In ten days, the crackdown on the anti-Erdogan protests has already claimed three lives and injured 5,000 people.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
The Turkish uprising is rooted in the inconsistencies of the Erdogan government. The latter\u2014after having billed itself as “Muslim Democrat<\/i>” (based on the “Christian Democratic<\/i>” model)\u2014 suddenly revealed its true nature with the advent of the Arab Spring “color revolutions<\/i>.”<\/p>\n
In terms of domestic and foreign policy, there is a before and after the volte face. The previous stage involved the infiltration of institutions. The aftermath has been characterized by sectarianism. Before, Ahmed Davuto\u011flu\u2019s theory of “zero problems<\/i>” with Turkey\u2019s neighbors took center stage. The former Ottoman Empire seemed to be coming out of its slumber and returning to reality. After that, the opposite happened: Turkey fell out with each of her neighbors and went to war against Syria.<\/p>\n
The Muslim Brotherhood<\/b><\/p>\n
Piloting this shift is the Muslim Brotherhood, a secret organization that Erdogan and his team have always been affiliated to, despite their denials. Even if this shift is subsequent to the one involving Qatar\u2014the financier of the Muslim Brotherhood\u2014it bears the same implication: authoritarian regimes that claimed to be foes of Israel suddenly act like close allies.<\/p>\n
It is important to remember that the label “Arab Spring<\/i>” given by the West is a deception to make people believe that the Tunisian and Egyptian governments were overthrown by a mass movement. While there was a popular revolution in Tunisia, its goal was not to change the regime, but to achieve economic and social changes. It was the United States, not the street, that ordered Zinedine el Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak to step down. Then it was NATO that toppled and lynched Muammar al-Gaddafi. And it is again NATO and the GCC that have fueled the attack against Syria.<\/p>\n
Across North Africa\u2014with the exception of Algeria\u2014the Muslim Brotherhood have been placed in power by Hillary Clinton. Everywhere, Turkish communications advisors are on board, courtesy of the Erdogan government. Everywhere, “democracy<\/i>” was a facade which allowed the Brothers to Islamize firms in exchange for embracing the pseudo-liberal capitalism of the United States.<\/p>\n
The term “Islamize<\/i>” reflects the rhetoric employed by the Brothers, not reality. The Brotherhood intends to control the privacy of individuals based on principles which are outside the scope of the Quran. It calls into question the role of women in society and imposes an austere lifestyle without alcohol or cigarettes, and without sex…at least for others.<\/p>\n
Over the past ten years, the Brotherhood has stayed under the radar, leaving the transformation of public education in the hands of the sect run by Fethullah G\u00fclen<\/a>, of which President Abdullah G\u00fcl is a member.<\/p>\n Although the Brotherhood flaunts its hatred for the American way of life<\/i>, it thrives under the protective wing of the Anglo-Americans (UK, USA, Israel) who have always been able to use its violence against those who resisted them. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had appointed to her cabinet her former “body woman,” Huma Abedin (wife of former Zionist Congressman Anthony Weiner), whose mother Saleha Abedin presides the women\u2019s division of the Brotherhood. It was through this channel that Clinton stirred up the Brotherhood.<\/p>\n The Brothers purveyed the ideology of Al-Qaeda, through one of their members: Ayman al-Zawahiri, the organizer President Sadat\u2019s assassination and currently the leader of the terrorist organization. Al-Zawahiri, like Bin Laden, has always been an agent of U.S. services. Although officially listed as a public enemy, from 1997 to 2001 he met regularly with the CIA at the U.S. Embassy in Baku in the context “Operation Gladio B<\/i>,” as testified by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds\u00a0[1<\/a>].<\/p>\n A progressive dictatorship<\/b><\/p>\n During his imprisonment, Erdogan claimed to have broken with the Brothers and to have quit the party. Then, he got himself elected and gradually imposed a dictatorship. He ordered the arrest and incarceration of two thirds of the generals accused of involvement in Gladio, the secret network under U.S. influence. In addition, he put behind bars the highest number of journalists for an individual counry. This fact has been obscured by the Western media, unwilling to criticize a NATO member.<\/p>\n The army is the traditional custodian of Kemalist secularism. However, after the September 11 attacks, senior officers were concerned about the totalitarian drift of the United States, and made \u200b\u200bcontact with their counterparts in Russia and China. To nip these unwelcome initiatives in the bud, certain judges pointedly reminded them about their historical ties with the U.S.<\/p>\n If, like in any other profession, journalists can be rascals, the world\u2019s highest incarceration rate is indicative of a policy: intimidation and repression. With the exception of Ululsal, television turned into an official eulogy, while the press followed the same path.<\/p>\n “Zero problems” with its neighbors<\/b><\/p>\n The foreigh policy of Ahmed Davuto\u011flu was equally laughable. After seeking to tackle the unresolved problems left over from the Ottoman Empire one century earlier, he tried to play Obama against Netanyahu by organizing the Freedom Flotilla<\/i> to Palestine\u00a0[2<\/a>]. However, less than two months after Israel\u2019s act of piracy, he accepted the international commission of inquiry created to cover it up and resumed in secret his collaboration with Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n As a token of the cooperation between the Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda, the Brotherhood had placed on the Marvi Marmara<\/i> al-Mahdi Hatari, the second in command of Al Qaeda in Libya and a likely British agent\u00a0[3<\/a>].<\/p>\n Economic disaster<\/b><\/p>\n How did Turkey squander not only a decade of diplomatic efforts to restore its international relations, but also its economic growth? In March 2011, she participated in the NATO operation against Libya, one of its major economic partners. With Libya devastated by the war, Turkey lost its market. At the same time, Ankara embarked on a war against neighboring Syria, with whom a year earlier she had signed a trade liberalization agreement. The impact was swift: the growth in 2010 was 9.2%, in 2012 it fell to 2.2% and continues to fall\u00a0[4<\/a>].<\/p>\n Public Relations<\/b><\/p>\n The rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood in North Africa went to the Erdogan government\u2019s head. By brandishing his Ottoman imperial ambition, he disconcerted the Arab public to begin with, and then turned the majority of his people against him.<\/p>\n On one hand, the government is funding Fetih 1453<\/i>\u2014a film that gobbled up an astronomic budget for the country\u2014which is supposed to celebrate the conquest of Constantinople, albeit historically flawed. On the other hand, it attempts to ban the most popular television series in the Middle East, The Sultan\u2019s Harem<\/i>, because the truth does not project a peaceful image of the Ottomans.<\/p>\n The real reason for the uprising<\/b><\/p>\n In the present context, the Western press has focused on specific details: a housing project in Istanbul, ban on late-night sales of alcholol, or statements encouraging population growth. All this is true, but it doesn\u2019t add up to a revolution.<\/p>\n By showing its true nature, the Erdogan government has cut itself off from the population. Only a minority of Sunnis can identify with the backward and hypocritical programme of the Brothers. As it happens, about 50% of Turks are Sunni, 20% Alevi (that is to say Alawites), 20% are Kurds (mostly Sunni), and 10% belong to other minorities. It is statistically clear that the Erdogan government can not hold out against the uprising that its own policies helped to ignite.<\/p>\n By overthrowing him, the Turks would be solving not only their own problems, but would also be putting an end to the war against Syria. I have often pointed out that the war would stop the day one of its foreign sponsors exits the scene. This will soon be the case. Thus, the Turkish people will also halt the Brotherhood\u2019s expansion. Erdogan\u2019s fall foreshadows that of his friends; Ghannouchi in Tunisia and Morsi in Egypt. It is in fact most unlikely that these artificial governments, imposed via rigged elections, can survive their powerful sponsor.<\/p>\n NOTES:<\/b><\/p>\n [1<\/a>] “Al Qaeda Chief was US Asset<\/a>,” by Nafeez Ahmed, 21 May 2013.<\/p>\n [2<\/a>] “Why did Israel attack civilians in the Mediterranean?<\/a>” and “Freedom Flotilla: The detail that escaped Netanyahu<\/a>,” by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network<\/i>, 1 and 8 June 2010.<\/p>\n [3<\/a>] “Free Syrian Army commanded by Military Governor of Tripoli<\/a>,” by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network<\/i>, 19 December 2011.<\/p>\n [4<\/a>] “Turkey\u2019s Economic Growth Slows Sharply<\/a>,” by Emre Perer and Yeliz Candemir, The Wall Sreeet Journal<\/i>, 1 April 2013.<\/p>\n __________________________<\/p>\n Thierry Meyssan: French intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace Conference. Professor of International Relations at the Centre for Strategic Studies in Damascus. His columns specializing in international relations feature in daily newspapers and weekly magazines in Arabic, Spanish and Russian. His last two books published in English : <\/i>9\/11 the Big Lie and <\/i>Pentagate.<\/i><\/p>\n Translation by Gaia Edwards.<\/i><\/p>\n