Turkish MP: Erdogan’s anti-Semitism difficult to reverse.

Turkish MP: Erdogan’s anti-Semitism difficult to reverse.(TOI).

Even under a different government, it would take ‘quite some time to mend inter-societal relations,’ Aykan Erdemir warns

The effects of the Turkish prime minister’s ongoing anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic agitation have permeated society there and will not be easily reversed, a Turkish member of parliament said this week, amid reports of an imminent deal between Ankara and Jerusalem that would end a four-year long diplomatic crisis between the two governments.

While Israel and Turkey could easily repair bilateral ties on a political level, hostility toward Jews — deliberately fomented by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s fiery rhetoric — is likely to persevere, even if a different government takes power in Ankara, said Aykan Erdemir, a freshman lawmaker from the center-left Republican People’s Party, or CHP, Turkey’s largest opposition party.

Turkey was not perfect before Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party, or AKP, took power in 2003, he allowed in an interview with The Times of Israel at the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

“But after 12 years of Erdogan-rule, we are at a more dangerous place. The anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic feelings are deeper and stronger. And to be frank, even after Erdogan and AKP are gone, even if CHP comes to power, it will take us quite some time to mend inter-societal relations through dialogue, awareness raising, and sensitivity training.”

Turkish society is ambivalent about Israel and Jews, according to Erdemir, who insisted that “positive attitudes toward Jews can coexist alongside anti-Semitic feelings.

“The problem,” he said, “cannot be reduced to negative feelings about interstate relations — it is deeper than that. Erdogan is a very skillful master who manipulates public sentiments and capitalizes on them. So in that respect, as long as Erdogan is in power there will always be the possibility of a new and prolonged crisis.”

Erdogan is “Janus-faced” in that he has two seemingly opposing approaches to relations with Israel, Erdemir continued. “He can be quite pragmatic toward Israel while also capitalizing on the existing anti-Israeli sentiment in Turkey,” he said. “We have to accept that some of that sentiment is not just anti-Israeli but anti-Semitic… He is not only capitalizing on the existing sentiments but he is in a way fueling some of that anti-Israel and anti-Semitic feeling. How? With his rhetoric, conspiracy theories, campaign slogans and actions.”

The government in Ankara is indeed involved in under-the-radar efforts to improve relations with Israel, Erdemir confirmed. “But my worry is that Erdogan’s approach is based on wrong premises. Erdogan’s core values vis-à-vis Jews and Israel prevent him from dealing with this issue in a tolerant, embracing and sustainable way.”

An authoritarian leader, Erdogan could alter his party’s position on Israel very easily. “He can change its political, economic and diplomatic course of action single-handedly. Can he do the same vis-à-vis the values, attitudes and stereotypes? I don’t want to call the damage irreversible, but we have to admit that it’s going to be difficult.”

Erdogan’s attitudes and political moves “cannot just be reduced to Sunni radicalism, although that’s a major component,” Erdemir said. “Some of it is neo-Ottomanism. He has visions to be a world leader, particularly influential in the former Ottoman territories.”

Even if a different party wins the next elections and changes the course of the current government, eradicating anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment will be a long-term process, he predicted. But diplomatic, military, cultural, educational and tourism ties “could be strengthened to a great extent.”Hmmm.....Erdogan: ' "The ones they [our enemies] hate we must love"'.Read the full story here.