Turning against Turkey

[مستر محمد سلام]

Turning against Turkey

The Turkish government is behaving very oddly these days. As if there were not sufficient issues to concern it at home and immediately across the Turkish border in Syria, the situation in Egypt now tops the agenda in Ankara. Not long ago, only occasional statements on Egypt came out of the offices of the Turkish president and prime minister. These days, the attention is constant.

Moreover, in Turkey where the government goes the media follows. This has increased its coverage of Egypt, most of it being lifted directly from Al-

Jazeera and CNN, in addition to from reports on the summoning of the Egyptian ambassador to Turkey, Abdel-Rahman Salah, for an interview at the Turkish foreign office. It is difficult to find opinions not in harmony with the position of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), while anti-Egyptian fervour is being drummed up in the streets of Istanbul and Ankara.

These are filled with government-organised marches condemning the “coup” in Egypt and calling for the restoration of “legitimacy”, in other words the reinstatement of the ousted former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi.

As a result, the Egyptian people have begun to air their anger at Ankara, having already begun to question Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s democratic credentials when he unleashed a police *****down against peaceful environmental rights protesters in Istanbul’s Gezi Park earlier this year.

However, they could never have imagined that Erdogan would be arrogant enough to cast himself as an Ottoman caliph wearing a Western suit and tie. But Erdogan has set his government and its media squarely against the will of the Egyptian people, as voiced in the revolutionary waves of the 30 June Revolution, and this has opened their eyes to the true character of the government in Ankara.

The admiration that many Egyptians felt for the beautiful expanses of Anatolia and the elegance of its cities until just a month and a half ago has now turned into something akin to revulsion. The anger has homed in on a single person, Erdogan, but it has also been expressed by the Egyptian public’s switching off the Turkish television ******s that it was once addicted to and increasingly boycotting products made in Turkey.

Turkish companies probably understand that such things are the closest at hand, which is why they have been treating the phenomenon like a passing storm, after which the bonds of affection will return to normal. Two weeks ago, in a meeting specially convened in response to the situation in Egypt, Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çaglayan reassured Turkish businessmen that their interests in Egypt were safe at least for the foreseeable future.

The tone was subdued and the desire to avert alarm clear, but there has nevertheless been no ignoring the fact that relations between Cairo and Ankara are now in crisis and that Ankara has done its best to inflame it.

For the time being, Egypt’s response has been to withdraw the Egyptian ambassador from Ankara. It is difficult to say whether it will go so far as to sever relations with Turkey, a painful decision that the interim government may feel forced to make in the light of the campaign being waged by the powers-that-be in Ankara against a government that they describe as “dictatorial” and other forms of reckless behaviour that Egyptians regard as unwarranted interference in their country’s domestic affairs.

Many Turks living in Egypt have commented on the huge gulf between what they see on the ground in Egypt and the remarks made by their country’s officials and the coverage of Egypt by the Turkish media. Where are the massacres that Ankara keeps talking about, they ask. Why does the Turkish media never say a word about the crimes committed by the other side?

Since the media airs nothing but images of violence accompanied by one-sided commentary against the brutal “dictatorship” in Egypt and its ruthless army and police, Turkish residents of Egypt are apt to receive phone calls from alarmed friends and relatives back home. Their advice is not to pay too much attention to the media coverage in Turkey, but they still want to know why Erdogan is orchestrating the current campaign against Egypt and what purposes it is meant to serve.

It is unlikely that the Turks will ever receive clear answers to these questions, at least not while Erdogan is prime minister and continues to control the country’s press. He made the Egyptian crisis the centrepiece of a speech delivered yesterday in Bursa south of the Marmara Sea, as usual lacing his words with religious terms and formulas guaranteed to stir up the emotions of his supporters.

These had received instructions from AKP municipal chiefs a week beforehand to take part in the rally and to bring Turkish flags, AKP banners and pictures of Erdogan with them. With such a well-primed audience, Erdogan was sure to raise a cheer when he raised four fingers, instead of the usual two.

These four fingers are understood to signal Rabaa Al-Adaweya, in Turkey the symbol of the opposition to the “anti-Morsi coup”.