Musings from Anatolia, Part Two: Turkish world-view
Turkey is an interesting and peculiar vantage point for international politics.
It is a largely Islamic country, which allies with the US and NATO, which, for now, are deemed to be anti-Islam. It has relations with Israel (and particularly great relations… not just for namesake like Egypt and Jordan)… this is an anathema in Islamic world… it is close to Pakistan, which is a virulent enemy of Israel… it is also trying to mend its relations with Iran, again a virulent enemy of both the US and Israel… so Turkey makes an interesting political ideology.
I was interested in opinions of average person on the road… vis-à-vis India, Pakistan, Iran, Israel and most importantly the US…
I kept on asking seemingly innocent questions about people’s perception for all these countries… sometime posing as a Pakistani, sometimes Iranian (and yes, my wee bit of Farsi… passed me as a Iranian… probably from southern Iran… a dark complexioned Iranian)… and sometimes being an Indian…
What I realized… after the entire hullabaloo… is that there is no one opinion among the Turks… about any one country… in fact, more often than not; their opinions make interesting concoctions of disparate likings and dislikings… there is also, and obviously so, a sharp divide among public opinions between the ethnic Turks and the Kurds.
Islam, it seems, is a very sensitive issue for nearly all the Turks… the oft quoted secular Turks… are at best a minority, and at worse a myth- carefully crafted for the western audience. It doesn’t seem unbelievable to me… that Turks and Kurds alike wreaked worse kind of havocs on Christian minorities- the Surianis, Greeks and Armenians- less than 100 years ago… it seems that Kamal Ataturk… the most venerated Turk… pushed and pulled his country-men into a modern secular world… inspite and despite of popular will. Islam, therefore, is one of the big deciding factors, when it comes to the public perceptions about other countries…
Take for example Israel… I saw a near unanimous hatred towards Israel… everywhere I went… the Turkish parts, the Kurdish parts… Israel, is more or less, seen as a West’s lackey, who is promoting the “myth” of Armenian, Greek and Suriani genocide in Anatolia… strangely, the hatred does not come from Palestinian cause… for most of the Turks view Arabs as incompetents… who have usurped Turkey’s rightful place as Islam’s leader… the hatred comes, instead, due to the fact that Armenians found a sympathetic refuge in Israel… I… kind of expected it.
Iran makes a wonderful case study… some view it as a country with a lot of moral rectitude and the ability to stand against the West (and the common refrain is that Turkey is losing its edge… with respect to Islamic leadership… to Iran)… and on the other Iran is seen as a bumbling country, which cannot be friend to any other country… what is true for Iran… is true for Ahmedinejad… the man that has come to personify Iran these days… like Khomeinis in the past. Nevertheless, I could sense a growing fascination for Iran among the people… especially in the Turkish region, if not the Kurdish region (in fact Kurds believe that they are being mistreated in Iran too… though to a lesser degree… ranking Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey in that order... vis. Kurdish conditions in different countries… Iraq, the best and Turkey, the worst).
US, for one, attracts most amazing opinions… the Turks love to hate the US… even though they are the ruling class in Turkey and have for more than half a century… aligned with them… on the other hand Kurds have positive opinions about the US… strangely… Kurds are more devout Muslims- as compared to Turks- and have been “mistreated” by a regime, which is close to the US… nevertheless, they feel that the US was somehow instrumental in making a homeland for them in Iraq, and one day might extend this homeland inside the frontiers of Turkey.
It was very difficult for me to comprehend the anti-US feeling among the Turks… some attributed it to America’s anti-Islam positioning… some to its support to Israel… but largely because ordinary Turk saw US behind the “secular” forces in Turkey… the forces that don’t let them wear hijab inside university campuses… the forces that de-stabilize the popular soft Islamic Government.
India and Pakistan are one of the most interesting topic to explore around in Turkey… sadly, most of the people are not very much aware of India-Pakistan dynamics… for them India and Pakistan are distant lands and they have hardly anything to opine about… barring the oft-quoted media jingle. Turkish Army (and the establishment, which of late was pro-Army) has been traditionally very close to Pakistan… (Pakistani Army, if not the civilian set-up)… I argued that such long close cooperation would definitely load public opinion in favour of Pakistan… especially in the Turkish areas… I was wrong…
First and foremost, Turks don’t have any dogmatic opinion about India and Pakistan… Secondly, there information base on India is much wider that on Pakistan… thus they are able to identify more with India and less with Pakistan…. Ask them if they support Pakistan… they are non-committal… and if they support India… again non-committal… but their eyes lit up more when they hear about India… they have a broad smile when they meet me as an Indian… they are sure that India means progress… and Pakistan… well they are not sure!
But strangely… in the Kurdish region… the people who have been “butchered” by the Turkish Army, the Pakistani ally… there is much more information about Indo-Pak dynamics… they know about Kashmir… and largely it is the base on which they form a world view about India and Pakistan… they like both the countries… but are not able to turn a blind eye towards “Indian occupation of Kashmir”… they are more pro-Pakistani than pro-India.
Like I said… Turkish world view is strange… I found strange opinions… pro-India and pro-US feelings, where I least expected and anti-India and anti-US feeling, where I least expected.
It is a largely Islamic country, which allies with the US and NATO, which, for now, are deemed to be anti-Islam. It has relations with Israel (and particularly great relations… not just for namesake like Egypt and Jordan)… this is an anathema in Islamic world… it is close to Pakistan, which is a virulent enemy of Israel… it is also trying to mend its relations with Iran, again a virulent enemy of both the US and Israel… so Turkey makes an interesting political ideology.
I was interested in opinions of average person on the road… vis-à-vis India, Pakistan, Iran, Israel and most importantly the US…
I kept on asking seemingly innocent questions about people’s perception for all these countries… sometime posing as a Pakistani, sometimes Iranian (and yes, my wee bit of Farsi… passed me as a Iranian… probably from southern Iran… a dark complexioned Iranian)… and sometimes being an Indian…
What I realized… after the entire hullabaloo… is that there is no one opinion among the Turks… about any one country… in fact, more often than not; their opinions make interesting concoctions of disparate likings and dislikings… there is also, and obviously so, a sharp divide among public opinions between the ethnic Turks and the Kurds.
Islam, it seems, is a very sensitive issue for nearly all the Turks… the oft quoted secular Turks… are at best a minority, and at worse a myth- carefully crafted for the western audience. It doesn’t seem unbelievable to me… that Turks and Kurds alike wreaked worse kind of havocs on Christian minorities- the Surianis, Greeks and Armenians- less than 100 years ago… it seems that Kamal Ataturk… the most venerated Turk… pushed and pulled his country-men into a modern secular world… inspite and despite of popular will. Islam, therefore, is one of the big deciding factors, when it comes to the public perceptions about other countries…
Take for example Israel… I saw a near unanimous hatred towards Israel… everywhere I went… the Turkish parts, the Kurdish parts… Israel, is more or less, seen as a West’s lackey, who is promoting the “myth” of Armenian, Greek and Suriani genocide in Anatolia… strangely, the hatred does not come from Palestinian cause… for most of the Turks view Arabs as incompetents… who have usurped Turkey’s rightful place as Islam’s leader… the hatred comes, instead, due to the fact that Armenians found a sympathetic refuge in Israel… I… kind of expected it.
Iran makes a wonderful case study… some view it as a country with a lot of moral rectitude and the ability to stand against the West (and the common refrain is that Turkey is losing its edge… with respect to Islamic leadership… to Iran)… and on the other Iran is seen as a bumbling country, which cannot be friend to any other country… what is true for Iran… is true for Ahmedinejad… the man that has come to personify Iran these days… like Khomeinis in the past. Nevertheless, I could sense a growing fascination for Iran among the people… especially in the Turkish region, if not the Kurdish region (in fact Kurds believe that they are being mistreated in Iran too… though to a lesser degree… ranking Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey in that order... vis. Kurdish conditions in different countries… Iraq, the best and Turkey, the worst).
US, for one, attracts most amazing opinions… the Turks love to hate the US… even though they are the ruling class in Turkey and have for more than half a century… aligned with them… on the other hand Kurds have positive opinions about the US… strangely… Kurds are more devout Muslims- as compared to Turks- and have been “mistreated” by a regime, which is close to the US… nevertheless, they feel that the US was somehow instrumental in making a homeland for them in Iraq, and one day might extend this homeland inside the frontiers of Turkey.
It was very difficult for me to comprehend the anti-US feeling among the Turks… some attributed it to America’s anti-Islam positioning… some to its support to Israel… but largely because ordinary Turk saw US behind the “secular” forces in Turkey… the forces that don’t let them wear hijab inside university campuses… the forces that de-stabilize the popular soft Islamic Government.
India and Pakistan are one of the most interesting topic to explore around in Turkey… sadly, most of the people are not very much aware of India-Pakistan dynamics… for them India and Pakistan are distant lands and they have hardly anything to opine about… barring the oft-quoted media jingle. Turkish Army (and the establishment, which of late was pro-Army) has been traditionally very close to Pakistan… (Pakistani Army, if not the civilian set-up)… I argued that such long close cooperation would definitely load public opinion in favour of Pakistan… especially in the Turkish areas… I was wrong…
First and foremost, Turks don’t have any dogmatic opinion about India and Pakistan… Secondly, there information base on India is much wider that on Pakistan… thus they are able to identify more with India and less with Pakistan…. Ask them if they support Pakistan… they are non-committal… and if they support India… again non-committal… but their eyes lit up more when they hear about India… they have a broad smile when they meet me as an Indian… they are sure that India means progress… and Pakistan… well they are not sure!
But strangely… in the Kurdish region… the people who have been “butchered” by the Turkish Army, the Pakistani ally… there is much more information about Indo-Pak dynamics… they know about Kashmir… and largely it is the base on which they form a world view about India and Pakistan… they like both the countries… but are not able to turn a blind eye towards “Indian occupation of Kashmir”… they are more pro-Pakistani than pro-India.
Like I said… Turkish world view is strange… I found strange opinions… pro-India and pro-US feelings, where I least expected and anti-India and anti-US feeling, where I least expected.
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