Erdogan’s map of madness – by Dr Abbas Zaidi
In 2009, when Erdogan stormed out of a meeting in protest against Israel’s aggression in Gaza, Muslims in general were overjoyed claiming that he had crushed Israel:
He was rapturously received by his Turkish supporters when he returned victorious from Davos:
In the rest of the Muslim world, Erdogan was a hero—indeed the hero. He was invited to the Arab League summit following his protest in Davos. He was invited by Egypt and many Muslim countries as a special victor-guest:
Many in the Muslim world claimed that they had finally found an Islamic David who had killed the Israeli Goliath in the Swiss Alps and would soon bury it in the deep sea. Below are some sample comments showcasing Muslim victory hysteria:
https://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=qHZusFgq3QU&lc=6__CXqeK6mtrpt2zhh0iTD2asna8o7juF9g8lfoiBlo
Erdogan himself believed that he was a hero who could perform every miracle starting with the crushing of Israel. He fell prey to not just to his own lies (that he was an almighty hero), but of the Muslims in generals who as a habit wait for a superhero who will change the world for them and fight their various wars:
http://www.newslinemagazine.com/2010/10/waiting-for-ayatollah-godot/
Ironically, no one, Erdogan included, realised that the incident in Davos actually—physically—took place on a stage. Moreover, it was a televised performance. Like a character from the world of Baudrillard, Erdogan thought the stage was the world itself, the actual world, and the teleplay was the real battlefield. Erdogan’s Davos performance was a simulation of war which he mistook for real confirming Baudrillard’s claim:
These scenes are the illustration of a power which, reaching its extreme point, no longer knows what to do with itself – a power henceforth without aim, without purpose, without a plausible enemy, and in total impunity. It is only capable of inflicting gratuitous humiliation and, as one knows, violence inflicted on others is after all only an expression of the violence inflicted on oneself. It only manages to humiliate itself, degrade itself and go back on its own word in a sort of unremitting perversity.The ignominy, the vileness is the ultimate symptom of a power that no longer knows what to do with itself.
Baudrillard, Jean. “War Porn.” Journal of Visual Culture. Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 86-88, 2006.
The Americans and their Western allies including Israel must have been laughing in their sleeves over how they stage-managed Erdogan because he was going to play their game. However, the man, Erdogan, himself was in no doubt about himself. He began his post-Davos heroics at home. He began dismantling the secure foundations of Turkey laid by Kemal Ataturk. His handiwork in destroying Turkey’s democratic spirit was neatly summarised by The Jakarta Post thus:
[Erdogan] has imprisoned more journalists than China and Iran combined; empowered special courts to arrest citizens on suspicion of terrorism without evidence or the right to a hearing; sentenced two students to eight years in prison for holding a sign at a rally demanding “free education”; and has seen more than 20,000 complaints filed against it in the European Court of Human Rights since 2008.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/09/01/the-lonely-man-middle-east.html#sthash.ypW2Uiwf.dpuf
Then, Erdogan turned to his neighbourhood starting with Iran. He threatened Iran with dire consequences for ‘interfering’ in the Middle East:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/05/turkey-iran-erdogan-idUSL6N0X202W20150405
He thought he was being heroic, but it was after Obama spoke to him that he threatened Iran:
His next stop was not only to bring down President Asad’s government, but to destroy Syria as a state too:
http://www.silviacattori.net/article3410.html
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940414001345
http://newleftreview.org/II/76/cihan-tugal-democratic-janissaries
In his obsession to destroy Syria, Erdogan supported all the terrorist-Takfiris including the Daish/IS. He thought he was a god and could anything he wanted. We can forget about his claim that the Turks were the first to reach the moon:
http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/ottomans-were-the-first-to-reach-the-moon-says-turkish-president/
However, what we cannot forget or ignore is the new Turkish map he came up with:
No one took him to task for such stupid ideas because he had been playing the game the likes of the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. These countries fed his ego knowing that he is the surest bet to create chaos in the designated Muslim regions. But in his insanity to become the overlord of the Muslim world, Erdogan forgot a lesson which even a sophomore in history would never forget: the mischief you create can come back to you. And now the Daish/IS has struck Suruc killing 30 Turks:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33593615
Turkey is in for a long karmic reprisal which Erdogan’s map of madness has created. But he will not learn any lesson. He will create more mischief and go down in history in the tradition of fascists like General Zia and Saudi Kings.