Tayyap Erdogan's AKP won a sizable majority of the the seats in the Turkish parliamentary election on June 12, 2011. Erdogan promptly proclaimed in his victory speech
"Believe me, Sarajevo won today as much as Istanbul, Beirut won as much as Izmir, Damascus won as much as Ankara, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, The West Bank, Jerusalem won as much as Diyarbakir."
Sun-Tzu said that an empire once destroyed cannot be rebuilt (Art of War, Chp. 12). Apparently Erdogan did not read this part of Sun-Tzu, or he did not read Sun-Tzu at all. Of course with recent comments such as those by Tariq Ramadan (grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood) that "democratic Turkey is the template for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood," and Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Tayfur "We don't consider the Iranian model at all. For us, and other Arab countries, Turkey is the model," (Karmon, Longitude May 2011, p. 62), perhaps Erdogan does not need to remember his Sun-Tzu. Clearly Erdogan is trying to establish a measure of leadership for Islamic solidarity, particularly in the Middle East, but also in areas that were part of the expansive Ottoman Empire of the 15th to 19th Centuries.
Of course, some will point out, and correctly so, that the political rhetoric used here is not new. After all, Barrack Obama himself implied in his early speeches of a victory for the world as much as for Washington, DC. But, Obama offered no exact and particular pairings of victory for X as much as Y.
One of the particulars of Erdogan's speech caught my attention (and that of some other bloggers out there like J.E. Dyer). Erdogan's pairing of Diyarbakir with Ramallah and Jerusalem is interesting considering Diyarbakir is in the predominantly Kurdish area of Turkey and the site of great unrest leading up to the Turkish elections. Several Kurdish leaders were jailed when they attempted to run for parliament in Turkey and I seriously doubt that Kurds consider the AKP victory as a positive occurrence in their lives. Can you paint a similar picture in Ramallah and Jerusalem? If so, who is in the role of the Kurds and who is in the role of the AKP?
Overall the list given names four modern national capitals that were once controlled by the Ottoman Empire. So, is there an underlying message. I think we should all watch and carefully weigh Turkish actions and words in the coming months.
"Believe me, Sarajevo won today as much as Istanbul, Beirut won as much as Izmir, Damascus won as much as Ankara, Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin, The West Bank, Jerusalem won as much as Diyarbakir."
Sun-Tzu said that an empire once destroyed cannot be rebuilt (Art of War, Chp. 12). Apparently Erdogan did not read this part of Sun-Tzu, or he did not read Sun-Tzu at all. Of course with recent comments such as those by Tariq Ramadan (grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood) that "democratic Turkey is the template for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood," and Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Tayfur "We don't consider the Iranian model at all. For us, and other Arab countries, Turkey is the model," (Karmon, Longitude May 2011, p. 62), perhaps Erdogan does not need to remember his Sun-Tzu. Clearly Erdogan is trying to establish a measure of leadership for Islamic solidarity, particularly in the Middle East, but also in areas that were part of the expansive Ottoman Empire of the 15th to 19th Centuries.
Of course, some will point out, and correctly so, that the political rhetoric used here is not new. After all, Barrack Obama himself implied in his early speeches of a victory for the world as much as for Washington, DC. But, Obama offered no exact and particular pairings of victory for X as much as Y.
One of the particulars of Erdogan's speech caught my attention (and that of some other bloggers out there like J.E. Dyer). Erdogan's pairing of Diyarbakir with Ramallah and Jerusalem is interesting considering Diyarbakir is in the predominantly Kurdish area of Turkey and the site of great unrest leading up to the Turkish elections. Several Kurdish leaders were jailed when they attempted to run for parliament in Turkey and I seriously doubt that Kurds consider the AKP victory as a positive occurrence in their lives. Can you paint a similar picture in Ramallah and Jerusalem? If so, who is in the role of the Kurds and who is in the role of the AKP?
Overall the list given names four modern national capitals that were once controlled by the Ottoman Empire. So, is there an underlying message. I think we should all watch and carefully weigh Turkish actions and words in the coming months.
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