Israel Matzav: An open letter to Turkish friends

An open letter to Turkish friends

The Begin - Sadat Center's Efraim Inbar sends an open letter to his Turkish friends out of concern for the direction that the Turkish government is taking.

In contrast to many in the West who were suspicious of the Islamic credentials of the ruling AKP party, I welcomed the ascendance of the AKP in Turkish politics. I argued that traditional Kemalist secularism needed a religious corrective to help Turkey find a delicate synthesis between rich religious tradition and modernity. I believed that an AKP-led Turkey had the potential to become a true model of moderate Islam for the Islamic world; a world that is grappling, mostly unsuccessfully, with the challenges of modernity.

Looking today at AKP foreign and domestic policies I am tentatively coming to the unpleasant conclusion that I was wrong.

Turkey under the AKP is increasingly succumbing to Islamic impulses; relegating its political and cultural links to the West to a secondary priority. For example, Turkey welcomed the despicable President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for a formal visit in August 2008. No Western country has issued such an invitation to the Iranian leader.

Moreover, in contrast to its Western allies, Ankara announced recently that it will not join any sanction efforts aimed at preventing Iran from going nuclear.

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Turkey's defense of Hamas, a terrorist organization, also indicates that Turkey has sacrificed its moral compass for a very primitive Muslim brotherhood. Even pro-Western Arab states supported Israel's struggle against Hamas. The Turkish premiere's vehement and deeply insulting denunciation of Israel during Operation Cast Lead also grated heavily on my ears. We cannot simply chalk up his criticism to cynical domestic public opinion needs.

At home, traditional Ottoman and Turkish tolerance is gradually being replaced by pressure to conform to Muslim mores and by intimidation to comply with government policies. Several friends in the business community confessed that sipping a glass of raki (the Turkish equivalent of ouzo or arak) in public could hurt ones chances of receiving government contracts.

Inbar fears - with good reason - that Turkey is about to become an Islamist state. His fears are well-founded. Unfortunately, my fear is that Turkey's tilt toward Islamism can no longer be countered.

Read the whole thing.

The picture at the top is Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Israel Matzav: An open letter to Turkish friends