[Marxism] Obama in Turkey

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/mert120409.html
Turkey and the Obama Visit:
"He Gave Me Water!"
by Nuray Mert

Obama did what was expected, dispensing good luck charms for all.  What 
he left behind is a state of delirium, a la the Hunchback of Notre Dame: 
"He gave me water."

Even though some of Obama's gestures during the visit -- such as Obama 
reminding the young people he was chatting with of the time for Muslim 
prayer -- have drawn a lot of interest, there is nothing extraordinary 
about them.  Such cleverly staged acts are no new inventions.  When 
Napoleon invaded Egypt, he took on the role of the patron of Islam.  In 
1857, during the Sepoy Rebellion in India, the British asked the Ottoman 
Sultan Abdülmecid to intervene as the Caliph of the Muslims to help 
suppress the rebellion.  At the end of the 19th century, Obama's 
predecessors also came to Sultan Abdülhamid II to ask him to use his 
authority as the Caliph to get the Muslims of the Philippines to support 
the United States.  None of this, however, helped prevent the collapse 
of the Ottoman Empire.

We need not go that far back in history.  Throughout the Cold War, the 
whole Western world, under the leadership of the United States, used 
Islam endlessly.  A part of the conspiracy called Ergenekon in Turkey is 
rooted in this dirty alliance.1  Then, even as the curtain finally came 
down on the Cold War, the radical Islamic ideology and organizations 
were nurtured and supported to the end -- the path that led to the 
founding of Al Qaida.  Now that radical Islam has aimed its guns at the 
United States and the West, the project has become pacifying it.

Some Turks may say: "The past is past.  At this point in time, isn't 
this the best for us?  This mission turns us into a world-class actor. 
Would it be so bad to be part of the solution?"  The problem with this 
line of thinking is that the project to which we are asked to contribute 
has nothing to do with peace and the welfare of humanity.  Neither is 
the issue just Islam.  The project is one of dividing up the world. 
What needs to be done, first of all, is to ask: "Why, for what, and for 
whom are we getting involved?"  Second, remember that, in this kind of 
involvement, it is often countries such as ours that pay the highest price.

Look at the present state of Pakistan, which was assigned the role of 
helping get the Soviets out of Afghanistan.  The country became a 
frontline of jihad, attracting radical jihadists from all over the 
world, which has destroyed its delicate internal social and political 
balances.  The Pakistanis have received no other reward for the role 
they played in the Cold War except for a phone call after 9/11 
threatening that they either join the U.S or be "bombed back to the 
stone age."

Turkey has also been one of the countries in the "Green Belt."  Our 
mission was to form a shield of "moderate Islam" against the influences 
of Iran's Islamic Revolution in the region and to back the U.S. in 
filling the vacuum left in Central Asia with the departure of the Soviet 
Union.  Those groups and interests in Turkey who cooperated with one 
another on such projects through the "deep state" back then have since 
started fighting one another.  They still have not resolved their 
differences.

Leave alone interrogating this cooperation with global plunderers in the 
name of humanity; even at the level of realpolitik, there is still a 
desperate need for a long, serious questioning of these issues.  Much as 
the Turkish government expects gains from such cooperation, there is a 
need to calculate what is to be lost in working with those at the summit 
of world power.  Countries participating in these grand projects often 
face deep fragmentation of their internal politics.  Thinking about and 
dealing with the implications of this is hardly ever the concern of the 
world powers trying to order the world around their own interests.  It 
is always the job of countries like Pakistan, now facing the threat of 
being "bombed back to the stone age" as it cannot take a firm position 
against the Taliban given its internal balance of power.  Even before 
getting to this point, the political environment of the country may have 
already acquired a medieval quality through conflicts and internal 
fragmentation of society.

In politics, extreme cynicism can have a pacifying impact leading to 
inaction and immobilization.  The acceleration of international politics 
is unforgiving for those slow to respond, let alone unable to act.  On 
the other hand, it also does not help to be too reckless merely for the 
sake of adjusting to the speed of world politics.

Have I drawn too pessimistic a picture?  The concerns I have tried to 
express would make better sense if we read some history and look at what 
is happening around us in the region at this point of historical 
rupture.  Collectively, whatever we do, let us first abandon the 
Hunchback complex and stop sleep-talking: "He gave me water."

1  Translator's Note: Ergenekon is the term used for the last two years 
in Turkey to refer to the Turkish gladio, an ultra-nationalist group 
with strong ties to the military and security forces, currently being 
accused of several acts of conspiracy.  Because of its strong alleged 
links to the state, it is also referred to as the "deep state."  Here 
the author is referring to the role of Ergenekon in the founding of the 
Turkish Hezbullah, a terrorist Islamist group (unrelated to the Lebanese 
Hezbullah).

Nuray Mert is an associate professor in the Department of Political 
Science and International Relations at Istanbul University in Turkey. 
She has regular columns in the Turkish dailies Radikal and Hürriyet. 
This article has been translated from her article "Bana Su Verdi!" 
("[He] Gave Me Water") published in Radikal on 9 April 2009. 
Translation by Sedef Arat-Koç, Associate Professor, Politics and Public 
Administration, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

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