Mary Southcott on Erdogan
The Enduring Hold of Islam in Turkey: The Revival of the Religious Orders and Rise of Erdogan by David S Tonge – published by Hurst
As the US and Russia meet in Turkey, it is time to examine Turkiye, as it is now called, and delve into the country’s regional power aspirations, the role vis a vis Israel in verbally supporting Palestinians, in the Kurds’ future, its intermediary aspiration in Ukraine, in divided Cyprus after the recent Geneva Talks, its relationship with the EU, having the largest but one military in NATO. All this is better understood after reading Tonge’s book.
Covering the establishment of modern Turkey, after its defeat in the First World War, what A J P Taylor called the War of Ottoman Succession, the establishment of secularism, Kemalism, by their leader Atatürk, this book records the way Islam has survived, culminating in the election of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2002 as avowedly Islamic. That battle is going on in northern Cyprus with Turkish Cypriots fighting to retain their secularism, for young women not wearing headscarves in school. That battle is being fought, with Erdogan like Trump, seeking a third term against the constitutional stipulation of two, with the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu. He was nominated to stand for CHP, Republican People’s Party by 15 million in their primary, after being imprisoned in Marmara Prison on 23 March.
If your ever wanted to know more about the background to any of the following, this book will help you understand better: Turkey’s accession negotiation with the European Union from 2005, stalling in 2016 but retaining a Customs Union.
Ergenekon and the deep state, and how the military and coups gave way to Erdogan.
The Sufi Sunni Naqshbandi’s “profoundly anti-Western thanks to their experience of British and French colonial carve-up of the Ottoman Empire”.
Fethullah Gulen and Erdogan’s collaboration, the founding of the AKP, the Justice and Development Party.
The 2016 coup, when Gulen was blamed, but some thought orchestrated by Erdogan.
Support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hamas in Gaza, and ISIS in Syria. Equipping the Azeris in their recapture of most of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Background to Turkish bases in Albania, Qatar, Somalia, troops in Libya, Iraq and Syria.
You can find Information on each of the above and more, not possible to reflect in one review. Suffice it to say that Tonge has done an almost impossible job to undermine the claim during the Arab Spring that Turkey was the model for a modern Islamic Democratic state. On the contrary, secularism has been rolled back, and nationalism is not only the property of the Grey Wolves, the MHP, the Nationalist Action Party, which fights elections alongside the AKP. After reading this book, you will recognise the key players and concepts, but not enough to predict where Turkey will end up. Erdogan will eventually go, but not the mistaken belief in secularism, which is not a substitute for democracy, just as holding elections once every so many years is not. Viewing pluralist relationships between religious and ethnic groupings living together, inherited from Alexander the Great, the Roman and Byzantine Empires, has more to offer us than the nation state nationalism which we seem to have ended up with in many places.