Sultan’s political suicide in the Kingdom pyramid

By Ahmet A. Ozbek:

The worst kind of dictatorship comes by people’s vote in the elections, because the dictator doesn’t takes his power either from the state or military in the regime, but from the majority of the people.

Gun Zileli – Turkish Scholar and Writer

I am not a social scientist or political analyst to estimate how much Mr. Erdogan is damaged now or will be in the near future. But I go by facts and, when I put the small pieces dialectically together and connect them, I can see the bigger picture. Turkey was established from the ashes of the Ottoman empire and, despite the Kemalist reforms or revolutions, nothing changed radically. The state system, Sunni Muslim ideology, feudalism and ethnic or religious caste system were passed from the Ottomans to the Turkish republic. But the new system also added Turkish nationalism and state capitalism. That’s why the Turkish state became a very attractive place for any right wing, fascist, anti-liberal elements. By this fact, minorities such as Kurds, Alevis, Christians and others became easy targets.

Long before the recent election, two right wing factions of the state had started to eat each other. One is the AKP, the Sunni national-view sect (Milli Gorus) and second the Fettullah Gulen, Said Nursi-oriented sect. Well, there have been no surprises and one expected to see a dog fight because the advantages of government and state are very sweet, like honey, and nobody is willing to share them.

If we are talking about the leaders as people, we need to know more about them. We need to clearly understand who is Mr Erdogan and what is his lifetime agenda. Maybe if we put all the pieces together we can understand our man. You as the reader will decide whether he is a human rights defender or a dictator; whether he is promoting democracy or totalitarianism in his state agenda.

Honestly, the signals are very confusing and like a puzzle. I will try to give some examples of his confusing or unstable politics. If he truly believes in democracy and human rights for minorities, particularly for Kurdish people, why has he continuously changed his politics? One day he will say Kurdish people are equal citizens to everyone else and that they deserve better treatment by officials. But, another day, he continues to use hateful words against the people, ignores the torture of young Kurdish prisoners, or the Roboski massacre. The expected changes in the constitution, peace process and release of political prisoners suddenly became ghost issues. If he recognizes that peace is necessary, there are norms and examples to follow, such as Guatemala, Colombia, Nepal or South Africa. But he is certainly not at all interested. He is a smart man and has charisma, but so did dictators such as Abdul Nasir, Stalin, Saddam or Enver Hoxha. He doesn’t want to make any decision that risks his losing power. He knows very well that the Kurdish people are not obeying his rule, and are asking for radical, revolutionary changes in Turkey and Kurdistan. This makes Erdogan scared because, if Kurds become free and Turkish people can figure out the dirty games that have poisoned their society for over 100 years, the tyranny will collapse. In the end, once the door opens, the people of Turkey will start to question everything that has been done in the name of state, religion, nationalism and military intelligence in the past. It will be a huge revolution, and neither Erdogan nor the other leaders and parties can defy it. That’s why he released the criminals from the Ergenekon case and Hizbullah recently. He is not willing to cut his ties either with Kemalism or the radical Islamic groups because the opposition of Kurds, Alevis, lefts, liberals or freethinkers, humanists, and even some of the right wing groups, is slowly coalescing into a more united opposition against his Kingdom , as we saw during the Gezi events in Istanbul.

Another issue concerns religion and Islam. There continue to be very mixed and dangerous signals. He says he is a modern man. If he is a Muslim who also believes secularism and modernism, why does he target the Alevis and secularists or non-believers? Why has his Sunni-Islamic doctrine become obsessively more important than a democratic system? He doesn’t mind intruding in people’s private lives or art, science and social or cultural traditions. His rage becomes very improper and hateful if others don’t obey the Sultan’s rule. The closer he gets to the top of the pyramid, the nastier he becomes. If he is a fundamentalist and using democracy as a mask, believing truly in Sunni Islamism and not democracy, socialism and a humanist system, why has he turned against his own brother, Fettullah Gulen. What happened? They both promoted Turkish and Sunni politics. The reason is that he doesn’t want to share anymore and he wants to run a one-man show.

Let’s look at his international politics. If he talks about peace in other countries, what has he done so far? His international politics indicate that he has supported radical Islamists, terrorist groups in Syria, Iraq, Egypt and other countries. He sent intelligence and military aid just to expand the civil war in Syria. So, democracy and elections are a show and a mask for his agenda. Everybody knows that Syria and Egypt are not democratic countries, and the people of those lands have suffered for many years and, of course, they want real freedom and democracy. But he became almost happy to see massacres of Kurdish, Alevi, Christian and secular people. If a country has turned to civil war, and people become the victims of both sides, what is the solution? As with any other issues, he puts his ideology, racial and religious prejudices before democracy and humanitarian realities.

Beside all this, he and his AKP party proclaim that the economy has improved radically during his term. They have said that Turkey doesn’t have any more debt and is providing better welfare for all, higher income and a better standard for living. They have also claimed that the corruption of the past has been terminated. However, independent national and international sources indicate that the reality is the total opposite. There is a huge gap between the rich and the middle and lower class. The safety of workers and their insurance, housing, food and social issues have become big problems. Actually, the middle class has been eradicated which means that only rich and poor exist. Mr. Erdogan is a true right wing leader – like Ozal, Demirel or Menderes – who is against the worker class, or proletarians. However, he is worse than any before him because, with his racial-religious profiling (or fascist agenda), he has created a very new rich class which promotes Sunni Islam-Turkish Nationalism and the AKP political ideology. It is a truly new model of fascism that he has created. The Kurds, Alevis, Christian and the any opposition groups have become economically weaker because of his racial profiling agenda. Although there is huge corruption and scandals have erupted state-wide, even within his own family, he ignores this and doesn’t admit anything. You can also add that the urbanization, highway construction and new industrial projects have destroyed so much natural resources, agricultural land and cultural-historical heritage, especially in the big metropolises and Kurdistan.

These examples we can multiply but all the indications show that he is fundamentally a dictator and unfortunately worse than the Ottoman sultans and Kemalists. He has already turned the entire system towards fascism. He is in a position where, to protect his power, he can collaborate with the devils and provoke millions into conflict against each other. Surely, he will not leave his position peacefully or through an election because he is turning into a fascist dictator and his congress is becoming the puppet of his will.

Bottom line, it is really tragic how the Turkish democracy system has become so corrupted. Eventually, it will look like “political suicide”. Nobody knows what will the consequence of the next step but almost everybody knows that, without any radical reform or changes, everything will collapse.  The AKP came into government promoting democracy, a better economy and solving the Kurdish, Alevi and other minority-related problems with reforms. But time passed and it became clearer that they are not willing to do anything except for their own benefit. Actually, today Turkey is starting to look like Afghanistan or Pakistan or somewhere in Africa because the different Islamic sects, Kemalists, nationalists, feudal aghas and capitalist vultures are all fighting each other. But none of them are really interested in radical change, democracy, humanitarian issues, or the problems of Kurds and other minorities. Their fight is based on power and greed. Besides, as in all the corrupt systems, the military and police forces, intelligence, judiciary and other legal and security parts of the state are also corrupted.

Mr. Erdoğan is a true dictator of the Turkish pyramid system. He is acting like an Ottoman sultan but also loves capitalist venues. Of course it is not new that democracy was just a mask for most Turkish leaders in the past. But he has a slightly different approach to his predecessors. He plays a more dangerous role than many others did. He wants to be totally in charge. His belief system has blended in Turkish nationalism, Ottomanism, Sunni Islam and fundamentalism and feudalism and capitalism. He has almost become a cult leader or prophet to his followers which is a very hazardous development for the people of Turkey, Kurdistan and the Middle East. Sadly, his word can be taken as like a prophet’s word. I have a very sad scenario about this situation because his blind followers are ready to defend, destroy or assassinate anyone who is against them. I mean the next steps will be more difficult for the people if Erdogan doesn’t change his ways. The man will use all his all effort and authority to stay in charge. Otherwise he is also ready to give the message to his followers to defend him. It means he could plunge the masses into civil war. All the signs show that he will not hesitate to use any violence against the people.

In the Turkish state system, the minorities such as Kurds, Alevis and Christians exist but also they do not exist. They are like ghosts. St. Augustine city in Florida was one of the first US cities where Europeans (particularly Spaniards) settled to live. Today the city is providing ‘ghost tourism’ for visitors, showing some houses where the first people of the city lived, and making money from this. The Turkish government considers us to be ghost citizens. We became ghosts because almost none of us defended our rights, freedoms and equal citizenship inside the state. The people who worked for the state became beneficiaries and turned against their own roots. It was common state propaganda to say that individual Kurds and Alevis had become this and that. So we do not exist and yet they are making money from us.

2 Responses to Sultan’s political suicide in the Kingdom pyramid
  1. Kuvan Bamarny
    April 12, 2014 | 09:45

    Excellent job Ahmet,However I would like to throw my two cents here and add that the worst kind of dictatorship comes to be by money and a blind conscious of the ruthless saidistic, greedy, sociopathic, megalomaniac individuals .

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