by Michael J. Totten
World Affairs Journal
Turkey, along with the American-Turkish relationship, is going so far off the rails so quickly right now that there’s no chance you’re aware of everything that’s going on unless you track it professionally or get Google Alerts in your inbox.
Where to even begin? We could start, I suppose, with the fact that a Turkish court sentenced a Wall Street Journal reporter to two years in prison in absentia for “promoting a terrorist organization.” Her real crime? Interviewing and quoting members of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). In other words, doing her job.
The reporter, Ayla Albayrak, is in the United States now, so President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an can’t get his grubby mitts on her, but let this be a lesson to all journalists who write about Turkey. You can and will be sentenced to prison.
Whether or not you’re a journalist, Americans can be sentenced to prison just for existing in Turkey.
| Conspiracy theorists who manage to bend a state to their will are capable of extraordinary destruction. |
Last year, the government arrested and imprisoned American pastor Andrew Brunson, who has lived there for decades, on bogus terrorism charges. He is being warehoused along with thousands of other innocent people for allegedly associating themselves with Fethullah Gülen, the Turkish cleric and former Erdo?an ally who is currently living in exile in rural Pennsylvania and blamed for the botched military coup last summer.
Lest you believe these people might actually be guilty of something, consider this: A NASA scientist is also currently jailed there. The authorities arrested him while he was visiting on vacation. The evidence against him? Having an account at a bank supposedly “linked” to Gülen, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean, and for having a one-dollar bill in his pocket, which is supposedly how Gülenists identify themselves to each other.
 Two Americans jailed by Turkey on trumped up terrorism charges: pastor Andrew Brunson (left) and NASA scientist Serkan Golge. |
These are just three of the individuals gratuitously punished by the regime. There are tens of thousands more who have been purged from their jobs, imprisoned or both.
If you’ve ever seriously wondered if political leaders who wallow in conspiracy theories are dangerous or simply exasperating, look no farther than Erdo?an. Conspiracy theorists who manage to bend a state to their will are capable of inflicting extraordinary amounts of destruction on a virtually limitless number of people.
I have reported from police states in the past. I risked deportation for doing so, not imprisonment, even in communist countries. When it comes to the treatment of journalists, the Turkish government is more oppressive even than China’s or Cuba’s. Turkey has in fact jailed more journalists than any other country in the entire world. Erdo?an says they’re all terrorists. Probably none of them are. Being branded a terrorist in Turkey is only faintly more plausible than being fingered a witch in Salem, Massachusetts, 300 years ago.
On the off chance that you aren’t quite convinced, the director of Amnesty International in Turkey is also facing 15 years in prison on terrorism charges.
Meanwhile, an employee at the US Consulate in Istanbul was arrested for “facilitating the escape” of some “Gülenists.” The United States government responded by refusing to issue non-immigrant visas to anybody from Turkey, and the Turkish government responded in kind. So if you’re an American planning on visiting Turkey any time soon on business or as a tourist, sorry. You can’t.
Under current conditions, you probably shouldn’t go anyway. Turkey is holding a number of Americans hostage and isn’t shy about admitting that they are hostages. “Give us the pastor back,” Erdo?an himself said last month. “You have one pastor as well. Give him (Gülen) to us. Then we will try him (Brunson) and give him to you…The (pastor) we have is on trial. Yours is not – he is living in Pennsylvania. You can give him easily. You can give him right away.”
| Taking hostages is an act of war. It’s what Iran, North Korea, and Hezbollah do. |
Needless to say, this is not how a NATO ally is supposed to behave. Taking hostages is an act of war. It’s what Iran does. It’s what North Korea does. It’s what Hezbollah does. It is not what genuine allies like the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Germany do.
Erdo?an is not going to settle down if the United States doesn’t deport Gülen, which Washington refuses to do as there is scant evidence that the exile had anything to do with last year’s coup attempt and reams of evidence that the old man couldn’t possibly get a fair trial if he were shipped back to Ankara even with the best lawyers on earth. Erdo?an probably won’t settle down even if he does manage to throw Gülen into a dungeon or onto the executioner’s chopping block. Stalin didn’t settle down after one of his goons dispatched his rival Leon Trotsky with an ice axe in Mexico City, nor did the Ayatollah Khomeini settle down after the Shah Reza Pahlavi died from cancer in the United States in 1980. Authoritarian conspiracy theorists are never sated. They can only be resisted until they are overthrown or in the ground.
Turkey is still in NATO. We’ll see if that lasts much longer.
Michael J. Totten is a contributing editor at The Tower, a Middle East Forum writing fellow, and the author of seven books, including Where the West Ends and Tower of the Sun.
@ Michael S:
Yes I see that it’s the English speaking components of the former British Empire which are the closest allies of the US, .As you say Israel is a special case, and Japan was rather like a personal ward of MacArthur and the US, and because of the bomb; Taiwan because of China.
As a totally irrelevant side note, when the breakthrough of the Chinese Table Tennis team visiting Canada, and Nth America, I was the president of the first club they came to; also the No.1 player, and played the first exhibition against one of their coaches. Phew…..they were terrific, toyed with us. They were athletes, we were players.
Personally they were charming…likely specifically instructed by Mao.
@ Edgar G.:
Hi, Edgar
It was worth mentioning the moustache, since it caught your eye and got a response from you. I myself have had a moustache and beard much of my life, for the very reason you cite.
Getting back to talking Turkey, NATO has no mechanism for expelling members. They can make them want to quit; that’s about it. NATO has always been something of a circus, with France effectively quitting for years, and Greece sometimes refusing to participate because of the Turkish presence.
The crowning combat accomplishments of the alliance were the Korean War, in which the US bore nearly all the brunt; and Afghanistan, in which GW Bush was able to solicit token participation from nearly all NATO members and others as well.
The Turks helped us out, in Korea and Afghanistan, and were more of a hindrance in Iraq. In Yugoslavia, the US got suckered into helping the Europeans effectively colonize the Balkans, more to Germany’s benefit than anyone else’s NATO could not effectively deal with Russia in Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan or the Ukraine — all NATO aspirant countries, but not full members (the same problem Cyprus had against Turkey in 1974). LBJ had previously tried, but failed, to sucker the Europeans into helping us get mired down in Vietnam.
Despite its many deficiencies, NATO has turned out to be the most effective multilateral military alliance since WWII ended, if only for its usefulness as a deterrent against the ambitions of the likes of the Communists and Islamic fundamentalists. In the latter capacity, Turkey is more of a hindrance than a help, secretly aiding Al Qaeda offshoots like ISIS while attacking friends of the West such as the Syrian Kurds.
As I said in my previous post, I expect Turkey to attack Israel in the not-too-distant future; and Erdogan’s rhetoric and actions over the years have done nothing to dispel this thinking. Since NATO itself is ambivalent toward Israel, however, I don’t expect them to be greatly troubled by this; let alone try to stop him.
In terms of the Ezekiel prophecy, both NATO (“the Merchants of Tarshish”) and the GCC (“Dedan and Sheba”) will merely be bystanders:
Ezekiel 38:
[13] Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
America’s closest natural allies are Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand (collectively, the “Five Eyes”), Japan and Taiwan. Israel is a special case; and NATO, South Korea and some others are sometimes allies. For the most part, those nations depend on us and our nuclear umbrella, and offer us forward staging areas in return. In the case of Pakistan, we have the extreme case of a “major non-NATO ally” that has also been designated by us as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.
Nowadays, if someone says he’s “got your back”, it’s best to wear a rear-view mirror.
@ Michael S:
Now that you mention it I see the resemblance. Without making the connection as you have, I have often wondered why men grow those silly little tufts of hair under their noses. Have never been able to understand it. I can better believe that people allow whiskers to grow because they are too lazy to shave, I’m sometimes that way myself, occasionally shaving only after a month.
But for “fashion” that’s a psychological problem, not to be solved by me.
@ Edgar G.:
Hi, Edgar.
“I think he’s going mad, and will end up a raving monster.”
I believe I’ve been comparing him to Hitler for about ten years now. At that time, he was about Hitler’s age at death; and the facial features and expression, clear down to the moustache, were virtually identical. Now that Erdogan has aged, of course, and Hitler has not (Thank God!), he looks a little less like the former madman. Viewed a different way, Erdogan looks like Hitler might have looked ten years later, had he lived.
Here’s what the Bible says about Erdogan:
Ezekiel 38:
[3] … Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
[4] And I will turn thee back, and PUT HOOKS IN THY JAWS, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour…
Erdogan is emotionally-driven; and he leads with the mouth — making him a perfect candidate for God to “put a hook in his jaw”, like a fisherman catching a fish. Erdogan will attack Israel not because it is a good idea, nor because he can hope to win the war, but because he will be forced into it by his own pride and boasting.
My interest in Turkey lately, has been in guessing just how soon the old goat will do it (He’s a Pisces, hence a good candidate for a fish hook; but the part of him we see, his rising sign, is the Capricorn goat.):
https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Recep_Tayyip_Erdogan
Astrologically, the total solar eclipse, just this past August (in Erdogan’s house of Death/ Changes), heavily aspected his chart; so I would have expected this to be a signature event in his fortunes. The headline of that day was:
“Iran, Turkey move to re-establish role as regional backbone ” — Al Monitor
The Bible passage mentions this alliance:
Ezekiel 38:
[4] …And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
[5] PERSIA, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet…
That Turko-Persian alliance in the Aug. 23 press, was prefaced on Aug. 21 by
“Erdogan says Turkey and Iran discussing joint action against Kurdish militants” — Reuters.
I expect Turkey and Iran both to eventually move against Iraqi Kurdistan, divide the spoils between them, and advance insensibly through Syria up to Israel. That may take a few years, overall, or perhaps only a few months.
I’ve been wondering for a long time why the NATO countries do not expel Turkey.
The Headline..”Turkey Is Behaving Like An Enemy Now” is incorrect. Turkey has always behaved like an enemy, since Erdogan came on the scene both as Premier and President.
More so as President because he has organised for himself unlimited power. He was an “ally”, much in the nature of the way Egypt and Jordan were at “peace” with Israel. He always looked as if he would break out judging not so much by his international behaviour at first, but the way he behaved internally with his people. He gutted the Army, and became gradually more repressive on the people.
I think he’s going mad, and will end up a raving monster. Perhaps he has a brain tumour slowly growing, or something like that… Of course, being an Islamist, he’s naturally cruel and crafty anyway.