<div dir="ltr"><div id="art_storyTitle" class="">Turkey's Islamic Supremacist Foreign Policy</div><div class="">By Uzay Bulut</div><div class=""><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org">Gatestone Institute</a></div><div class="">Posted 2016-04-29 18:05 GMT</div><div class=""><img src="http://www.aina.org/images/20160429140447.jpg">The
crumbling buildings of the Varosha district of Famagusta, Cyprus,
photographed in 2009. The area lies within Turkish-controlled northern
Cyprus. The inhabitants fled during the 1974 Turkish invasion and the
district has been abandoned since then. <span class="">(<img class="" src="http://www.aina.org/images/cameraicon.png"> Wikimedia Commons)</span>Between
March 29 and April 2, 2016, Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
paid a visit to Washington D.C. to participate in the 4th Nuclear
Security Summit hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama.<p>In an <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/03/31/intv-amanpour-turkey-erdogan-press-freedom.cnn">interview with CNN</a>
broadcast March 31, Erdogan said, "We will not allow an act such as
giving northern Syria to a terrorist organization... We will never
forgive such a wrong. We are determined about that."</p><p>Asked which
terror organization he was referring to, Erdogan said: "The YPG [Kurdish
People's Protection Units], the PYD [Democratic Union Party] ... and if
Daesh [ISIS] has an intention of that sort then it would also never be
allowed."</p><p>Erdogan was thereby once again attempting to equate
Islamic State (ISIS), which has tortured, raped, sold or slaughtered so
many innocent people in Syria and Iraq, with the Kurdish PYD, and its
YPG militia, whose members have been fighting with their lives to defeat
genocidal jihadist groups such as al-Nusra and ISIS.</p><p>The question
is not why Erdogan or his government have such an intense hatred for
Kurds. Turkey's genocidal policies against the Kurds are not a secret.
Turkey's most recent deadly attacks are ongoing in Kurdish districts
even now. The more important question is why Erdogan thinks that Turkey
is the one to decide to whom the predominantly Kurdish north of Syria
will belong -- or who will not rule that part of Syria.</p><p>On February 17, Turkey's capital, Ankara, was shaken by a car bomb that killed 28 people and wounded 61 others.</p><p>Turkey's Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syrian-national-of-ypg-links-behind-ankara-blast-says-turkish-pm.aspx?PageID=238&NID=95356&NewsCatID=509">immediately announced</a> that the perpetrator was a Syrian national with links to the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).</p><p>"A
direct link between the attack and the YPG has been established,"
Davutoglu said. "The YPG attack was carried out with logistical support
from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) inside Turkey. Just as al-Qaeda
or Daesh do not have seats at the table, the YPG, which is a terrorist
organization, cannot have one." He then once again refused to permit
Kurdish YPG participation in U.N.-brokered Syria peace talks in Geneva.</p><p>Saleh Muslim, the head of Syria's Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/news/syrian-kurdish-pyd-denies-involvement-in-ankara-attack/">replied</a>
via Agence France-Presse: "We deny any involvement in this attack.
These accusations are clearly related to Turkish attempts to intervene
in Syria."</p><p>The General Command of the YPG also <a href="http://kurdishquestion.com/index.php/kurdistan/west-kurdistan/we-have-no-connection-to-ankara-turkey-are-preparing-ground-to-attack-rojava/1468-we-have-no-connection-to-ankara-turkey-are-preparing-ground-to-attack-rojava.html">denied any involvement</a> in the attack:</p><blockquote>"Under
challenging conditions, we are protecting our people from barbaric
gangs such as ISIS and Al-Nusra. Countless states and media outlets have
repeatedly reported about the support Turkey has been providing to
these terrorist groups. Apart from the terrorist groups attacking us, we
as YPG have engaged in no military activity against the neighboring
states or other forces.<p>"We would like to repeat our message to
the people of Turkey and the world: We have no links to this
incident... We have never been involved in an attack against Turkey. The
Turkish state cannot possibly prove our engagement in any kind of
attack on their side because we were never involved in such an action.
Turkish Prime Minister Davutoglu's remarks 'Ankara attack was conducted
by YPG' is a lie and far away from the truth. With this statement,
Davutoglu wants to pave the way for an offensive on Syria and Rojava and
cover up Turkey's relations with the ISIS which is known to the whole
world by now."</p></blockquote><p>The Middle East is going
through mass murders, kidnappings, rapes, the sexual slavery of women
and other crimes. And Turkey's aggressive and supremacist foreign
policy, which does not respect the sovereignty of its neighbors, has
played a large role in this situation.</p><p>Syria and Iraq, Turkey's
southern neighbors, are now the breeding ground of genocidal jihadist
groups, foremost the Islamic State (ISIS). Many reporters, experts and
eyewitnesses have revealed that <a href="http://www.meforum.org/4732/turkey-support-isis-iraq-syria">Turkey has contributed to the rise</a>
of jihadist terrorists in the region -- by letting ISIS members get in
and out of Turkey and even by providing funds, logistics, and arms for
ISIS.</p><p>Inside its own boundaries, Turkey has been engaged in an <a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7259/turkey-kurds-media">all-out war</a>
against its own Kurdish citizens since last August. Turkey has been
murdering them indiscriminately and destroying their homes and
neighborhoods.</p><p>Turkey's hatred of Kurds is so intense that it also targets Kurdish defense forces in Syria.</p><p>On February 13, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/13/turkey-shells-kurdish-forces-in-syria-in-retaliation-for-attack-on-border-posts">Davutoglu confirmed shelling</a>
the Kurdish YPG group in Syria, after the YPG advanced on the
rebel-held town of Azaz in Syria. "We will retaliate against every step
[by the YPG]," Davutoglu said. "The YPG will immediately withdraw from
Azaz and the surrounding area and will not go close to it again."</p><p>The rebels in Azaz and elsewhere in Syria are mostly Islamist jihadists. <a href="http://www.aymennjawad.org/15865/special-report-northern-storm-and-the-situation">According</a>
to the scholar Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, Azaz was mostly controlled in
early 2015 by the group Liwa Asifat al-Shamal ("Northern Storm
Brigade"), affiliated with the Islamic Front. Syria's al-Qaeda affiliate
Jabhat al-Nusra ("Al-Nusra Front") also had a presence there.</p><p>"Azaz
is a symbol for Turkey," said Fabrice Balanche of the Washington
Institute For Near East Policy. "Prime Minister Davutoglu fears that if
the Kurds capture Azaz, they could start a big offensive from Kobane to
the west and from Afrin to the east," he <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35595023">told BBC</a>.</p><p>As
widely reported, the crisis in the region reached a peak when a Turkish
Air Force F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Air Force Su-24 bomber
along the Turkey-Syria border on November 24, killing the pilot,
Lieutenant-Colonel Oleg Peshkov. The Turkish government tried to excuse
the attack by claiming that the jet was downed after it had violated
Turkish airspace for 17 seconds.</p><p>The Russia Defense Ministry, however, <a href="http://sputniknews.com/military/20151124/1030695406/mod-su-24-flight-path.html">denied</a>
the aircraft ever left Syrian airspace, and released a video they
claimed shows that the Su-24 was not in Turkish airspace when it was
shot down.</p><p>Meanwhile, Turkey's neighbor to its West, Greece, has
long been a victim of Turkey's violations of its sovereign airspace.
According to data recorded by the Greek military, in 2014 alone, <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/323429-greece-turkey-airspace-violations/">Turkish aircraft violated Greek airspace</a> 2,244 times. On just one day, February 15, Turkish warplanes <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/turkish-warplanes-violate-greek-airspace-22-times-within-24-hours-1544036">violated Greek airspace</a> 22 times, according to Athens News Agency.</p><p>After
Syria, Greece and Russia, Turkey's next target was its other southern
neighbor, Iraq. In December, Iraq's President, Fuad Masum, said, "The
presence of the Turkish Army Forces in Mosul Province without our
permission violates international rules. I want Turkish officials to get
its force out of Iraq's territory immediately."</p><p>Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also condemned <a href="http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/05122015">Turkey's action</a>: "We have not asked Turkey for any force and no one had informed us about the arrival of the force."</p><p>Two neighbors of Turkey, Cyprus and Armenia, have also been victims of Turkish aggression -- for an even longer time.</p><p>Turkey,
for more than 40 years, has been illegally occupying the northern part
of the Republic of Cyprus, which it invaded with a bloody military
campaign in 1974. <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/13/hanson-occupation-hypocrisy/?page=all">According</a> to historian Victor Davis Hanson:</p><blockquote>"Thousands
of settlers from Anatolia were shipped in by the Turkish government to
occupy former Greek villages and to change Cypriot demography -- in the
same manner the occupying Ottoman Empire once did in the 16th century.
... The island remains conquered not because the Greeks have given up,
but because their resistance is futile against a NATO power of some 70
million people. Greeks know that Turkey worries little about what world
thinks of its occupation."</blockquote><p>Turkey has also been
blockading yet another neighbor since 1993: "Turkey and Azerbaijan have
effectively been exercising an illegal unilateral economic blockade
against Armenia, which has hurt the latter economically," <a href="http://armenianweekly.com/2014/02/20/economic-blockades-and-international-law-the-case-of-armenia/">wrote Armen V. Sahakyan</a>,
the executive director of the Eurasian Research and Analysis Institute.
"Turkey and Azerbaijan are in clear violation of the Principle of Good
Neighborliness, as well as all of the General Assembly resolutions
condemning unilateral coercive measures."</p><p>Turkey has been
assaulting its neighbors in what appears as outbursts of Turkish Islamic
supremacy. What Turkey would call a crime if committed by a non-Turkish
or a non-Sunni state, Turkey sees as legitimate if Turkey itself
commits it.</p><p>When Turkey invaded Cyprus, historically a Greek and
Christian nation, it is not called an invasion. Turkey still refers to
the 1974 military campaign as a "peace operation." Senior politicians
and military officials from Turkey also participate in the official
ceremonies called "the Peace and Freedom Festival," organized in
occupied northern Cyprus on July 20 every year, to celebrate what they
"achieved" more than 40 years ago -- namely, an ethnic cleansing and
colonization campaign that they conducted through many <a href="http://www.kypros.org/Cyprus_Problem/Turkish-Atrocities.html">crimes, including mass murders</a>,
wholesale and repeated rapes, torture and inhuman treatment, plundering
Cypriot cultural heritage and destroying churches, among others.</p><p>If
anyone blockaded another state, especially a Sunni state, Turkey would
most certainly condemn it. But when Turkey itself blockades a Christian
nation, it is always "justified" -- most often as a response to some
"unacceptable wrongdoing" by the other side.</p><p>If a non-Turkish, or
non-Sunni state, treated a Turkish or Sunni minority brutally, Turkey
would passionately condemn it. But Turkey sees no harm in slaughtering
its own Kurdish citizens, and devastating their towns. Turkey claims
this is a just way of "fighting against terrorism."</p><p>Turkey can
shoot down a Russian plane in the blink of an eye, because supposedly no
one can violate Turkish airspace even for a few seconds -- or even if
no such violation takes place. But Turkey can violate the Greek
sovereign airspace countless times as a national sport or hobby whenever
it feels like it?</p><p>If Western authorities criticize Turkey for its policies, Turkey accuses them of "intervening in Turkey's internal affairs."</p><p>For
instance, when a group of journalists close to the movement of the
Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen were detained in a mass arrest operation
on December 14, 2014 in Turkey, the European Commission, in a <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-14-2640_en.htm">joint statement</a>, criticized the police raids and arrests of the media representatives.</p><p>EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini and the commissioner heading EU enlargement talks also <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30471996">said</a> the arrests went "against European values."</p><p>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COlGsxIZNaw">public speech</a>:</p><blockquote>"When
we take a step, someone in the European Union immediately comes up and
makes a statement. According to what do you make this statement? What do
you know?<p>"Those who have made this country wait at the gate
of the European Union for 50 years, do you ever know what this [our]
step is? The elements that threaten our national security -- be they
members of the press, or this or that -- will get the required response.
It is impossible for us to make them sovereign in this country.</p><p>"And
when we take such a step, we do not think about 'what will the European
Union say?' or 'will the EU accept us [as a member]?' We do not have
such concerns. We will pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Please
keep your intellect to yourselves."</p></blockquote><p>Erdogan
also said that the detentions were not an "issue" of press freedom and
claimed that the Fethullah Gulen movement was backed by Israel, which <a href="http://www.diken.com.tr/erdogan-pperasyonun-basin-ozgurluguyle-alakasi-yok-ab-kendi-isine-baksin/">Erdogan referred to</a> as "the country in the south that he [Gulen] loves."</p><p>So,
the European Union, of which Turkey is allegedly "striving" to be a
member, cannot even issue a critical statement concerning Turkey's
policies because that would "intervene in Turkish steps for national
security," but Turkey can send jihadist fighters, arms or funds into
Syria or Iraq and destroy lives and civilizations there?</p><p>Turkey
seems to believe it always has to be strong and a leading force in the
region. But if Kurds -- an indigenous, stateless and persecuted people
-- are to gain a single right anywhere in the world, does Turkey find
that unacceptable?</p><p>The entire history of Turkey as well as its
current policies demonstrate that Turkey believes Kurds are inferior to
Turks. Turkey does not even recognize the Kurds' right to be educated in
Kurdish, evidently in an attempt to separate them from their identity.</p><p>"The policy of Republican Turkey since its establishment in 1923," <a href="http://www.kurdishacademy.org/?q=node/129">wrote</a>
the author Amir Hassanpour, "is a typical case of what has been called
'linguicide' or 'linguistic genocide.' Forcing the Kurds to abandon
their language and become native speakers of Turkish is the primary goal
of the language policy."</p><p>Freedom and sovereignty are for Turks only. Kurds are just to be murdered or to be Turkey's servants. This has been the <a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5833/secular-turkey">state policy of Turkey</a> ever since it was founded in 1923.</p><p>"The
master in this country is the Turk," said Mahmut Esat Bozkurt, Turkey's
first Minister of Justice, in 1930. "Those who are not genuine Turks
can have only one right in the Turkish fatherland, and that is to be a
servant, to be a slave. We are in the most free country of the world.
They call this Turkey."</p><p><a href="http://www.aina.org/news/20160429140504.htm">http://www.aina.org/news/20160429140504.htm</a><br></p></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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