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Φανή Πεταλίδου
Ιδρύτρια της Πρωινής
΄Έτος Ίδρυσης 1977
ΑρχικήΟικονομίαTurkey's new face & the Greek considerations

Turkey’s new face & the Greek considerations

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turkey-flag.jpgby Ioannis Michaletos

The Turkish state over the last decade is characterized by the increasing penetration of the Islamic political influence at all levels and future estimates illuminate the prevalence of Islam in all spheres of Turkey's social and political stratums, in line with similar developments in the wider Middle East and the Muslim geopolitical space. In essence the grand scheme Kemal was able to pursue by replacing to an extent the Ottoman tradition with a Europeanized political class is being diluted. Moreover these phenomena will mark a change regarding the quality of confrontation with Greece as it develops from 1923 onwards. The religious connotation probably will be the beginning litmus point of developments.

The incumbent ruling Turkish party, AKP (Adalet Ve Kalkinma Partisi) dominates fully the domestic scene, despite numerous attempts by the secular forces as embodied by the Army to discredit Erdogan and its followers. 

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Various analyses by international institutions tend to present AKP as a sort of an equivalent Christian-Democratic party in Turkey, meaning a conservative force with a religious overtone in it. That would mean that AKP is just another moderate party albeit of a distinct Turkish flavor.

In reality though, the Islamic penetration has accelerated since 2002 and at the same time Ankara becomes heavily involved in the culminations regarding Middle Eastern future, thus bonding its interests with those of its neighboring Muslim states. 

Turkey is moving towards the East by molding its own distinct political character of Turkish & Neo-Ottoman type in order to balance the widespread cleavages within its society and in parallel to ripe any geopolitical advantages that this entails in the Middle East, by siding with the Islamic movement which is extremely well-rooted and influential in all societies of the region. 

In simple terms the Turkish mutation is a part of a large -scale plan that seeks to benefit in all sectors and represents an event of truly historical proportions. 

The power of the religious organizations in Turkey is the backbone of Erdogan's popular front and their finances and membership are difficult to calculate due to the invisibility that dominates their transactions. Already Erdogan has achieved through multiple manners to construct what the Italian political philosopher Gramsi has described as "Political Hegemony". That is the domination of a political ideology in a society through the use of the civil society, art, universities, religion and all other facets of mass social organization. 

In general terms there is no chance of Erdogan being kicked out of power by the military establishment because that will render Turkey into a battlefield perhaps even a civil war between Islamists and secularists in parallel with the Kurdish uprising. In economic terms the empowerment of the Middle Eastern capitalists and their dynamic presence in Istanbul prohibits any chances of Turkey turning against Islam and it is more than certain that the secularist apparatus will gradually merge and converge with the AKP followers after accepting that the future of Turkey lies more in the East rather than the West. The final stage would be the establishment of a Turkish-Islamic hierarchy and regime.

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The challenges for Greece

Greece is between a rock and a hard place as far as any options it has between Turkish Islamists and secularists. The Turkish foreign policy is strictly aimed at devaluing the role of Athens, especially as far as it concerns Cyprus and the Aegean. Accordingly any analysis that is being made for the relations of the two countries should stake the above as an axiom.

The Islamization of Turkey provides another parameter in the opposition between the two states, and that is the influence that Turkey will exercise in the Balkan Muslim communities, most of them dating their presence since the Ottoman conquest of the 16th and 17th century.   

Already Ankara has taken an active role in presenting its clout in FYROM and Kosovo through the local Turkish minorities and since 2006 an agreement between FYROM and Turkey exists regarding the protection of the Ottoman era artifacts and public monuments. This of course is just a detail that reveals on the multilayer of grounds Turkey proceeds into its 21st century Balkan policy. 

It should not be forgotten that the great opposition in Greece two years ago against a new elementary textbook in history that idolized Turkish occupation, was the product of a bilateral agreement between the two countries in 2000. In 2006 the IWPR institute published a report where it described that Turkey "exports" fundamentalist students to religious seminars in Bulgaria, therefore getting rid of radical youth in its territory whilst assuming a greater role in the Muslim communities of the Balkans. The same can be said for Bosnia and Albania two other countries where Turkey invests heavily for influence through the religious factor. 

The recent entrance of Bulgaria to the EU includes the presence of approximately 1 million Muslims that have become dependent on Turkey and in general a "Green traverse" or Islamic axis has already being laid between Istanbul and Banja Luka with a strong Turkish presence.

The final domination of the Islamists in Turkey will inevitably push the country into expanding its reach in the Balkans and that will ultimately clash with Greek interests. Moreover the mass illegal immigration movement from Eastern Muslim societies to Europe through Greece , already causes frictions and it is a major security issue that benefits Turkey up-to-date but it will finally turn European Union against the country as one abetting Muslim immigration as a tool of foreign policy. 

If such a case occurs, Ankara will be in the position of seeking the assistance of the Muslim world and will become the spear of the East towards the West, a traditional role the Turkish nation has reserved for itself for the past millennia, bar the period 1923-begining of the 21st Century. 

Turkey already cooperates strongly with Syria and Iran due to the Kurdish guerilla warfare that is being indirectly supported by the USA and Israel for their own geopolitical considerations. Moreover the Islamic Conference repeatedly takes the side of Turkey in all of its petitions against Greece, a clear sign that shows that the Islamic East is uniting and overcomes its historical divisions. 

The future cataclysmic changes that will occur in the Middle East as well as in the region between Afghanistan and Pakistan will affect mostly negatively the Turkish strategy and this is a reason of major concern for Greece that should be prepared for a renewed Turkish aggression in all fronts. 

It is more than certain that Turkish Islamic governance will be a painstaking mutation that will affect Greece as well and all other neighboring nations. The final stage of that process may well be the termination of long-standing geopolitical realities as they were arranged back in the early 20th century. 

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