THE ‘BROTHERHOOD’ RALLIES FOR ERDOGAN
Hurriyet Daily News
Jan 13 2012
Turkey
Turkish-French relations as we have known them are about to end due
to the Armenian issue. Ties between the two countries, and most likely
between the two peoples, will be poisoned for a generation. Yet Paris
is not concerned. Many argue it is following the confrontational
course with Turkey intentionally. The reasons cited are varied.
For some it is pure electioneering on the part of President Sarkozy
and his party. For others the reasons are deeper and have to do with
increasing anti-Islamic feelings in France. This, they say, is a good
way to keep “Islamic Turkey’s EU ambitions” at bay.
Then there are those who maintain France is a declining power and is
not prepared to stomach competition from a Turkey whose economy and
strategic value continue to grow in a part of the world where Paris has
its own ambitions. There are also those who say Sarkozy’s anti-Turkish
sentiments run deep, imbuing him with a burning mission against Turks.
Whatever the case, Ankara is retaliating by reviving the memory of
French barbarity in Algeria. This is why government officials in
Paris must have been overjoyed when Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed
Ouyahia urged Turkey last week to stop making political capital from
France’s colonial past in his country.
Ouyahia also reminded Ankara that Turkey had supported France during
the Algerian war of independence, a fact that probably very few
Frenchmen are aware of. (Not many Turks knew about it until President
Turgut Ozal apologized to Algeria many years after the fact.)
French diplomats however are probably more realistic, especially given
what followed Ouyahia’s remarks. What followed was the “International
Islamic Brotherhood Network” coming immediately into play in Algeria
to support Prime Minister Erdogan and Turkey.
Islamist parties, related in one way or another to the Brotherhood, and
who are expected to come out strong in this year’s planned elections
(if these are free and fair), castigated Ouyahia with the strongest
of terms. Their basic accusation was that he had displayed “servility
to France” by trying to diminish the valued support of a high profile
Islamic leader like Erdogan for Algeria’s national cause.
Ouyahia hails from the anti-Islamist bloc in Algeria and is clearly
hated for this. It is natural therefore that should want to remind
“the Islamist government in Ankara,” which provides inspiration for
Algeria’s Islamists, of Turkey’s stance during his country’s war
of independence. In fact his stance on this issue, and the Islamist
support for Erdogan, probably has more to do with the power struggle
in Algeria between Islamists and seculars, than anything else.
At the end of the day Sarkozy may succeed in blocking Turkey in
Europe. But it is also clear that Erdogan’s rising prestige among the
Islamic masses in the Eastern Mediterranean also provides Ankara with
opportunities to cause headaches for France, in a region stretching
from Tunisia to Damascus and Egypt, and perhaps even beyond to the
Caucasus.
The simple fact is that Erdogan hails from an Islamist background,
even if he says today that he is merely a conservative like any other.
This gives him a head-start in this part of the world, as opposed to
Sarkozy who is not only a non-Muslim, but whose country is increasingly
anti-Muslim and anti-Arab.
Turkey and France could have done much more service to stabilize
this turbulent part of the world if they chose cooperation over
confrontation. But clearly the mutual antipathy is too deep for that
to happen. And so we have the crash that is on the way and which also
promises further confrontations later on.