From Ataturk to What-A-Jerk: The Ottoman Not-A-Man

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Author’s Note: On August 5, 2024, at 4:42 pm Israel time, my blog “A (Maybe) Valediction” was published in The Times of Israel. In it, I reported, among other things, that I had finished reading Anna Karenina, was planning to read War and Peace, but was concerned that I would be interrupted by a threatened Iranian missile attack. I pointed out that such an attack was unwarranted and unwise, and urged the Ayatollah to reconsider.

On August 7, I received an inquiry from something called the Revolutionary Farsi Translation Service, asking me to define the words “valediction,” “detritus,” and “destruction of oil refineries and power grid.”

Today, August 8, the Times of Israel reported that the Ayatollah is reconsidering his plan to attack Israel.

You’re welcome.

(I believe that the technical term for this is back-channel diplomacy; I will make myself available if the US State Department is looking for pointers.)

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Another Author’s Note: I apologize in advance for this blog. I am not sure whether or not it is up to my usual standard, whatever that is, but I know that it proceeds from a different place. One of the great columnists and journalists, and my personal favorite, Jimmy Breslin, wrote that “Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers.” My own writing emanates from a mixture of confusion and amusement, which is probably why my writing is not as good, as passionate, or as memorable as Jimmy Breslin’s. But Erdogan’s labeling of MK Katz and PM Netanyahu as Nazis, coupled with his announced intention of signing on to the ICJ proceeding against Israel, enraged me. Accordingly, I wrote this in a state of barely controlled fury. So, to the extent necessary, I apologize.

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Final Author’s Note: In deference to TOI policy and the tender sensibilities of some of my readers (you know who you are), I went back and took out all the bad words engendered by my rage. I would appreciate it if you would reinsert them as appropriate in conjunction with all mentions of Erdogan. If you need any guidance, most of them have to do with malodorous parts of the human anatomy, but there were a few scatological, obscene, vituperative, and abusive locutions scattered around. Be creative.

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And now to today’s blog.

I used to think that the Ottoman Empire was a chain of furniture stores specializing in upholstered footstools, sort of like Waterbed City or Mattress Kingdom.

I was wrong.

Actually, the Ottoman Empire was quite a big deal for quite a long time, lasting from 1299 until the end of World War I. An imperial state that controlled vast amounts of land from Southwestern Europe to the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, and parts of North Africa, it reached its height of power from 1520-1566 under Suleiman the Magnificent. It battled the Crusaders and the allied Christian armies, even threatening Venice and Hungary. It ruled Palestine for about 400 years, from 1516-1918, ending with the Battle of Megiddo. (From 1918-1948, the land was administered by England. If you are searching for a period when it was ruled or governed by “Palestinians,” you are plumb out of luck.)

In 1924, what we know as the Republic of Turkey was formed under the dynamic leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who transformed what remained of the Turkic Ottoman entity into a republican and secular state, based on principles of democracy and affording universal suffrage.

Today, Turkey is a strategically located member of NATO with a fascinating history. But, regrettably, it is currently ruled by a leader who is both a moron, a misogynist, and a megalomaniac, as well as a religious fanatic and an antisemite. These are really a crappy combination of characteristics in a leader.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Anagram: Deny A Creep One Party) is a tyrant who has systematically trashed the modern Turkish secular tradition founded by Kemal Ataturk, transforming a relatively enlightened, liberal state into a stagnant backwater with a failed economy as a result of his blind pursuit of an Islamist dream of a restored Caliphate.

From Ataturk to What-A-Jerk in one hundred years. What a tragedy!

As might be expected from an unredeemed Islamist, Erdogan hates Israel. Today he sought permission for Turkey to join as a plaintiff in the International Court of Justice proceeding against Israel so he can obtain a better platform for his charges against Israel of genocide, apartheid, and unlawful occupation.

It is hard to describe how offensive and ludicrous this is, coming from this man and this country.

He is guilty of every single crime he attributes to Israel.

Armenian Genocide.

Turkey committed genocide against the Armenians. Unlike the Germans, however, who have acknowledged and apologized for their genocide, the Turks deny that any genocide occurred, and threaten and prosecute anyone who has the effrontery to tell the truth about it. Erdogan continues to justify and defend the genocidal actions.

The facts are that the Turkish genocide ended more than two thousand years of Armenian civilization in Asia Minor. By eliminating the Armenians, Assyrian/Syriac and Greek Christians by mass slaughter and expulsion, the Turks achieved their goal: a relatively homogeneous ethnonationalist Turkish State. Erdogan insists to this day that the deportations were legitimate. He attacks and prosecutes anyone identifying it as genocide. Nevertheless, despite his vociferous opposition, more than 34 countries have properly recognized the events as genocide.

The facts are not in dispute. Over a million Armenians were forced to participate in death marches to the Syrian Desert. They were deprived of food and water, beaten, raped, and occasionally massacred. Those who reached the desert were placed in concentration camps. In 1916, more massacres were ordered, leaving only about 200,000 of the deportees alive. Additionally, approximately 200,000 Armenian women and children were forcibly converted and distributed among Muslim households, some as slaves.

Erdogan accuses Israel of genocide. So, in addition to his manifest failures and deficiencies in so many other areas, Erdogan is the consummate hypocrite on this subject, seeing it where it does not exist and denying it in his own history.

War of Annihilation Against the Kurds

Since Erdogan took office in 2003, all political opposition has gradually been suppressed. He has taken over the media and interfered with the judiciary. Civil liberties have been curtailed. The Kurds, constituting the largest ethnic minority in Turkey, have borne the brunt of the oppression. Democratically elected mayors in their cities have been arbitrarily and summarily replaced by the government. Turkey has violently opposed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which struggles for Kurdish rights, up to and including independence. Kurdish political parties are routinely suppressed and declared illegal. By labeling them terrorists, Erdogan also criminalizes Kurdish leaders.

Approximately 50,000 fatalities have resulted from the Turkish-Kurdish conflict.

Thus, Turkey, which accuses democratic Israel of apartheid against its Arab population that enjoys full civil rights, is engaged in a war of annihilation against the Kurds, who seek self-rule over lands they have inhabited for thousands of years. Erdogan loudly supports the specious cause of the Palestinians, who seek self-rule over someone else’s land.

And Erdogan, this villainous wretch, has the temerity to accuse Israel of apartheid and genocide.

Northern Cyprus.

In 1974, Turkey invaded the Republic of Cyprus, ostensibly to protect the ethnic Turkish minority there and prevent an alliance with Greece. Since then, Turkey has occupied Northern Cyprus, comprising approximately 36% of the island, by force and through the presence of an armed garrison. It has unilaterally declared the occupied territory as independent, in the face of international disapproval and United Nations resolutions declaring the occupation illegal. No country other than the Republic of Turkey has officially recognized Northern Cyprus as a sovereign state. The United Nations considers it a territory of the Republic of Cyprus under Turkish occupation.

And yet Erdogan, this hollow shell of a human being, labels Israel, which voluntarily withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and governs the disputed lands in Judea and Samaria in accordance with international law and existing treaties, an occupier, while he himself presently maintains a hostile occupation of a sovereign nation in the face of universal international condemnation.

Question: How do you spell hypocrite in Turkish? Answer: E-R-D-O-G-A-N.

Internal Repression–War on Journalists.

Turkey jails more political opponents and journalists than almost any other country, and certainly more than any other NATO member. It has abandoned any pretense of being an open, liberal society and has become repressive and fascist under Erdogan. Hundreds of journalists have been imprisoned for expressing opposition to Erdogan’s policies. Political opponents are incarcerated for such crimes as “insulting” Erdogan.

Yet Erdogan suggests that Netanyahu is a dictator and calls Israel’s ministers Nazis.

In short, Erdogan’s Turkey embodies every crime of which it unjustly accuses Israel. Until he is no longer head of state, Turkey should be suspended from NATO and he should be shunned by decent people everywhere.

A turkey is a flightless bird. An Erdogan is a soulless man.

Take a deep breath. The rant is over.