Turkey's Erdogan: Never a "yes" man
By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - In his autobiography In Search of Identity Anwar Sadat
recalled that he used to travel from his remote village to cosmopolitan Cairo
as a poor child and jump into the royal gardens by night to steal oranges, only
to be beaten by the king's guards.
He never imagined that one day he would walk through the palace gates to greet
King Farouk I as an officer in the Egyptian army. He never imagined - not in
his wildest dreams - that one day he would walk through the same gates to sit
on the king's throne after he became president of republican Egypt in 1970.
The game of fate is a strange one indeed, which British statesman Winston
Churchill once described: "It is a mistake to
look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a
time."
For one week now, mainstream media in the Arab and Muslim world have been
trumpeting the early life of Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As a
young vendor selling cakes, melon and lemonade on the streets of Istanbul
during summer holidays Erdogan, now 56, never imagined that one day he would
become premier.
Growing up in the 1960s, her never imagined he would rise to become a
pan-Muslim leader, stirring pro-Turkish emotions that have been stifled since
the downfall of the Ottoman Empire 92 years ago.
In modern history, only Erdogan and the Egyptian diva Um Kalthoum (who died 35
years ago) have been able to capture the minds and hearts of Arabs and Muslims,
the popular Saudi channel al-Arabiya said in a biography recently published on
its website. Had such a statement been made 10 years ago, the name next to Um
Kalthoum would have probably been ex-Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser, the
"godfather" of modern Arabism. A Turkish citizen with an Islamic agenda who
does not speak a word of Arabic would have been far from making the grade.
In January, in a testament to how popular he was becoming, Erdogan was awarded
the prestigious King Faisal International Prize for "service to Islam" by the
Saudi King Faisal Foundation. In April, Time magazine listed him, for the
second time, as among the most 100 influential people in the world.
Reading through Erdogan's career it is clear he has worked hard, but it is
probably by coincidence that he won pan-Arab and pan-Islamic popularity.
On March 1, 2003, two weeks before Erdogan assumed office as prime minister,
Ankara - headed by his Justice and Development Party (AKP) - vetoed a proposal
to allow the United States to use Turkish territory to open a second front
against Iraq from the north, in order to topple Saddam Hussein.
That scored him his first points with Arabs and Muslims at large. Two years
later, in March 2005, then-US secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld bitterly
complained to Fox News, "Clearly, if we had been able to get the 4th Infantry
Division in from the north, in through Turkey, more of the Hussein-Ba'athist
regime would have been captured or killed." Had Turkey been more cooperative,
"the insurgency today [in Iraq] would be less", he added.
Quiet unintentionally, Rumsfeld's frustration pinned another medal of honor on
Erdogan in the eyes of millions of Arabs. That same year Erdogan refused to
accept US dictates, strengthening his relations with Syria at a time ties
between Damascus and the George W Bush administration were souring, and he
become a frequent visitor to the Syrian capital.
Erdogan again defied the US by receiving Khalid Meshaal, the head of the
political bureau of Hamas, after the Palestinian movement emerged victorious in
parliamentary elections in 2005. He also declined an invitation from former
prime minister Ariel Sharon to visit Israel in 2004, again arousing US ire, and
did not meet Ehud Olmert on the then-Israeli minister of labor and trade's
visit to Turkey in July 2004.
Erdogan stood up for the Palestinians during the war on Gaza in 2008, accusing
Israel of committing war crimes. Addressing Shimon Peres at the World Economic
Forum at Davos in January 2009, he told the Israeli president, "President
Peres, you are old, and your voice is loud out of a guilty conscience. When it
comes to killing, you know very well how to kill. I know well how you hit and
kill children on beaches."
That single statement sky-rocketed him to pan-Arab and pan-Islamic fame, and
his photos began appearing in major Arab capitals. But his outburst in
Switzerland was nothing compared to his angry words last week after the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) stormed the Free Gaza flotilla off the shores of Gaza,
killing nine Turkish citizens onboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara.
The Arab world went into uproar in defense of the Turkish prime minister, who
angrily withdrew his ambassador from Israel, leading to his country's flag
being hoisted by protesters in massive demonstrations that stretched throughout
Damascus, Baghdad, Beirut and Cairo.
"Turkey's friendship is strong; and all should know that our hostility is
strong too,'' Erdogan told the Turkish parliament. ''The international
community has to say to Israel enough is enough! The sailing of Freedom
Flotilla is legal; the Israeli aggression against the flotilla targets the
United Nations. Israel should pay the price for what it has done ... Israel
can't wash its hands off its perpetrated crime in the Mediterranean. The
country which tries to win the hatred of the entire world can never achieve its
security; Israel has been losing the ribs of peace one by one."
He added, "Israel shouldn't look at the face of the world, unless it apologizes
and be punished for its doings. We are fed up with Israeli lies; the actions of
the Israeli government harm Israel itself before harming others."
Then almost in disbelief Arabs cheered as he hinted that he would board a ship
and head off to Gaza to help break the Israeli siege that began in 2007, and
would let the Turkish navy accompany him into Palestinian waters to ensure the
IDF would be helpless as he ventured into the Gaza Strip.
Erdogan is at his finest hour in the Arab and Muslim worlds, thanks to strong
words accompanied by strong deeds. Earlier in the year, he forced the Israeli
government to apologize after humiliating his ambassador to Israel, prompting
Arab media to boast, "Israel only understands Turkish!"
Last month he hammered out a uranium-swap agreement with Brazil and Iran, which
if it had been immediately accepted by the international community could have
spared Iran the burden of a fourth set of sanctions that are due to be
discussed at the United Nations on Wednesday.
Under Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey has cut its Cold War image as an
appendage to the West, yet also wants to be a full member of the European Union
by 2014. Should it join, the EU will border Iran and see a six-fold increase in
its Muslim population. Seeking "zero problems with neighbors", Ankara has put
in place visa-free travel agreements with Lebanon, Jordan, Libya and Syria,
while one with Russia will soon come into effect.
As al-Arabiya noted, "Overnight he [Erdogan] has become the most popular person
in the Arab world while Iran, the US and some European countries have strived
to achieve what he got in a second."
Perhaps it is Erdogan's eloquence and strong defiance of Israel that brought
him to the top in the Arab world. Or perhaps it is his piousness, given that he
is a devote Muslim whose wife Emine wears a headscarf, as do millions of Arab
and Muslim women around the world.
In the 1990s, he was dismissed from government office for publicly reciting a
poem that challenged Turkey's cherished secularism with the words, "The mosques
are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the
faithful our soldiers ..."
Or perhaps it is his humble background. The son of a coastguard who had a rough
upbringing because his family was poor, Erdogan excelled at an Islamic school
before obtaining a degree in management from Marmara University - while playing
professional football. His rise to power was not smooth. He failed twice, in
1978 and 1991, to be elected to parliament on an Islamic ticket.
The real reason, however, is that he said "no" to Israel and put his full
weight behind the Palestinians. That is a magical cure in the Middle East and
has never failed since the creation of Israel in 1948.
It did wonders to the careers of men like Egypt's Nasser, Syria's Hafez
al-Assad, and former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat. It is also the reason
why Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah is so popular on Arab and Muslim streets, and
why Arab leaders with peace treaties with Israel, like Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, are not.
Anyone who understands how unpopular Turkey was in the Arab world for the
entire 20th century, thanks to systematic indoctrination against the Ottoman
Empire and Turkey's alliance with Israel after 1948, realizes how dramatic
Erdogan's achievement has been over the past seven years.
He has rebranded Turkey - and the entire Ottoman legacy - and created a new
kind of leadership in the Arab world that combines the traits of Nasser, Assad
and Nasrallah. This explains why Erdogan is a phenomenon worth watching as his
career unfolds and he develops the charisma, style and character of the
talented and complex leader he has already become.
Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria.
(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
