Realism About Turkey by Serge Trifkovic

Dr. Serge Trifkovic has authored two remarkable books on Islam that should be on every American's "must read" list: Defeating Jihad and The Sword of the Prophet. The following excerpts from the latter book appeared in FrontLineMagazine.Com:

"It is no secret that in America’s desperate search for allies in the Moslem world, Turkey is at the top of the list of our supposed "friends," both because of its strategic location and because of its supposed success in creating a secular Moslem society. While not wanting to scant the positive aspects of this nation, we should be distinctly realistic about its shortcomings. We got into enough trouble lying to ourselves about Saudi Arabia, the nation that largely – albeit indirectly – financed 9/11 due to its bizarre fundamentalist kleptocracy. Let’s not repeat the mistake of entertaining romantic illusions in a political marriage of convenience. Turkey has a serious dark side.

To understand contemporary Turkey, some history is required. A century ago the Ottoman Empire was moribund, the Sick Man on the Bosphorus whose hold on the far-flung provinces in the Balkans, North Africa and the Middle East was growing more tenuous by the day. Its precarious survival in the century before the Great War was due mainly to the inability of Europe to agree on what to do with the spoils, leavened with some realization that breaking it would create a mess. This was the notorious "Eastern Question," which remained on the European diplomatic agenda until WWI.

After the Ottoman Empire collapsed by joining the losing side in WWI, Mustafa Kemal’s Turkish Republic emerged from the ashes. This coincided with the final curtain for the Christians of the Ottoman Empire. Between 1915 and 1922 most of the Armenians and Greeks in Asia Minor were exterminated or ethnically cleansed. At least 1.5 million people died.

To this day, it is the official position of the Turkish government that this never happened. This is as if David-Irving style Holocaust denial were the official position of the German government. It is this reality that should be the focus of any consideration of modern Turkey. That the modern descendants of the Ottomans are perhaps among the least tolerant nations in the world — as is evinced by Turkey’s continuing persecution of not only fellow Muslims such as Kurds and Alawites but of Greeks, Cypriots and Armenians as well — echoes what the Eastern Christians endured.

Today, Turkey is back as a major player in its own right, a regional power par excellence and the pillar of the U.S. strategy in Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Its population will exceed that of Russia in thirty years if today’s demographic trends continue. Its influence is on the rise in its old holdings in the Balkans as well as throughout the former Soviet Central Asia. Turkey is aggressively pursuing its European Union candidacy, while resisting even feeble Western demands to end its brutal war against the Kurds in the eastern part of the country, which has been going on, accomplished by ruthless cultural suppression, for almost three decades and has claimed some 30,000 lives.

More egregious is Turkey’s refusal to make any concessions on Cyprus — invaded in July 1974 and partly occupied by 35,000 Turkish soldiers ever since. Over the past 28 years, Turkey has flooded the occupied northern part of the island with settlers from the mainland; their numbers by now exceed the number of native Turkish Cypriots, about 115,000 in 1974 as opposed to just over half a million Greeks. They occupied two-fifths of Cyprus and, in the best tradition of the prophet and the great caliphs, ordered Greeks inhabiting the area to leave within 24 hours. Greek houses and businesses were handed over to Turkish Cypriots. Greek villages and towns were attacked indiscriminately but in cities with mixed populations targets were selected: Christian churches were the first to go up in flames, or be converted into mosques. The final toll was 4,000 men, women and children dead, 1,619 missing and presumed dead. The entire Greek population of the Turkish-occupied part of the island was physically exterminated or ethnically cleansed. Forty percent of the island, including 65% of the arable land, 60% of all its water resources, two-thirds of its mineral wealth, 70% of its industries and four-fifths of tourist installations came under Turkish rule.

While other countries would be condemned, embargoed, or bombed for similar transgressions, Turkey’s status as a bona fide member of NATO and the essential pillar of U.S. strategy in the eastern Mediterranean, and the bridgehead of influence in the oil-rich Caspian basin, was never in doubt. Its position as an essential U.S. ally, and its ability to get away with murder, was further reinforced in 1979, when the entire U.S. strategy in the Middle East was thrown into disarray with the fall of the Shah of Iran. The Turks have exploited their supposed usefulness to us ruthlessly."

Read the whole thing here.

An excerpt from Defeating Jihad can be found at www.orthodoxinfo.com.

Comments

[Stavros Stavridis]

The Greeks and Armenians were massacred during the years 1915-1922 by the Ottoman Turks and Kemalists but we must not forget the Assyrian Christians too.

[istvanbocsi@yahoo.com]

Well written article by Dr Trifkovic. Very short clear essence of the status of Turkey in 2007. It didn't seem to have changed significantly since though.
Especially the paragraph on Cyprus, the numbers are stagerring, not only the human side of the crisis. I've been following closely Christofias' and Talat's /Eroglu's negotiations only to to see the faint sliver of hope to fade into total darkness. It shows Turkey's true intentions covered up by humanitarian "help". ( even some turkish cypriots questions General Ilhan's claims about the murder of his children, God bless their innocent souls, wich was a pretext of a possible invasion in'63 already , but it's perhaps too much of a speculation )
For 37 years hundreds of thousands of people have been waiting to return home. Their number decreasing every day. Well thought strategy having known the ignorance of the west (E.U. , NATO, U.S.) for such a long time.
Hopefully the same tragedy won't happen in easter Thrace and the status of Cyprus turns for the better. As His All Holiness Vartholomeos said about the future of the Patriarchate of Constantinople: "We believe in miracles"
As the roses of pentecost(peonies) are blooming, have wonderful days concluding the Easter season.

Istvan

[Stavros]

I am not hopeful but I too believe in miracles. Here is an interesting article that may interest you:

http://pajamasmedia.com/michaeltotten/2011/06/05/ottoman-fantasies/

Erdogan and the pashas believe Turkey is ascendant but they do not have the diplomatic acumen of the Otoomans or of an Ataturk. Nevertheless we should never underestimate them.

[Istvan]

Interesting insights, great article from Berlinski-Totten.(by the way Totten's report on Varosha many years ago was one the reasons that made me pay close attention to the tragedy of Cyprus )
Thanks for the link
Istvan