What's up with Turkey?

Where to start? Some history, me thinks.

The Turkic peoples that populate modern Turkey once hailed from as far afield as the Mongolian Step before sweeping down into Anatolia; Legend has it that following a battle between a Step tribe and the Chin, a sole surviving boy is nursed back to health by a blue-maned she-wolf named Asena -who then mates with the boy and produces 10 half-wolf male offspring; these 10 are the roots of the Turkic Tribes. Of them, Ashina and his clan will dominate, ruling over the Göktürks and other Turkic nomadic empires. We'll come back to the wolves, later.

Turkic empires in Anatolia would wax and wain until around 1300 CE, when a migrating tribe lead by Ertuğrul happened upon a pitched battle and decided to intervene on the part of the loosing side -the forces of the Seljuk Sultan. The Sultan would reward Ertuğrul with a grant of the Eskişehir territory, on his death his son Osman would rise to dominate the Seljuk tribe, declare himself chief, and establish a seat of power that would bare his name for the next 600 or so years -The Ottoman Empire.

In time The Ottoman Empire would swell to encompass all of Anatolia, and by the hand of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, in 1453 would flow over and swallow a little town in eastern Europe called Constantinople. The fall of the last vestments of Byzantium did not spell doom for it's populous: the success of the Ottomans lay in a strong culture of egalitarianism. Christians, Jews, Greeks, Armenians- what ever you were, you could join the Turks. And so things would go, for a while...

Speed ahead: the Ottoman Empire leads the Islamic world as the Arabic portion of the Islamic world lays fractured and Persians marginalized . Like the Ottomans, the tenants of Islam dictate that any one who wishes to be a Muslim, is. These ideologies meshed well within The Empire, where, while predominately Islamic, allowed for freedom of religious identity. The unifying and dominating aspect of the Ottomans was their identification as Turks; all other ethnic identities were spice to this main ingredient. There were those, however, who saw in The Empire a hope for a greater Pan-Islamic Empire occupying all the farthest reaches of Islam- from Norther Africa and Spain, across the Arabic States and Iran, Iraq. They saw this moment of possibility as the Ottoman state grew fat, corrupt, and week.

As the world crept toward war guided by the hands of ambitious men, Powers looked to the Islamic world as they made strategic preparations; Russia imposed it's presence in eastern Anatolia, the British manipulated the Arabs with all the regard given to Chess pieces. These situations would be key influences to the formation of modern Turkish culture. The Empire, allied to Germany with the outbreak of World War 1, would feel threat from many directions. Eastern Anatolia, with it's mountainous, hard to control terrain was the Achilles Heal for many pre-Ottoman cultures. Vulnerability there to Russian forces lead some in the Empire to fear that Armenian Ottomans in the region were colluding with the Russians in exchange for the possible creation of a greater Armenia. The Ottoman Army was mobilized to neutralize this perceived threat. On the Arabic side, famed Thomas Edward Lawrence -aka, Lawrence of Arabia- would foment and participate in rebellion in the Arabic portion of the Empire at the behest of the Britain. Arab would be played against Arab and Ottoman alike with the promise of British sponsorship for a greater unified Arabia and renewed, more powerful Caliphate in Ottoman lands. Lawrence and his Arab allies would be rewarded with betrayal from the victorious British, who saw greater advantage in a divided middle east rather than a single powerful ally. The Arab World would not forget the sting of this betrayal... or the lost dream.

At the close of World War 1 we find that The Ottomans have again backed the losing side -but this time it will herald Empire's end. Allied parties negotiated extreme partitioning of The Empire to the benefit of The United Kingdom, France, Russian, Italy, Greece and Armenia, with these parties lobbying and making secret agreements long before the war was concluded; Greece entered the war on the Allied side only after it was agreed that they would receive major portions of western Anatolia and Thrace -including Constantinople. In the end, a treaty would be drafted with the Ottomans that heavily favored the United Kingdom, France, and Greece -all greedy for the spoils of war.

Problem was, the Allies sought to implement these deals with the conquered Sultan after dissolving a disagreeable Parliament; naturally, the plan to carve off the edges of The Empire and leave the Turks with a a portion of central Anatolia did not sit well. Beset on all sides, Turks began to feel like the main event at a Thanksgiving dinner. The British sought to implement their standard practice of Divide-and-Conquer by playing regional, ethnic, and religious groups against each other, believing that the weaker constituents would allow for success with a smaller British force commitment; additionally, figures of power would be marginalized by way of being bureaucratically negated. The result was to kill the last vestments of egalitarianism and galvanize Turks into a people with purpose -and motivated leadership.

The Turkish Revolution coalesced around Mustafa Kemal: a military hero and patriot who's vision of the future would become the Republic of Turkey. Kemal's military guidance brought both martial victory and tactical wisdom: the Turks would not attempt to push out and regain the whole of the former Empire, but define the borders of the new Republic to consolidate winnings that they could hold; many islands within view of the coast would be left to the Greeks, only very small portions of Thrace would remain from the European lands, and whole of Anatolia as the main body. The capitol would not be Constantinople, but a city situated closer to the heartland, Ankara. The personality cult formed around the charismatic leader would enable him to impose not just military victory, but a revolution of ideas. Kemal's admiration for European ideals would be realized in the new State, via cultural mandates: Turks wold be required to take surnames; Mustafa Kemal was bestowed the name Mustafa Atatürk - Father of Turkey. Turkish would be the official language, and Arabic script would be forgone in favor of a new Latinized alphabet. "Old fashion" modes of dress were forbidden. The mechanism of State would be officially Secular. Nomadic people were urbanized. State schooling and standards were imposed. In principle, equal rights. This was an all encompassing revolution -not just a change in management with a new flag.

All of this was possible because because Turks, in the crucible of fear from foriegn destruction, were able to rally around and be unified by their Turkishness; it did not reflect a revolution within the harts and minds of all Turks.

The fallout from revolution is felt to this day, and the struggle of conflicting ideologies is poignantly felt.

Xenophobia flavored with guilt have haunted the Republic from its inception, expressed often as a hostile defensiveness; this country -espousing western values, but without the luxury of prolonged security- doesn't know how to handle internal cohesive cultures, such as the Armenians and the Kurds. Compounding this is the anxiety posed by eastern Anatolia: the rugged terrain and inaccessibility has presented many historical occupiers with an irreconcilable vulnerability. In some ways, Turkey has achieved the same results as the British, by galvanizing insurgents into enduring institutions. 70 years of crushing suspected insurrection has left eastern Turkey stinted, a place of danger and insecurity. Vast hydroelectric and irrigation projects promise to bring future vitality -and increased ethnic Turk populations- to this region. Military action involving the Kurds continue to this day, but, while the "Armenian Question" has not produced any of the nuanced answers it warrants, there are at least hints of normalized relations between Turkey and its eastern neighbor. Both groups are commonly subject to stereotype, bigotry, and suspicion by some Turks.

From the beginning, the Republic has feared that its authority would be usurped by the specter of Islamic movements that seek to reassert the Caliphate and the rule of religious order. The challenge of maintaining democratic ideals while guarding against threat from within is a difficult one. The mechanism to do this came in the form of the Military, with its staunch adherents to the philosophies of Mustafa Kamel. 4 military coups later and countless imprisoned or executed, the Turkish public has come to rely on the presumption of military intervention into civil life. When popular vote places an idealoge in power who refuses to adhear to constatutional law, there is an expectation that the hand of the Military will set things right. Some see civil servants with strong religious beliefs as a check against what is viewed as indemic governement corruption; Turks with secular leanings may vote for what they see as a morally supperior canidate with Islamic Fundamentalist ideals, in the hopes that they will clean house -after all, if they get out of hand, the Military will step in.

There are menagerie of major forces in moder Turkey:

0) The European Union: the promise of membership in this trading body is the biggest carrot in play -and looms, phantom like, influencing the actions of all the players.

1) The Military, the pacemaker on the hart of politics; compulsory military service for men promotes a level of loyalty from the populous -graft and grant of special privileges ensures vested interest of the powerful. They see themselves as Guardians of the Kamelist Ideal, as protectors of the secular state.

2) Political Islam, which claims to represent the masses; they promote an agenda of resurgent Islamic values, challenging the Constitutional framework -which puts them at odds with the Military- but do so shrewdly with the pretext of moving Turkey closer to the human rights requirements predicating EU membership. They draw strength from a broad conservative Muslim population and, as the controlling political party, as brokers of power and wealth.

3) The Conservative Muslim Populous: its edges are indistinct, and, some times, not so conservative: the unifying characteristic is a reflexive support for Constitutionally guarantied religious freedom and preference. Their cause is personified by the struggle to remove prohibitions on religious dress.

4) The Lost Generation. An age of political cleansing and oppression culminated in the 80's with widespread political persecution by the central government and the military -including many imprisonments and executions. An entire generation learned to keep its head down, never betray the appearance of ANY opinion, and avoid dangerous thoughts; many still do. They form a large portion of the educated middle class; concerned mostly with getting by and getting ahead, they resent the disruption embodied by Political Islam, and fear the rise of an Islamic state impinging on their peace, stability, rights.

5) Generation Now: in love with everything modern/foreign, they disdain politics, largely ignore religion. Consumption Culture at its finest.

6) Kurdish Separatists -they look at the past and do not see a bright future for themselves in a place called Turkey. Radicalized through years of conflict, they occupy portions of Mountainous Eastern Turkey- historically difficult to control; the Turkish response to these rebels has been to lay a mantle of jackbooted oppression over the entire region. If a bomb goes off in Turkey, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) is blamed for it.

7) "The Armenian Question", so labeled is the mass forced exodus of Armenians from eastern Turkey, often depicted as a whole hearted slaughter by the Ottoman Turks. Characterizing the events of 1915-1917 as Genocide is a crime in modern Turkey -far from being the egalitarian Ottoman cradle, in The Republic of Turkey speech viewed as defaming Turkishness is outlawed. The issue and those who speak of it are catalytic.

8) The Grey Wolves: Fascist advocates of an ethnically pure Turkic Empire, they style themselves as warriors descended from the she-wolf Asena; their message resonates with impotent-feeling Turkish youth, the undirected angst and ager of which is their currency. They perform assassinations in service to their cause, with fingers reaching into the Military.

9) Uncle Sam: whether or not he knows it, his hat is always in the ring. Turks view the US with simultaneous admiration and contempt. The specter of the CIA is blamed for many of Turkey's ills, and the hand of the USA is suspected in everything from the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism in Turkey to the repeated rejection of Turkish membership in the EU.

10) Greece, once close friend, now long time foe: actively blocks Turkish EU bids with Cyprus as pretext. Some rhetoric between these states was toned down after Greece came to Turkey's aid following the 1999 earthquake that largely destroyed the city of İzmit, and may have helped soften hard line positions on the contentious partitioning of Cyprus.

This clumbsy, incomplete assessment (7/9/08, 5:25 PM) warrants a re-write; lacking time, I offer it as is.