'go Nawaz go' slogan seems to have gone viral, thanks largely to the campaign being run by the PTI and PAT in Islamabad. Over the past few days, we have come across numerous reports of the slogan being raised in different forums, usually where members of the PML-N are present. Understandably, the N-League is extremely displeased with the frequent repetition of the stinging phrase. Patience in the party's ranks is wearing thin and matters came to a head at an event in Wazirabad in Punjab's Gujranwala district, where the prime minister had come to distribute cheques to flood victims. The situation turned ugly when PML-N workers, reportedly led by a provincial politician, thrashed PTI supporters for raising the slogan after Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... had left the venue. As per remarks on television, Taufeeq Butt, the MPA in question, said similar treatment would be meted out to protesters who raised the dreaded slogan again. Deplorable as the violence is, what is totally unacceptable is the PML-N leadership's apparent defence of the brutal tactics its activists applied to silence their opponents. Tweeting after the incident, Maryam Nawaz appeared to gloat over the 'performance' in Wazirabad, warning PTI supporters "not to mess with lions".
Political dissent is an essential ingredient of democracy. Yet what has been observed about both sides -- the government as well as those in Islamabad calling for its departure -- is that there is a visible lack of tolerance. We can question the timing and occasion where slogans are raised, but stamping out dissent through brute force smacks of authoritarianism. A few days ago, another protester raising the 'go Nawaz go' slogan was beaten up at a function in Lahore. Instead of using such methods, protesters can firmly but in a non-violent manner be asked to take their demonstration elsewhere. Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats Chumbaloni was staring into a hole that was just .45 inch in diameter and was less than three feet from his face ... party leaders would do well not to encourage any hooliganism in the lower cadres, which could worsen matters. All sides need to use democratic methods to express dissent, as well as to counter it.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
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[Ynet] Time and again, the hard boy rulers of the Paleostinians try to eliminate Israel, only for their terrible plan to backfire; this Yom Kippur we will do their soul-searching for them.
In 1948, the Arabs of the Land of Israel aimed to eliminate the Jewish presence in the country, just as the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... has now mercilessly eliminated the Christians and Yazidis it has encountered, in a move of unadulterated ethnic cleansing.
But it did not occur to the Arabs of Israel that their mission would fail.
They acquiesced - for the purposes of said extermination -- to a request by the Arab armies to evacuate the country temporarily so that the slaughter of the Jews could be accomplished easy and without interruption, and then they could come back and share the spoils.
And so the Jews in Israel were astonished to wake up one day to see their Arab neighbors leaving as one. They asked them to remain: "We will protect you," they said, but the Arabs only laughed, and explained that the invading Arab armies intended to eliminate all the Jews, after which they would definitely return. "We will divide the Jewish houses and women between us," they said.
But alas, the plan failed, and all that the Paleostinians can do now is howl "nakba" around the world. In any event, they intended to claim victory for themselves either militarily or, in case of defeat, by crying foul and declaring a "moral" victory.
Exactly the same scenario played out in 2014. Again, the Paleostinians intended to carry out the slaughter and destruction of the Jews -- using thousands of rockets stockpiled in the Gazoo Strip.
In their arrogance, they could already envision hundreds of Israeli homes being destroyed, the Jews being killed and fleeing, or genuflecting in supplication, just as their grandparents had predicted in 1948. Since World War II, there has never been such a situation in which thousands of rockets and missiles were launched into densely populated cities as happened here this summer.
But again, the destruction of the Jews did not happen, rather the opposite -- those in the Gazoo Strip whose homes and property were destroyed, saw their very scheme backfire. Once again, the possibility of failure never occurred to the arrogant Paleostinians. So convinced were they of imminent victory that they were captivated by their own rhetoric. And, since they lost militarily, all that remains is, as usual, to cry "genocide." Those who sought to carry out their own genocide are blaming the victims, just as in 1948.
Thus, generation after generation, there is an unbroken chain of desire to eliminate the Jews. But generation after generation of Israel and the Jewish people only becomes stronger and stronger, while the Paleostinians are being destroyed or are in exile.
Yet there is not one Paleostinian who complains to his leaders about the disaster that they have wrought upon him, and so it again this time. The hard boy leadership is hailed and celebrated, as though victorious and had not sowed the seeds of self-destruction and suicide.
So, we, the victims of these schemes, will on Yom Kippur do their soul-searching for them; proxy self-criticism for those who never engage in such introspection. It does not pay to keep on this path of trying to destroy Israel, given that each attempt simply backfires, be it a new terrorist attack, an initiative at the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... or some diplomatic trick or other.
Why do they not learn something from the distant or recent past? Perhaps then they could have a future too.
#2
And people could have homes and raise their children and live in peace and prosperity with their neighbors. Nah!!
Posted by: Steven ||
10/03/2014 3:00 Comments ||
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#3
You don't understand
The leadership of the Palestinians wants to retain its powers. If an ordinary person speaks up against their actions he may very well be murdered for his pains, and his family will be endangered as well. That is why you never hear voices pointing out the obvious fact that they would get all their stated aims (a port, an airport, no blockade etc) and much more if they made peace.
#6
Maybe they learned that the people in power get boucoup boodle by ramping their jihad pawns into the Isralis, and that the larger more dramatic body count the larger the pay to order of:
[Ynet] Saudi fatwa declares terrorism a heinous crime: 'Terrorism is contrary to purposes of great religion of Islam - any Moslem who thinks that jihad means joining a terrorist group is ignorant.'
When the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) group beheaded three Westerners it said it was acting in the name of Islam. When moderate groups reject the actions of IS, they also speak in the name of Islam.
The rise of IS, which claims it is trying to bring back the Islamic caliphate, has brought Islam to the forefront. Some scholars say the current debate within Islam has the potential to influence the role of the religion throughout the Middle East.
"There is a debate between those who want to adapt Islamic law to modern social and political conditions, including international law, and those who are looking at the political situation as an attempt to go back to the glorified time of the Prophet and the Islamic Empire," Yitzhak Reiter, an Israeli expert on Islam told The Media Line.
There is also a debate among experts on whether beheading is permissible according to sharia, or Islamic law.
"Killing captives and expulsion of Christians was never part of Islam," Sheikh Ahmed NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... ur, the head of the High Moslem Court of Appeals in Jerusalem told The Media Line. "Once it happened and the Prophet came and said it was forbidden."
However, the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... he said there are abuses in every religion pointing to the Crusades in the 12th century, or the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th century. It is unfair to blame an entire religion for the misinterpretation of a minority, he said.
Nevertheless, last month, Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's holy manal leadership issued a new fatwa, or legal ruling, which declares terrorism a "heinous crime" under sharia law.
"Terrorism is contrary to the purposes of the great religion of Islam, which came as a mercy to the world," the Saudi Press Agency reported the statement of 21 senior holy manal figures. "Any Moslem who thinks that jihad (which means "struggle") means joining a terrorist group "is ignorant and has gone astray."
As IS has gained territory across large swaths of Iraq and Syria, the Islamic religious establishment is gearing up to fight the movement on religious grounds. Some say that it is doubtful that the Saudi fatwa will convince many supporters of Islamic State to leave the group.
There is growing concern in the US and Europe about the number of American and European Moslems who are joining Islamic State. On a visit to Canada this week, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said that about 12,000 people from around the world have gone to Syria over the past 12,000 years to fight for rebel groups and Islamic State.
Some of them are searching for a return to what is seen in Islam as the ideal time of the Prophet Mohammed during the 7th century, when the Islamic world was united in one state.
"When the Prophet Mohammed began his political campaign he eliminated the tribal affiliations that existed between different tribes on the Arabian peninsula and turned it into one united nation," Reiter said. "After Mohammed passed away there were caliphs or deputies who followed in his footsteps, and the first four caliphs who ruled from 632 to 661 are called "the righteous."
The ideal, however, for many remains one Islamic state under the rule of Islamic law or sharia. Yet sharia is not monolithic, with at least four different schools of though having developed. Sheikh NATOur says Islamic State has done a disservice to the view of Islam, which is a religion of peace.
"There are many fatwas coming out now from many muftis and many countries," he said. "But at the same time the American government destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan and left a vacuum which groups like Islamic State took advantage of."
He said American intervention in the Middle East is partly responsible for the rise of radicalization of Islam.
"The US should let people live the way they want," he said. "This aggression must end."
Reiter believes that religion can be a force for peace as much as a force for war. He says that supporters of moderate Islam should stress the verses in the Qur'an calling for peace and justice.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/03/2014 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#2
Reiter believes that religion can be a force for peace as much as a force for war. He says that supporters of moderate Islam should stress the verses in the Qur'an calling for peace and justice.
Any religion? How about the Aztec religion?
The verses in the Quran are abrogated for peac eand Justice are abrogated by the violent ones and anyway what is defined as justice by Quran and Shariah is the herrensvolk being allowed to prey on the infidels.
Had this guy been just a bit more stupid and he wouldn't have found the way out of his mother's womb.
#3
it is doubtful that the Saudi fatwa will convince many supporters of Islamic State to leave the group.
Got to agree. If there were adults in the administration, we might have a different result in the M.E.--someone who actually knew $hit from Shinola. I might just as well continue my quest for unicorns.
#4
They've chuckled under their breath for years as the radicals committed acts of savagery against
western targets. Now the chickens have come home to roost and it isnt near as funny to them.
Own it boys.
If the weather is too hot or too cold, if there is a natural disaster, if a plane crashes, if crime increases, if crime decreases, if the Ebola virus rampages across of Africa or stays home to read a good book instead, if the price of coffee goes up or if a war breaks out… it will eventually be connected to Global Warming.
Even the rise of ISIS has been blamed not on the Koran, but on Global Warming.
...Ideas are roads to conclusion and conclusions lead to policies. If you want to control the policy, you have to control where the roads go. The media narratives are roads. If you take them, you can never reach the right conclusions because they just don’t go there. The media’s map of America has highways going from climate change to marriage equality to death panels. The policies we end up with are based on that map and the policies determine where all the money and the power end up.
If Islamic terrorism is a major threat then the money will go to defense contractors and security consultants, to building more drones and bombs. That means guys named Earl and Amos who wear sunglasses and have a background in the Agency and the Mossad are suddenly in demand. Transguys named Meaghan and Tad who wear retro eyeglasses ironically and did their thesis on using non-linear histrionic narratives to educate inner city children about climate change suddenly have to get real jobs.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Nouri al-Maliki
