Suppose you are about to embark on a long trip—but have forgotten to take a book to read along the way?
So you check the airport newsstand and find a paperback, Turkey and the Arab Spring, Leadership in the Middle East.
The title sounds interesting, but you don’t know the author and are not sure whether to buy it—until a friend tells you he has read it, and even knows the author. So you ask:
What is the book about?
It’s about Turkey and its supposed “leadership” role in the Middle East: a so-called “island of stability” in a sea of turbulence. The world is watching it with bated breath, and the Middle East is very “envious” of it!
What does the author think of the Kurds?
The Kurds are the “number one” winners of the recent turmoil emanating from the Arab Spring. And the Turks are the biggest “beneficiary” of the Kurdish gains! The two peoples have developed a sort of symbiotic relationship. Kind of like “Romeo and Juliet” or “Mem u Zin” or “Leyla ve Mecnun.”
Wow! That is pretty heady stuff. Is the author a Turk—or a Kurd who is hopelessly in love with the Turks?
Neither. He’s actually a Harvard-educated American. He comes close to saying he wishes he were a Turk—like Ataturk wished he were a Christian. But we should be wary of those who are not comfortable in their own skin. And you may need a few shots of whiskey to get through the book.
The author worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 27 years, and was once posted in Ankara, the Turkish capital—even named his daughter after the metropolis of the Turks. Now that he is retired, he says, “My relationship with Turkey is longer and more deeply rooted than my relationship with the CIA.”
In his book, the Turks are paragons of democracy and the Kurds are, well, the proverbial pawns of Europeans or Americans. Like his Turkish friends, he calls Kurdistan a pipedream and uses quotation marks, as they do, when he utters or writes the word “Kurdistan”!
So he is a status quo hugger?
Not really. That’s only when it comes to the Kurds. He’s a hardcore revolutionary when it comes to the Palestinians! Israel is an occupier-state, he says, and cites the authority of the international law to support his point. Turkey, he suggests, should support the Palestinians to inject sanity into the dysfunctional Middle East.
What does he say about Israelis taking up the cause of Kurds and Kurdistan?
He thinks that would be “counterproductive” and “spark” a harsh backlash from Turkey. He brands Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman a “fascist” and “racist.” It never seems to dawn on him that Israelis, for all their faults, have never banned the language of Arabs—while Turkey keeps the language of Kurds on the shortest leash ever invented by the government of men.
So does this guy really love Erdogan?
He does, and has travelled the world over to confirm it. Cafes that once proudly displayed the pictures of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad now parade those of Recep Tayyip Erdogan! He quotes Erdogan approvingly. For example, when he was in Egypt: “The world is changing to a system where the will of the people will rule—why should the Europeans and the Americans be the only ones to live with dignity? Aren’t Egyptians and Somalis also entitled to a life of dignity?”
The Indians and the Chinese are talking about sending space shuttles to the stars. What is the fixation of the Turks with Somalis and Somalia?
Don’t ask. They are trying to colonize the place, but like Europeans who got there first, they claim it is a “civilizing” venture. Mogadishu’s biggest mosque is Turkish-made and bears the name of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s mother. Hundreds of Somali students are bribed and given scholarships to learn the Turkish language. When I grew up in that forsaken country, I was beaten and forced to learn Turkish.
You said you know the author. How is he as a person?
He actually comes across as a decent person, and has even helped out some Kurds in need, but unfortunately he has spent so much time with the Turks that he has “gone native.” He has adopted their prejudices and thinks, speaks and dreams like a Turk.
Turks, for example, say Kurds are happy to live under Turkish rule. It is others, meaning Europeans, who stir them to rebel against Turkey’s “benign” laws. Sadly, our author agrees, and says foreigners have played with the Kurds more than their immediate neighbors.
He practically says the Europeans and the Americans are dogs, and the Turks, Persians and the Arabs are cats—and the hapless Kurds are mice. He even suggests the Kurdish mice join forces with the Turkish cats to keep the European and Israeli dogs out of the Middle East.
What is your personal take on the book?
I don’t believe Kurdistan is a pipedream, but a real-life dream that can come true, and bring freedom to 40 million Kurds—just as the implosion of the Soviet Union ushered in freedom for fifteen nations. The Middle East is now imploding, and the possibility of a free Kurdistan looms even greater—to the chagrin of our well-meaning author, Graham Fuller, and his beloved Turkish friends.
Oh, and by the way—cats have always been a far greater danger to mice than all the dogs of the world!
Kani Xulam is a political activist based in Washington D.C. He runs the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN)
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
