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| Europe |
| Conspiracy theories taking hold on Turkish population |
| 2005-03-27 |
| The anti-American fervor in Turkey has been of interest in the U.S. media recently. American officials and pundits express concern about the widespread resentment of America evident in the Turkish media and popular opinion as well as even some Turkish bureaucrats and politicians. While they recognize a global controversy exists about the war in Iraq and that anti-Americanism among Turks is not unique, they also identify an odd fact especially pertinent to Turkey: the widespread acceptance of bizarre conspiracy theories about the United States. However, these conspiracy theories should be viewed in context. Americans should resist taking them personally. This phenomenon is just an example of how the common Turkish mind works. A great many of our people believe conspirators rule the world. Mapping out their plots is a national pastime. This is evident in Turkey's internal debates. Some Islamists, for example, are quite convinced the country is ruled by a cabal of Freemasons and crypto-Jews. Turkish nationalists, on the other hand, believe there is a Western agenda to break Turkey into pieces and that Kurds and libertarian intellectuals are paid agents of this evil scheme. The Marxists believe the drive to join the European Union is the most recent plot of the international, evil bourgeoisie to enslave the Turkish proletariat. Such bilge has parallels in many other countries, but Turkey has also some indigenous ones. The ultrasecularists, who are also known as Kemalists (because of the cult of personality they created around Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's founding father), believe devout Muslims in Turkey are secretly heading for an Islamic Revolution. Sociologists have repeatedly demonstrated this is pure paranoia, but the "Muslims are coming" hype never calms down. Kemalists are so preoccupied by it they see any Muslim foot in the public square as the first step to theocracy. That's why they do not allow any woman with a headscarf to walk -- yes, literally -- on official grounds. Policemen guard the gates of the universities to shield them from these "tightheads," as they are abhorrently called. Turkey's dreary president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a doyen of Kemalists, doesn't invite parliamentarians whose wives wear headscarves to his official cocktail receptions in Cankaya, his residential office. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 And then there's Murat... Anyway, fascinating reading. Thanks, Darling. |
| Posted by: jackal 2005-03-27 9:05:33 PM |