Crisis in Israel-Turkey Relations?
Jamestown analysts explore the recent rift between Israel and Turkey following Israeli military action in Gaza.
Tag: ISIS
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Ambassador Jeffrey Visits Sakarya Memorial
Amb. Jeffrey stands in front of the memorial statue at the Sakarya Zafer Anıtı Ambassador Jeffrey Visits Sakarya Memorial
On January 17, Ambassador James Jeffrey visited the memorials to the great battle of Sakarya, west of Ankara. This epic battle, fought for 21 days in August and September 1921 along a 100 kilometer front near the Sakarya River, marked the turning point in the Turkish War of Independence and prevented the Greek army from advancing on the new Turkish capital of Ankara. The Ambassador first visited the Karargah Müzesi in Alagöz, the house that Atatürk chose for his field headquarters during the battle. There, he wrote in the guest book: “The victory of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk not only gave birth to our ally, modern Turkey, but served as an inspiration for all who yearn for independence and sovereignty.”
Later, Ambassador Jeffrey visited the Sakarya Zafer Anıtı ve Müzesi in Polatlı; and the Duatepe Şehitlik Anıtı, the beautiful monument on the top of the first hill to be retaken by counterattacking Turkish troops. The Ambassador was guided on his tour and provided an excellent account of the battle by Colonel Abdulkadir Koc and Major Erkan Oğulganmış, both of the Turkish Armed Forces Artillery and Missile School in Polatlı.
Visiting Fulbright Professor George Gawrych, who is doing research for a book on Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s transition from general to statesman during the Turkish War of Independence, also accompanied Ambassador Jeffrey on the visit.
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Yunus Emre… The visit to a heart is best of all…
Bircan Unver: Yunus Emre…
The visit to a heart is best of all…
by Emily ALP
Whether you were an avid reader of Yunus Emre or someone who vaguely knew his name, Monday night’s celebration (October 27, 2008) of his work offered attendees a deeper sense of his literary genius and social influence. More than 170 people gathered in a conference room at Columbia University’s International Affairs Building, NYC, to hear renowned professor Talat Halman discuss Yunus Emre’s life, words and socio-political significance in late 13th and early 14th centuries.
The program entitled Yunus Emre: Contemporary of Rumi was presented by the Light Millennium in collaboration with Columbia University’s Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures department and Middle East Institute, and produced by Bircan Ünver and Etem Erol.
Many people—including Swedish Ambassador, Ulf Hjertonsson and his wife Karin, as well as Turkish Consulate Mehmet Samsar and his wife Furuza—were likely drawn by Yunus Emre’s connection to famed poet Rumi. However, Halman soon explained that Rumi himself was impressed by Emre and even critiqued by him.
Professor Halman, the world’s principal scholar and translator of Emre’s work, took audience members on a contextual journey through the mystical poet’s relationship with Rumi, society and the divine. He spoke of key differences between Emre and Rumi, including Emre’s offering of poems to the simple people as opposed to just intellectuals of the time. And he went so far as to describe Emre as “beyond Rumi.”
“Emre – poet, traveling with his instrument—offered his poems to the simple people,” Halman explained.
While Rumi was a Persian poet writing works for intellectuals of the region, Emre was a mystical, nomadic presence springing from Anatolia herself—he connected readily to the villagers therein.
Emre’s messages were eloquent and easy to understand, as was evident in many of the quotes Halman pulled and wove into his engaging lecture. The feelings, imagery and suggestions took palpable form as he spoke Emre’s words. And Ismail Hakki Cimen played the ney to help channel the total feeling.
“I am the one who gave his heart to love and turned into a wild duck of passion,” Halman translated.
Yunus Emre is said to have critiqued Rumi’s words to his face, saying entire stanzas of his poetry could have been condensed into an easy-to-understand couplet. Halman also explained Rumi’s open admiration of Emre and even an admission that he, himself, strove to achieve what Emre had spiritually, but probably never would.
“Whenever I arrive at a new spiritual height, there I find footsteps of a mystic I shall never surpass,” Halman said quoting what many believe were Rumi’s words.
The audience sat at attention, enthralled and no doubt learning more than they ever knew about Yunus Emre. As a man who translated the first book of Emre’s words into English, and more thereafter, Halman proved not only to be a prominent scholar but also a man who is deeply in love with everything that Emre was and stood for. The professor was eager to share the current relevance of Emre’s message, too.
The famed saying of the 60s and 70s “make love, not war,” says Halman, was uttered by Emre almost 600 years before when he said “I’m not here on earth for strife; love is the mission of my life!”
People around the world associate Islam with violence and strife, Halman said. Yet, several times he raised the point to a captive audience that if Emre’s version of Islam were practiced and spread, the world would be a peaceful place.
This event, put on by Light Millennium—in collaboration with Columbia University—served as an appropriate reminder that it is a human impulse to shut people out using religion but a divine aspiration to include them no matter what their faith or other differences may be. Indeed, Emre believed that spiritual perfection could be found when all religions combine.
Yunus Emre stood fast against fundamentalism and rigidity as practices in the Islamic faith and in general society, according to Halman. He promoted the ideal of expansion beyond the self through love and service to others. He was indeed a mystic as well as a point of contrast for Europeans wallowing in the dark ages as well as over-zealous enforcers of the Islamic faith throughout his native land of Anatolia and beyond.
“Pharisee, make the holy pilgrimage if need be a hundred times—but if you ask me, the visit to a heart is best of all,” Halman quoted.
What people may not know is that Halman was only released from the hospital in Ankara less than a week before he flew in to New York City on Friday, October 24th. Due to his health, this celebration had been postponed, back in April. Yet he was determined to realize his commitment to spreading the word about Yunus Emre.
Toward the end of his presentation, Halman grew faint. Having stood before the audience more than an hour sharing poetry and all of his beloved drops of knowledge about Emre, the professor nearly fell down with exhaustion and was helped to take a seat. A few minutes went by as he sat with a smile. Slightly revived, he insisted on finishing the presentation with a few last couplets. His last words for the audience being:
“Let us all be friends for once. Let us make life easy for us. The earth is left to no one …”
Ismail Hakki Cimen introduced a gentle sound with the ney. His expertise in traditional Ottoman Sufi traditional music had him filling the room with otherworldly sound. With the messages and mystical life of Yunus Emre in mind, the audience enjoyed the second half of the celebration—music by Cimen and other renowned musicians.
Taoufiq Ben Amor, Arabic professor at Columbia University, percussionist and oud player, joined Cimen in providing the nights musical renditions of Emre’s poetry. The words, sung by Ahmet Erdogdular, were all an effort to capture love and devotion and oneness as well as the connection between humans and God that renders them one in the same.
Having participated in concerts as a lead singer while still a teenager, Erdogdular clearly mastered the intricate intonations and lulls required to convey the musical message amidst the words—the performance was tear jerking in perfection.
To close the night of mysticism and song, Persian composer and vocalist, Amir Vahab joined Aslihan Calisan in sharing his composition, vocals and percussion.
Finally, what would it all mean without a taste of the foods from Anatolia herself and all who have moved about her for hundreds of years? The crowd enjoyed salad, pilav, pita and hummus courtesy of Sip Sak Turkish restaurant, as well as baklava provided by Gulluoglu.
The event would not have been possible without the generous donation of time, effort, skills, and space by Columbia, NYU and Light Millennium staff and volunteers.
They’re names follow (in alphabetic order):
Volunteers:
Emily Alp, Still Photography, and Media Coverage
Gokce Alp, Videography
Josh Amata, Volunteer
Merve Arabaci, Registration, Reception
Humeyra Kocak, Host, Digital Photography
Heather Hwalet, Registration
Aysen Terzi, Reception
Sera Onalan, Registration
Asik Mehmet Ali, Reception
Media:
Selcuk Acar, Star Gazete, Turkish Journal
Ozlem Sakar, Anatolian News Agency
Yeni Ufuklar and Crew, TRT International
Razi Canikligil, Hurriyet USASpecial Thanks To:
Leyla Amzi
Astrid Benedek
Prof. Rym Bettaieb of Columbia University
Defne Nayman, MD.,
The Columbia Emergency TeamThis program was a true celebration of Yunus Emre, a model of his words:
“Let us all be friends for once. Let us make life easy for us. The earth is left to no one …”Special update for the attendees of the program and anyone concerned about Professor Halman:
Prof. Halman was taken to the emergency room based on the strong suggestions by his wife Seniha Halman, his editor Dr. Jayne Warner, Turkish Consulate Mehmet Samsar and Prof. Etem Erol, who all accompanied to him. Further, the producers of the program visited him at the hospital after the end of the program. He was feeling a lot better and even making some jokes. He was discharged from the hospital by midnight after all test results came back okay. Mrs. Halman explained on the phone to Bircan Unver on October 28, 2008 that Prof. Halman was “de-hydrated” during his flight, which was the caused of his health problem during his presentation.Bircan Unver!s choice..
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Worldview: Turkey’s rising role: Diplomacy
Surrounded by conflicts, it has become more active. That could benefit the U.S.
ANKARA, Turkey – Americans who explore the wonders of Istanbul rarely visit Turkey’s capital, deep in the plains of Anatolia. It is a city of nondescript high-rises, government offices, and new shopping centers that reflect Turkey’s growing prosperity.Ankara is known mainly for two things: a stunning museum that highlights Turkey’s ancient Anatolian past, and the vast hilltop mausoleum of Ataturk, Turkey’s founder, whose stern face is visible on huge banners throughout the city.But Ankara is becoming known for something else that’s of great strategic interest to Americans: an active foreign policy that may help resolve conflicts in critical regions where the United States has faltered. That includes the troubled Caucasus region, where Russia just warred with Georgia, and the Middle East.
“If you list the key issues which Turkey and the U.S. pursue, you’d be amazed by how many parallels there are,” Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gul, told a small group of visiting U.S. journalists and think-tank experts in an interview in his office this week.
Indeed, almost every foreign crisis on the American agenda is also a concern for Gul. Turkey sits at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, bordering not only the European Union, but also Georgia, Iraq, Iran and Syria. It has been adversely affected by growing Mideast chaos since the Iraq war.
Turkey also sits at an energy crossroads. Efforts to build new oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia and the Caucasus – pipelines that will circumvent Russia and make Europe less dependent on it – all rely on Turkey. A crucial pipeline from Azerbaijan through Georgia uses the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Instability in its environs has prompted Turkey to become more active in efforts at conflict resolution. “In regional foreign policy, we had numerous problems with our neighbors,” Gul said. “They must be resolved, or there cannot be peace.”
Turkey’s emphasis has been, for the most part, on soft power and diplomacy. It is the only country with fair to good relations with every country in neighboring regions: close ties to Israel as well as to Arab states; good relations with Iran and carefully managed relations with Russia; and close ties to Georgia.
Two of Turkey’s many mediation efforts could have a positive impact on key concerns of the United States. First is Turkey’s recent overture to Armenia. The two nations have deep disagreements over how one million Armenians were killed in the early 20th century; Armenians call it genocide, while Turkey insists it was the result of warfare.
In September, Gul became the first Turkish president in history to visit Armenia. Gul had sent congratulations to Serge Sargsyan upon his election as Armenia’s president, and Gul in turn was invited to attend a soccer match between the Turkish and Armenian teams in Yerevan. Both leaders faced strong domestic opposition to the visit.
“Of course, I didn’t just go to watch soccer,” Gul said. “The major aim was to establish a climate in which we can operate from now on.”
The goal is to work toward normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey and opening their border. Turkey also may be able to mediate the poisonous split between Armenia and a third Caucasus country, Azerbaijan; Armenia now occupies a large chunk of Azeri territory.
Progress on resolving these conflicts could have a positive spillover for the Russia-Georgia standoff and prospects for new pipelines. “Solving any [Caucasus] problem would affect us all positively,” Gul said. Turkey’s (and Armenia’s) efforts are a brave try.
A second example is Turkey’s mediation of peace talks between Syria and Israel. “We’ve worked hard to bring peace in the region,” Gul said. “Recently, that work became more visible.”
At a time when the United States preferred to isolate Syria, Turkey worked to get Syria and Israel back to the table (and kept Washington informed of the effort). Four rounds of private talks have taken place; they are now on hold as Israel forms a new government.
A Syria-Israel peace would end the current alliance between Syria and Iran and undercut Hezbollah, forcing Tehran to rethink its policies in the region. Such an outcome could also help resurrect the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
The bottom line: The next U.S. president should encourage Turkey’s mediation and take a cue from its soft-power efforts. Turkey’s diplomacy has opened up new possibilities for its American ally.
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Imagining the Turkish House – Collective Visions of Home
From: Carel Bertram <carel@california.com>
List Editor: Mark Stein <stein@MUHLENBERG.EDU>
Editor’s Subject: H-TURK: New book [C Bertram]
Author’s Subject: H-TURK: New book [C Bertram]
Date Written: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:19:52 -0400
Date Posted: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:19:52 -0400Dear Colleagues, My book on the Turkish House has just been published by UT press: Imagining the Turkish House Collective Visions of Home By Carel Bertram The UT site gives a nice description.... and a 33% discount (thus: $16.95 for the paper back.) DESCRIPTION TABLE OF CONTENTS AND FULL INTRODUCTION UT Press was very generous in its image allowance, there are over 80 images, including my own 2 page map of Istanbul in 1918, linked to Peyami Safa's heroine, Neriman, in Fatih-Harbiye. Dr. Carel Bertram San Francisco State University -
Turkey Crisis Over, For Now
Interviewee: Steven A. Cook, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern StudiesInterviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting EditorJuly 30, 2008
On July 30, Turkey’s Constitutional Court decided not to ban the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Critics of the party had claimed that a move to abolish a ban on headscarves at Turkish universities violated the country’s secularist constitution. Steven A. Cook, CFR’s leading expert on Turkey, says that the narrow decision marks a reprieve for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Cook adds, however, that the case sends a clear warning to the party. If the party regards the Court’s decision as a victory, Cook says, Turkey may find itself “back in the same place sometime in the not so distant future.”
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was under threat of being banned for anti-secular activities, but the Constitutional Court has just ruled narrowly not to ban the party, but only to deprive it of state financing. Can you explain what happened?
Very briefly, what’s happened is the state prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, petitioned the Constitutional Court to close the ruling Justice and Development Party on the basis that the Justice and Development Party was a center of anti-secular activity. The Turkish Republic is officially a secular republic and any expression of religion in the public sphere is something that is vigorously resisted by a variety of state agencies including the state prosecutor and the military.
The Court actually voted against the Justice and Development Party, 6 to 5, but a seven-vote majority was needed to actually ban the party. The chief judge said the party would be deprived of its state financing for a year, and said this was a “serious warning” to the party. What does all this mean?
This is a great question. Clearly the secularists will be disappointed that the party was not banned, but they are likely to take some comfort in the fact that the AKP was warned. They will also point to the fact that 6 of 11 justices voted against the party, arguing that the party remains a threat to Turkey’s secular order. The situation will likely stabilize if Justice and Development returns to the prudent way it governed from 2002-2007. The case was inherently anti-democratic, but AKP certainly made a number of important mistakes along the way. If, however, the party regards this as victory and does not heed the chief justice’s warning, we may find ourselves back in the same place sometime in the not so distant future.
Was there one particular issue that touched this off?
It’s clear from reading the state prosecutor’s indictment, which runs almost two-hundred pages, that his office had been collecting evidence against the Justice and Development Party since it first came to power in late 2002. But the real trigger for the case, which was filed with the Constitutional Court in March, was legislation that was passed in the Grand National Assembly last year lifting the ban on hijab, or headscarves, in publicly funded universities. Since the 1980 coup d’état and the Constitution of 1983, women were not permitted to wear hijab in publicly funded universities. The Justice and Development Party, along with the Nationalist Movement Party, collaborated on legislation that changed the higher education law allowing women to wear the hijab at publicly funded universities. This was widely regarded to be the trigger that let the state prosecutor file his case in March.
Was this a burning issue for Turkish women, or for just a small number? What actually happened? Did women immediately start wearing the hijab in the university?
Well this is part of an ongoing culture war that plays itself out over and over again in Turkey between arch-secularists, who in the context of Turkish politics regard the hijab as a symbol of reactionary-ism or radicalization and see this as the first step for building a theocratic state in Turkey. Those on the other side of the issue, the Justice and Development Party constituencies of pious Muslims, saw this really as an issue of self-expression and freedom of expression and that women should be able to wear whatever they’d like at public universities. If that’s hijab, that’s fine. If it is midriff, you know, showing one’s belly button—that should be okay as well. So they cast it as an issue of freedom of expression. As a result it garnered actually quite wide support in Turkish society for the lifting of this ban. Now the question being are there more women wearing headscarves now is a matter of debate in Turkey. One study, done by a very prominent Turkish think tank, demonstrated that it’s not that more women are wearing head scarves now since the Justice and Development Party came to power, it’s just that women who wear the headscarf are showing up in places where they had never been found before, such as in places where only the secular elite were found. Now more pious women are showing up as well in chic restaurants in Istanbul, malls, and so on and so forth. So it seems to people that there are more women wearing headscarves than there were before.
Are there any polls on this—what do women say about this?
There has been poll after poll after poll of Turks asking the question whether they want to live under Islamic law. It is a very, very small number that actually do. The Justice and Development Party was very shrewd in casting this as a freedom of expression issue.
So people can wear tank-tops to the universities?
Sure, no problem with that. When we talk about Turkish secularism it’s almost a misnomer. It’s not the secularism that we enjoy here in the United States, where people can wear whatever religious garb they want. In Turkey, the authorities are directly involved in controlling religion. The state is directly involved in engaging surveillance of the public sphere to ensure that religion doesn’t enter the public sphere. And that’s the difference. It’s state control of religion to enforce this principle that religion shouldn’t enter the public sphere.
The headscarf law has already been overturned?
Right. The Constitutional Court a number of weeks ago overturned the lifting of the ban on the headscarf, which some took as an indication of the direction of where the court was leaning when it came to the closure of the Justice and Development Party.
Explain to me why the Justice and Development Party pushed on that particular law when it must have known it would cause a stir among the secularists that had been running the country for all those years. What prompted this? Were they just arrogant? Sometimes when you win an election you think you have a mandate to initiate change.
Well, I think there are two things going on. It’s important to recognize that during their first term in office they did not push on this issue. They won 47 percent of the vote and believed that they had a mandate to push this issue as a pay-off to their core constituency, which wants to see the ban on the headscarf lifted. It’s one of those hot-button issues. The other thing is this is legislation that originated in the Nationalist Movement Party—the conservative, right-wing, ultra-nationalist party, to the right politically of the Justice and Development Party—which shares some constituencies. So in an effort to outmaneuver the Justice and Development Party politically and try to pull in some of the Justice and Development Party’s core constituencies, the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, went ahead with this legislation.
It was instigated by the MHP?
It was instigated by the MHP, but the Justice and Development Party immediately signed on because they couldn’t be seen as directly opposing something that its core constituency wanted. So, it was really a political game, and the Justice and Development Party, as shrewd as it has been, was sort of caught off-guard.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has been a very popular Prime Minister. He’s been respected by the Americans and other Western countries. Is that correct?
Well, he was certainly popular in the summer elections last year. The party won 47 percent of the vote, which is unprecedented in Turkish politics. He is someone who has presided over democratization, economic development, and brought real changes in Turkey. I would have made the argument a year ago that Turkey’s coming into its own, politically, diplomatically, economically, playing a bigger and more constructive role in the Middle East and the Caucasus and Central Asia and so on and so forth. There were significant problems between the United States and Turkey in previous years, primarily over the Iraq war and the Turkish perception that the war in Iraq had a negative effect on Turkey’s national security. But that did not mean that Erdogan was not successful in forging a good personal relationship with President Bush, that the United States and Turkey sought to improve their relations, and relations have been put back on track in the last eight or nine months. Erdogan has demonstrated leadership and been constructive in European circles and Turkey’s been well received throughout Europe as well. And in fact, the party has bought Turkey closer to European Union membership than any previous Turkish government.