By Leonidas Koumakis
On July 24, 2020, the world community was surprised to see the head of the modern Turkish state, who declares himself a “faithful Muslim” on every occasion, ignore more than 85,000 mosques operating in Turkey, come to the world-famous Christian temple, the Temple of Hagia Sophia, kneeling and praying under the shadow of the mosaics of Christ and the Virgin Mary that were made 1,660 years ago. At the same time, he joyfully declared that he is the “conqueror” of the Christian church because he added the word “Mosque” to the sign outside the Christian church!
Undoubtedly, these things constitute a sick condition, addressed to the uneducated people throughout the East and Asia, to the spiritually predatory jihadists fearing neither God nor man- just like the current head of the Turkish state.
The application date of this cultural vandalism coincides with the signing of the Lausanne Treaty and the occupation of Cyprus, symbolizing the “brute force of mighty” just as Hitler and Mussolini tried to impose eighty years ago, sinking humanity in blood and misery. As a result, both of them ended up in an abominable way and into the black book of history.
Indeed, could anyone imagine, now in the 21st century, the leader of a Greek, Jewish, Arab, Asian or African state coming in a world-famous sacred place of another religion, the temple of another religion that was considered a world cultural heritage since many decades, pretending the “conqueror” with bad-tasting TV fiestas, terrified accomplices and a display of sharp swords?
These are certainly sick conditions that pose a deadly threat to the peace and security of our entire region.
Inside Turkey itself, but also outside it, where there are hundreds of thousands of Turks who escaped to be saved from the “Democracy” of the fanatical jihadists, that was established in their country, surprised and terrified intellectuals, artists and every educated Turk, they see with horror a vulgar, devoid of historical knowledge and illiterate to be the “caliph”, the “conqueror”, the “superpower”, dragging Turkey with certainty and with increasing speed to the rocks.
Ever since the Second World War, during which Turkey was the “favorably neutral”, constantly bargaining the trade-offs that would ensure if involved in the war on the side of one or the other warring party, Turkey managed to ensure, from West and East, the maximum of the “exchanges” by utilizing its geopolitical value in multiple ways.
All this until the consolidation in the power of R.T. Erdogan, which was achieved through imprisonments, persecutions, violating of individual rights, breaking world records of imprisoned journalists, oppressive control of justice, press and broadcasting, taking under control army and security forces.
Beyond all this, there is the repetition of the declarations on the resurrection of the neo-Ottoman empire in foreign lands and broad “spheres of influence”. The cost of this policy is the indisputable fact that the Republic of Turkey, from its establishment until nowadays, has never been so diplomatically isolated, as it is today. Enormous military spending creates bleeding in the Turkish economy. Young people are sacrificed for the sake of the various “conquests” that are nothing more than new Ottoman palaces built on sand.
“Strategic Depth” theorist and former Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu declared “zero problems” with all of Turkey’s neighbors as the most effective way to promote the goals of the pan-Turkists* (Kemalists ** and Islamists ***).
However, current Turkey of the fanatical jihadists of R. T. Erdogan is distinguished by the number of problems caused to almost all its neighbors:
● R.T. Erdogan declared “intervention” against Armenia and “support” to Azerbaijan, assuring everyone that “Armenia cannot cope” in such a conflict (14/7/2020).
● He invades Iraq and Syria using the “Self Defense” right arising from international treaties, but he does not recognize the same right for Greece when it fortifies the Greek Aegean islands against the Turkish army, which is ready for action on the coasts of Asia Minor.
● He invades Libya on the pretext of the “legitimacy” of the Al Saraj government, which expired in 2017, but refuses to recognize the Republic of Cyprus, a full member state of the European Union, recognized by hundreds of countries around the world.
● He invades the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone to conduct the so-called “research”, trying to create a fait accompli in foreign areas. But in essence he will only manage to make a hole in the water.
● He threatens Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries with the “Muslim Brotherhood” movement that he constantly organizes, controls and directs.
● He threatens Israel by declaring the “salvation” of Islam’s third most sacred Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalim, with statements that set the environment on fire using Hamas as a “tool”.
● He issues NOTAMs including the Greek Exclusive Economic Zone for “research” accompanied by warships, violates Greek airspace daily flying military planes over dozens of Greek islands, the Evros, the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.
● He claims that the issue of the Christian church of Hagia Sophia is an internal issue of Turkey, while he intervenes in a provocative manner in the internal affairs of many other countries!
C O N C L U S I O N S: As Professor Taner Akcam wrote at the end of his article “Turkey’s test of civilization” (July 13, 2020, ahvalnews.com), “In the end, civilization will triumph; but those who oppose it may not…”.
The Turkish professor, who does not teach in Turkey but at Clark University in the United States, calls his compatriots in a war against the Erdogan-Bahceli-Perincek axis, which symbolizes Turkish destructiveness and vandalism.
Representation of the Muslim ritual in the Christian temple, which has been declared a World Cultural Heritage, the fantasies of resurrection of the Ottoman empire in the twenty-first century, the open attacks against foreign countries under various pretexts, are the illiterate situations of the illiterate and fanatic people who live in dangerous illusions.
One of them is the Christian Church of the Holy Wisdom of God which was and will remain forever the hearth of world Christianity, no matter how much the zealous, uneducated, fanatical jihadists change the signs on the door of the holy shrine.
As a man born and raised in Turkey, as a person who has been following Turkey for almost half a century, I have no doubt that the current Turkey of RT Erdogan’s fanatical jihadists is a fancy and noisy giant with glass legs.
The tragic course he has taken towards the rocks does not seem to be reversible…
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*** Open letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamists Mevlüt Çavuşoλουlu in Greek, English, Turkish.
** Open letter to the leader of the Kemalists, Kemal Kilinsdaroğlu in Greek, English, Turkish.
* Pan-Turkism and Turkish policy towards Hellenism are described in the timeless, autobiographical book “The Miracle – A True Story” which is available completely free of charge in both the 5th Greek edition (2020) and the 3rd English edition (2019) from the Library of the International Hellenic Association. The free online edition of 2020 includes updated bibliography of hundreds of sources in Greek, English, French and Turkish.