Friday, October 10, 2014

'Islamist' Turkey branch of the Muslim Brotherhood


‘Turkey branch of the Muslim Brotherhood: Erdoğan’. HT: Turkafile.

Under the headline of “The Turkey branch of the Muslim Brotherhood: Erdoğan”, Taraf’s front page today features an interview with veteran Turkish journalist Cengiz Çandar, described also as a Middle East and Kurdish Issue expert by the opposition daily.

In the interview, conducted by correspondent Tunca Öğreten, Çandar states “politicians and academics in the world see the Ak Party and Erdoğan as the Turkey branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt”.
Öğreten writes that Çandar thinks the sectarian wars in the Middle East will last for a long time, and that the AKP has stopped being a government and has taken the form of a “Turkish Islamic state”.
According to the interview, Çandar commented on President Erdoğan’s statement, made on Tuesday, that “Kobani is about fall”, and said that while such pain is being experienced by the people of Kobani, imposing demands on the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) is the same as saying “I want Kobani to fall”, albeit in diplomatic terms.

Summarised highlights of Öğreten’s lengthy interview with Çandar are as follows:

T.Ö.: Prime Minister Davutoğlu said, “We do not want Kobani to fall”. What happens if Kobani falls?

C.Ç.: The peace process that is about to break up will be heavily wounded. What the government says and does do not usually match. After Davutoğlu’s mentioned statement, [PYD leader] Salih Müslim came to Turkey. They put such demands in front of the man that it would be impossible for him to accept.

T.Ö: Do you think this is a delaying tactic?

C.Ç: Turkey sees the PYD as the PKK, and in the eyes of the government the PKK and ISIS are the same. So, who is in charge of Kobani at the moment: the PKK. Therefore, after saying “We do not want ISIS to get hold of Kobani”, you need to act against ISIS. What Turkey does [is to] say “the PKK is there”. What needs to be understood from here is that they do not want Kobani to be in the hands of the PKK. Saying “They act together with Assad” is another comedy. This government had closer relations with Assad than [any previous government] and Davutoğlu was the one to start this. The government was praising itself and saying “We met Assad 65 times in two years”. The PYD started the bloodiest Kurdish uprising called the “Kurdish İntifada” on 13 March, 2004. While Syrian Kurds were uprising, Erdoğan and Davutoğlu were often visiting Syria. The last people to say to the PYD “cut your ties with Assad” should be Davutoğlu and Ak Party government.

T.Ö.: Why does the Ak Party government want Kobani to fall?

C.Ç.: Where we stand now, the Ak Party has stopped being a government and has become a Turkish Islamic state. Because of this, it cannot bear to see an autonomous Kurdish structure next to its nation state borders. They could not bear Erbil* in the past either. Now, they see that the oil and underground resources Erbil has can meet Turkey’s goals and desires for the 2020s. That is why they get on well with them.

* The capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq

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