TURKEY EXPERT IN INTERVIEW
translation
In the 90s, the current Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan was regarded as an Islamic fundamentalist. He then reinvented himself as a pro-European modernizers. WELT ONLINE in an interview said Turkey expert Gareth Jenkins, why Erdogan is now tend back towards Islam.
Q: The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in the 80s and early 90s as an Islamic fundamentalist. Later, he gave himself a moderate, pro-Western, and denied that Islam was one of his political identity. Where is he today? If he has already changed again?
Gareth Jenkins: "He has changed the time, but not so much like a naive West wanted to believe. I think he has never really internalized the idea that there should be equality between cultures and religions. Fundamentalism in Turkey was always something other than, for example in Arab countries, it had more to do with cultural identity than with Sharia. Since 2007, Erdogan turned increasingly back to this search for a Muslim identity. It is an instinctive return to its original values.
Q: Why?
Jenkins: Erdogan and the AKP were naive in their desire to want to join the EU. They did not understand what the EU, they actually wanted to join the EU in their imagination. The reality has disappointed them, the experience with anti-Islamic sentiments in the West. So they are returning to what they originally wanted, it is also a move towards the Muslim countries that once belonged to the Ottoman Empire.
Q: And a turn to brutal rogue states like Iran or Sudan. Erdogan says that they are capable of any crime, because they are Muslim*. Is this an expression of religious conviction or strategic calculations to tie the Muslim world itself?
[No Muslim can perpetrate a genocide*]
Jenkins: Both. That you bind the countries of the former Ottoman Empire itself, whose "center of gravity" will be, then it has also always said Foreign Minister Davutoglu quite consistent. That's strategy. But I also believe that there is a certain blindness, a naivete when Erdogan and the AKP. You do not see such regimes as they are. It is an expression of lack of intellectual depth Erdogan, he can not see what is evil in Sudan, because he perceives it through a filter Muslim. These people can not be bad, they are Muslims. That does not mean that he wants to make Turkey a fundamentalist dictatorship.
[A 'lack of intellectual' ~ we are talking about accusations of genocide - and here he is in the same position as Sudan - so he appeals to the Muslim supremacist view - and with one swoop he wipes the genocide accusations of both his country and the Sudanese leader - off the table - by saying 'No Muslim can commit a genocide - period ~ i.e. Muslims are innately superior - or their adherence to Islam makes them so. What ever his level of intellect - he has calculated this much.]
Q: What does he want? If he had a free hand?
Jenkins: It would create a Muslim society in Turkey, and to establish Turkey as a leader of the Muslim world. With the West, he would seek good neighborly relations, but "not in the same house," he would seek a distance.
Q: So a return to what was once the Ottoman Empire, but without the desire for war? Then what's EU candidacy?
Jenkins: Yes, that is the great desire of the AKP. The EU candidacy was sincere, but as I said, people could not understand what the EU. They saw it as something that will give one the freedom to impose more religion. It did not really understand that one has for example also give sovereignty. Now, they are disappointed.
WELT ONLINE: The AKP has its domestic political opponents, the secular army, in recent years, severely weakened politically. Erdogan's growing Muslim presence is also a result of the fact that he feels freer, less needs to be adjusted?
Jenkins: This may also play a role.
Q: It often comes with violent expressions, so he does not pour oil on the fire of Islamic extremists?
Jenkins: Yes, although it is not itself an extremist. First, there is his rhetoric against Israel. That sounds anti-semitic, at least for non-Muslims. If you read the pro-government media, as it is actually anti-Semitic. Erdogan comes from an anti-Jewish tradition: His political mentor Necmettin Erbakan was outspoken anti-Semite. This anti-Semitism is something to welcomed [by] Islamic extremists. Of course, it is also a widespread feeling in the society, and Erdogan uses it to remain popular.
Q: Promotes his policy thus a Muslim radicalization in Turkey? Just 160 Muslim terror suspects were arrested.
Jenkins: There are few Muslim extremism in Turkey, within the meaning of political violence. Even if there is an increase, it starts from a very low level. Of course, one does not need many terrorists to kill people, meet a few. The real problem is a cultural blindness of the AKP to Muslim extremists. People often do not recognize that someone is a potential terrorist, because he who stands as a devout Muslim, and therefore appear acceptable in principle. The authorities recognize much too little, the hazard potential posed by Muslim radicals.
Q: How Erdogan will develop further? Towards a more militant Islam?
Jenkins: The Turkish society is the borders. It's like the dogmatic left, once they are in power, they must cope with the realities. The AKP has recognized that society is much more complex than people like Erdogan are perceived in their early years.
Welt Online, translation
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