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TRY: TURKEY.
By John Feffer
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Name the country in the Middle East that is most anti-American. Egypt?
Palestine? Lebanon? Try again. Try instead our key NATO ally, the third
largest recipient of U.S. military aid, and one of the countries in
line for membership in the European Union.
According to a new poll from the Project on International Policy
Attitudes, 64% of Turks believe that the United States poses the
greatest threat to their own country's future. That compares to 48% for
the Palestinian territories, 39% for Egypt, and 38% for Lebanon. And
sentiment within Turkey has only gotten more anti-American over the
last five years.
There are three possible reasons for this seemingly bizarre disconnect
between Turkey's traditional alliance with the United States and its
high anti-Americanism. There's the easy answer, the wrong answer,
and the interesting answer.
Let's start with the easy answer: the Iraq War. The Turkish government
was not enthusiastic about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In fact,
the Islamist government in Ankara refused the U.S. request to use
Turkey as a staging area for the invasion. Subsequent events bore
out Turkey's fears. The Kurdish areas of the north grew stronger and
more independent as a result of Saddam's fall, and Kurdish separatists
were emboldened to launch more cross-border attacks into Turkey. Many
Turks believe that the United States is on the side of the Kurdish
independence movement. This is a radical turnaround from the 1990s,
when most Turks had nothing but positive things to say about the
Clinton administration (belatedly) coming to the aid of Bosnians and
Kosovo Albanians, both predominantly Moslem peoples. And Turks also
believe the CIA helped deliver the Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah
Ocalan into Turkey's hands in 1999. The Iraq invasion wiped out all
that good will.
So, big surprise, the United States is still suffering the consequences
of its ill-advised invasion of Iraq.
Now, let's look at the wrong answer: the Turks are becoming
increasingly fundamentalist in their Islamic beliefs and that's
why they hate Americans. In fact, as I point out in Postcard
from ... Istanbul , Turkish support for the moderate Islamist
Justice and Development Party (AKP) has nothing to do with Islamic
fundamentalism. The AKP supports European integration, market
liberalization, and key civil reforms. As a fascinating report from the
European Stability Initiative puts it, the AKP is a party of "Islamic
Calvinists." Party support comes from traditionally conservative
central Anatolia, where a new business class has emerged that has
replaced the trading ideology of the bazaar with the production
ideology of the bourgeoisie. These are global firms, like a jeans
manufacturer in the newly energized city of Kayseri that sends its
management teams to U.S. and UK discos to "read the minds of teenagers"
in order to compete with suppliers elsewhere in the world.
Since Islamic Calvinists should get along with American Calvinists
in the global marketplace, that can't be the answer. But here's the
interesting part.
According to the PIPA poll, Turks not only dislike U.S. policy, they
don't much like the American model either. Over 80% of Turks don't
like American ideas of democracy and ways of doing business. Nearly
70% dislike American culture (TV, movies, music).
Part of the answer, then, lies in the fact that Turkey is no
longer a bazaar and the United States is no longer a Calvinist
nation. We've been pushing our democratic ideas like an insistent
carpet salesman. Our way of doing business is far from Calvinist,
for it is no longer about prudence and restraint, but more about
speculation and conspicuous consumption. And while our Puritan
forebears would probably agree with Turkey's Islamists about the
need to rein in our more exhibitionist tendencies, the current
cultural czars in Hollywood can't help but offend the religiously
more conservative overseas just as they do at home.
So, perhaps it's not so bizarre that Turkey has become anti-American.
Perhaps the more relevant question is: what took them so long?
By John Feffer
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Name the country in the Middle East that is most anti-American. Egypt?
Palestine? Lebanon? Try again. Try instead our key NATO ally, the third
largest recipient of U.S. military aid, and one of the countries in
line for membership in the European Union.
According to a new poll from the Project on International Policy
Attitudes, 64% of Turks believe that the United States poses the
greatest threat to their own country's future. That compares to 48% for
the Palestinian territories, 39% for Egypt, and 38% for Lebanon. And
sentiment within Turkey has only gotten more anti-American over the
last five years.
There are three possible reasons for this seemingly bizarre disconnect
between Turkey's traditional alliance with the United States and its
high anti-Americanism. There's the easy answer, the wrong answer,
and the interesting answer.
Let's start with the easy answer: the Iraq War. The Turkish government
was not enthusiastic about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In fact,
the Islamist government in Ankara refused the U.S. request to use
Turkey as a staging area for the invasion. Subsequent events bore
out Turkey's fears. The Kurdish areas of the north grew stronger and
more independent as a result of Saddam's fall, and Kurdish separatists
were emboldened to launch more cross-border attacks into Turkey. Many
Turks believe that the United States is on the side of the Kurdish
independence movement. This is a radical turnaround from the 1990s,
when most Turks had nothing but positive things to say about the
Clinton administration (belatedly) coming to the aid of Bosnians and
Kosovo Albanians, both predominantly Moslem peoples. And Turks also
believe the CIA helped deliver the Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah
Ocalan into Turkey's hands in 1999. The Iraq invasion wiped out all
that good will.
So, big surprise, the United States is still suffering the consequences
of its ill-advised invasion of Iraq.
Now, let's look at the wrong answer: the Turks are becoming
increasingly fundamentalist in their Islamic beliefs and that's
why they hate Americans. In fact, as I point out in Postcard
from ... Istanbul , Turkish support for the moderate Islamist
Justice and Development Party (AKP) has nothing to do with Islamic
fundamentalism. The AKP supports European integration, market
liberalization, and key civil reforms. As a fascinating report from the
European Stability Initiative puts it, the AKP is a party of "Islamic
Calvinists." Party support comes from traditionally conservative
central Anatolia, where a new business class has emerged that has
replaced the trading ideology of the bazaar with the production
ideology of the bourgeoisie. These are global firms, like a jeans
manufacturer in the newly energized city of Kayseri that sends its
management teams to U.S. and UK discos to "read the minds of teenagers"
in order to compete with suppliers elsewhere in the world.
Since Islamic Calvinists should get along with American Calvinists
in the global marketplace, that can't be the answer. But here's the
interesting part.
According to the PIPA poll, Turks not only dislike U.S. policy, they
don't much like the American model either. Over 80% of Turks don't
like American ideas of democracy and ways of doing business. Nearly
70% dislike American culture (TV, movies, music).
Part of the answer, then, lies in the fact that Turkey is no
longer a bazaar and the United States is no longer a Calvinist
nation. We've been pushing our democratic ideas like an insistent
carpet salesman. Our way of doing business is far from Calvinist,
for it is no longer about prudence and restraint, but more about
speculation and conspicuous consumption. And while our Puritan
forebears would probably agree with Turkey's Islamists about the
need to rein in our more exhibitionist tendencies, the current
cultural czars in Hollywood can't help but offend the religiously
more conservative overseas just as they do at home.
So, perhaps it's not so bizarre that Turkey has become anti-American.
Perhaps the more relevant question is: what took them so long?
Turks continue to have some of the strongest anti-American sentiments in the world, according to a study by the Pew Global Attitudes Project conducted earlier this year. The findings, circulated by www.worldpublicopinion.org on September 5, show that more than 83 percent of Turks hold an unfavorable view of the United States, and 77 percent dislike Americans (see table). The Pew study also confirmed findings of the Bilgi University (see this column in the June 16 Armenian Reporter) according to which Turks view the United States, its long-time NATO ally, as the greatest threat to their security; 64 percent in the Pew study said the U.S. was a threat to Turkey, and 35 percent in the Bilgi study said the U.S. posed the biggest threat (more than any other source). Commentators see the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq as the main reason for the increase in anti-American attitudes. Turks are particularly unhappy with the strengthening of a de-facto Kurdish state in northern Iraq and simultaneous intensification of insurgent attacks in majority Kurdish southeastern Turkey. The intermittent clashes so far this year are believed to have killed 300 Kurds and about 100 Turkish security forces, the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation reported on September 5. Turkish dislikes of America are spilling into apolitical spheres as well. Thus, 81 percent “dislike American ideas about democracy,” 83 percent dislike “American ways of doing business,” 68 percent dislike “American music, movies and television,” and up to 51 percent say they do not admire the United States for its “technological and scientific advances.”
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