Erdogan and Turkey's “enemies”

With his verbal attacks, Turkey's president is holding hands on the Turkish people. His attacks on Germany seem ridiculous, but not so in Turkey.

Sometimes it's a bit touching to hear the president of Turkey. “He does not know where he belongs to”, Erdogan tells German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel. “What does he think it is, when you speak to Turkey's president? Talk to my foreign minister! ”

Tens of thousands of German people, born in the 1960s and 1970s, are nostalgic to these sentences. The Turkish president's appearance may remind him of the strict professor of Latin or Greek, who has been among the latest representatives of authoritarian behaviour who then emerged from the scene at great speed in Germany.

This kind of professor has tried to impress students with unbearable behavior and subdue them. They have not been able to understand because of their style that other traditions rule in the world. They have left the reality of not understanding the new spirit. Such elderly gentlemen do not notice that people can only express regret at their anachronistic behavior. The Turkish president's words remind this very generation of suffering.

The Great Manipulator

Recep Tayp Erdogan certainly does not deserve mercy. On the contrary: his authoritarian behaviour, when addressing the German Chancellor or foreign minister with “ ”, is nothing but an attempt to manipulate history. Erdogan, with his indiscreet behaviour, will appear to be a powerful man, a protector of Turks. Just as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk once acted „the father of the Turkish nation” but of course in a completely different style, with more courtesy.

Simulating ties with Ataturk shows the depth of Erdogan's loss at the historic castle: Ataturk idol and Erdogan's imaginary rival died nearly 80 years ago. Erdogan, referring to the Ottoman heritage, tries to adopt not only the Ottoman legacy but also that Islam of the largely secular Ataturk orientation. But with stubborn insistence on ideology, it loses aesthetics and trivial political differences.

These two statesmen link the neurotic culture of fear, which they exploit to a greater extent. She was born in decades when the Ottoman Empire in the West was called „I the Bosphorus patient”. As a result of the rapid decline in power and power, many Turks back then have developed a strong sense of being surrounded by enemies. The Ottoman political error has resulted in the loss of territories and the establishment of conviction that neighbours have no good intentions toward them. Turkish nationalism was born at the time.

Locked in Myths

This feeling has been cynically exploited by the Turkish political elite for its own purposes. The founder of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Ataturk, once exploited nationalism, as well as Erdogan today. Both of them are afraid of past myths and have not been able to release their people for fear of nationalist myths.

This is a symbolic self - determination to compensate for the loss of power. This mechanism, created in the early days of the Turkish Republic, which at that time has been forgiving, has remained until now, about 100 years later. It produces poisonous chauvinism, which would have to help Erdogan in 2019 presidential elections.

To realise that goal, Erdogan does not ask about the award. He does not hesitate to keep his fellow citizens in the shackles of myths and past. Because of its political success, he is willing to avoid his people to face the past. Erdogan's rhetoric probably sounds ridiculous and outdated in Germany, but in Turkey it has blocked cultural and political development. And this is a point where Erdgoan's behavior is not so funny anymore. /DW/