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Istanbul attacks and hidden
agendas
By K Gajendra Singh
The two synagogues attacked in Istanbul on
November 15 in which at least 23 people died are located
in the center of Istanbul's Jewish community, which
has thrived throughout history in Turkey.
Ottoman Sultan Fethi , who conquered
Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, and named it
Istanbul in 1453, in Turkish tradition allowed all
religious communities to live as protected people, and
he even settled many Jews in the new capital. When they
were expelled from Spain, the Ottoman empire gave them
shelter.
Even after the gut-wrenching events of
World War I, when the Ottoman empire collapsed,
Armenians were massacred and Christians exchanged with
Turks in Greece, the Jews continued to live in Turkey,
mostly in Istanbul, and around the time of World War II,
republican Turkey gave shelter to many Jews, including
hundreds of professors escaping Nazi Germany.
They provided financial acumen, as earlier
Armenians and Christians had in trade and industry. It
took Turks 60 years to take to trade and industry
themselves. Before the 1980s, when former prime minister
Turgut Ozal was elected, a Turk hoped to become a
soldier, a policemen or a mudurbay (office boss)
in some government ministry or department.
The
Jews as a result have lived amicably and prospered, and
even inter-married with Turks. Those who convert to
Islam are called "Donme", one who turned - like in doner
kebab. After the creation of the state of Israel, many
Jews shifted to the new homeland. The Jewish population
in Turkey now numbers more than 20,000. A Jew, Jefi
Kamhi , was even elected a member of parliament in 1995.
Turkey-Israel 'alliance'
Turkey
recognized Israel in 1948, the first Muslim country to
do so. After the 1967 Middle East war and even after the
1973 one, when Arabs exploited the oil weapon, Turkey
did not disrupt relations with Israel. While there was
no de facto strategic alliance, there was close
cooperation regarding rightist or leftist and
revolutionary students movements, specially during the
1960s and 1970s. In 1971, Turkish students assassinated
the Israeli consul-general in Istanbul, who was a former
senior Mossad officer.
Israel has developed a
top-rate defense industry based on support and
cooperation with the United States. After the end of the
Cold War, Turkey, specially its armed forces, felt a
little left out.
So Turkey sold itself as a
barrier between Europe and the Middle East and the
Caucasus, cauldrons of fundamentalism and chaos. Its
informal alliance with Israel was useful and the
latter's influence with Washington could be exploited
for US grants of sophisticated arms and equipment.
There may be some truth in the threat
perceptions and that the arms would be used to counter
external threats, but militarism has been used to impose
a Jacobin version of secularism on Turkey to keep down
leftists, Islamists and Kurds. And much of the Turkish
population was not too happy. However, in the November
2002 elections, the people had their say and gave two
thirds of the parliament's seats to the Justice and
Development Party (AKP), which has Islamist roots and
less tolerance for the army's role in the state's
affairs. Also, more than 90 percent of the population
opposed the US-led invasion of Muslim Iraq, which the
military was very keen to join.
In 1996, Turkey
and Israel went public and signed an agreement for
military cooperation. Much has been written about this
evolving relationship, with some political analysts
calling it an "axis" an "entente" even an "alliance".
Naturally, the maximum criticism came from countries in
the Middle East who began to criticize and even condemn
Jerusalem and Ankara for forging an alliance against
them.
The military cooperation agreement does
not make explicit commitments for mutual assistance in
the event of an armed conflict, but a careful
interpretation of the provisions shows that it opened
the door to much enhanced cooperation between the
countries, which could reach levels usually reserved for
serious allies. Of course, the Israelis would like to go
much further. Israel buys water from Turkey, and Turkey
is a popular destination for Israeli tourists, nearly
300,000 visited last year.
Inside Turkey
In the southeast of Turkey, a Kurdish insurgency
rebellion raged from the mid-1980s to 1999, with over
35,000 lives lost. On the whole, western Turkey, as a
result of high security measures, has remained more or
less free from violence. But attacks on left-wing
writers by rightists and on Israeli targets by leftists
have taken place over the years.
When this
writer was posted in Ankara in December 1992, after the
demolition of the Babri mosque in India by Hindu
extremists, an explosive device was attached to the car
of the Indian second secretary in Ankara. It caused some
damage, but no one was hurt. This writer felt that
rightist religious groups, while upset with the
demolition of the mosque, just wanted to warn India
through this act. They could have easily killed someone.
The authorities were unable to solve the crime. Attacks
in western Turkey, especially like the November 15 ones,
are difficult to organize and take a lot of planning and
care.
The AKP government, taking advantage of
European norms, which have to be fulfilled before Turkey
can be considered as a candidate for the grouping, has
succeeded in almost nullifying the military's clout,
which it has always enjoyed through the top
decision-making National Security Council. The council
has now been reduced to an advisory body, making it
virtually impotent.
Claiming a failure of
intelligence, the military will most likely now try to
get back some of the powers it has enjoyed since the
inception of the republic as it considers itself the
custodian of founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's
legacy of secularism.
Indeed, tensions between
Turkey's secular elite, led by the armed forces, and the
AKP have simmered ever since the latter's electoral
triumph, and they are likely to come under further
strain now.
Since 1923, Turkey has had a
laic (secular) constitution. The country is a
member of the Council of Europe, the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization and the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, and it has a customs
agreement with the European Union.
Nearly 80
years after Ataturk's sweeping reforms, Turkey's
experiment in democracy goes wobbly from time to time.
But with its 67 million Muslims, Turkey is unlikely to
be admitted into the EU any time soon, which is
basically a Christian club. With violence now reaching
Istanbul, the chances are even less. EU membership would
allow freedom of movement to Turks everywhere in Europe.
Conclusions
Many Turkish experts
suspect that the twin bombings were a warning to Turkey,
one of the few Muslim countries to have ties with
Israel. This secular country has seen a surge in support
for Islamic sentiments and parties, as elsewhere. Public
opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq played a major
role in Turkey's parliament refusing the US request in
March to open a second front into Iraqi Kurdistan in the
north by using Turkish soil.
The blasts could be
an act of revenge for the daily killings of Palestinians
and the Israelis building a much-opposed wall that
encroaches on Palestinian land. Such attacks would
please Muslims and earn the goodwill of angry and
frustrated Muslim youth all over the world, and attract
many of them to their cause. It also sends a very stern
warning to Turks to keep out of Iraq. Turkey had pledged
to send up to 100,000 troops to Iraq, but in the face of
stiff opposition from within Iraq, including from the
US-appointed Governing Council, the decision has been
reversed.
And now, with the US suddenly intent
on handing more political power to the Iraqis
themselves, that country will have to work out its own
problems, and what form the new government takes,
although it is most likely to be a dictatorship if
history is anything to go by.
In Turkey, Ataturk
temporized with all his friends and enemies, but after
obtaining full power he eliminated or removed them, even
some of his closest comrades. This is the inexorable
logic of naked power.
Recently, a senior Indian
Congress party leader, Mani Shankar, revealed that he
was with Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi on a peace-making
mission to Tehran in 1991, and when the latter inquired
from Iranian President Ali Rafsanjani who would succeed
Saddam Hussein, the reply was, "Saddam Hussein".
And it appears that the United States will have
to let this happen.
K Gajendra Singh,
Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to
Turkey from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he
served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and
Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for
Indo-Turkic Studies. Email Gajendrak@hotmail.com
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