An Uncertain Ally

Turkey under Erdogan's Dictatorship

David L. Phillips

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781412865388
• eBook ISBN: 9781351623933
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Politica mediorientale

Under the rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkey has descended into a dictatorship, promotes the Islamist agenda, abuses human rights, limits freedom of expression in the press, and wages war against the Kurds. While Turkey has historically been important geopolitically, it has become an outlier in Europe and an uncertain ally of the United States.

An Uncertain Ally is a straightforward indictment of Erdogan. Drawing on inside sources in his Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the police, the book reveals corruption and money laundering schemes that benefitted Erdogan, his cronies, and family members. Erdogan has polarized Turkish society and created conditions that led to the coup attempt of July 2016. He has also deepened divisions by accusing Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic teacher in Pennsylvania, of establishing a parallel state and masterminding the coup attempt. Erdogan has seized on the failed coup to justify a witch hunt, arresting thousands and ordering the wholesale dismissal of alleged coup sympathizers. Rather than foster reconciliation, he pursued vendettas and turned Turkey into a gulag.

An Uncertain Ally exposes Turkey's ties to jihadists in Syria and the Islamic State, questioning its suitability as a NATO member. Under Erdogan, Turkey faces a dark future that poses a danger to the region and internationally.

Part I
Domestic Issues

1
Erdogan

Democracy is like a streetcar. You get off when you have reached your destination.¹

—Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Recep Tayyip Erdogan comes from an industrious blue-collar family. He spent his teenage years in Kasimpasa, a poor neighborhood in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul. Erdogan struggled for his education, income, and to make his way in politics. He worked hard—and advanced.

Ahmet Erdogan, Tayyip Erogan’s father, moved his family to Rize, on the northeast shore of Turkey’s Black Sea coast, east of Trabzon, when his son was a small boy.² Rize was home to a strategic base of Turkey’s naval forces, which monitored the Soviet Union’s naval operations. Ahmet Erdogan was a member of Turkey’s coast guard. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet defeated the Turks in 1790 and fought the Ottomans during the First World War. Rize became an important early warning post protecting the Republic of Turkey and NATO from Soviet aggression.

Ahmet Erdogan was a strong disciplinarian who regulated all aspects of family life. “My father was very authoritarian. He was very instrumental in both our upbringing and character formation,” said Erdogan. “The penalty for even opening your mouth to utter a bad word was very heavy.”³ Ahmet Erdogan sent his son to work in Rize’s fields, collecting tea and nuts.

Rize is a socially and religiously conservative community, where Turkish nationalism in the model of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk blended seamlessly with religiosity. The residents of Rize are known for their patriotism as well as intolerance toward minorities such as Kurds, Armenians, and Jews.⁴ Erdogan’s mother, Tenzile, was a traditional housewife who never left her home without a headscarf (hijab). She spent her days cleaning the home, preparing traditional Turkish foods over a wood stove, and looking after the children. The Erdogan family was average size. Erdogan had three brothers and one sister. The siblings looked after one another.

Perched on a picturesque hillside, Rize’s modest homes stretch to the seaside. Despite its natural beauty, Rize’s economy was stagnant. Ahmet Erdogan decided to leave Rize for Istanbul when Tayyip Erdogan was thirteen years old.⁵ They settled in Kasimpasa where tea stalls and fishmongers crowd the street fronts. Cluttered stores sell snacks, flowers, and hardware products.⁶ Kasimpasa is teaming with day laborers, Roma, and new immigrants from Turkey’s Anatolian heartland. The neighborhood never sleeps. Vendors are out at all hours, hustling to make a living. Erdogan joined them. “I was rather active in my childhood, actively engaging in community relations, knowing everybody in the neighborhood.” He played street games, such as dodgeball and leapfrogging. His family was too poor to afford a bicycle.

Ahmet Erdogan provided his son with a weekly allowance of 2.5 Turkish lira, less than a dollar. With it, Erdogan bought postcards and resold them on the street. He sold bottles of water to drivers stuck in traffic. Erdogan also worked as a street vendor selling sesame bread rings called “simit.” Simit is a staple breakfast food for Turks. It is made from dough covered in grape-juice molasses and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Baked until crusty, simit is a cheap and filling staple of the street. The act of preparing, selling, and consuming simit is a national ritual. Erdogan wore a white gown, selling simit from a red three-wheel cart with simit rolls stacked behind glass. Work was cyclical, yet ceaseless. The bread rings are baked twice a day, in the early morning and early afternoon. Vendor and customer alike take pride in the simit experience. Simit appeals to all Turks. It is classless.

Etiler is an upscale neighborhood in contrast to Kasimpasa. Its gleaming buildings are adorned with glass and chrome. Inside its gated residential communities live Turkey’s wealthy, secular elite. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk lived in Etiler. Sakip Sabanci, one of Turkey’s most wealthy industrialists, was a more recent resident. Butlers, drivers, and house cleaners who work in Etiler may originate from Kasimpasa, but they have a different status and lifestyle. Behind the veneer of cordial civility, Etiler’s elite differ from the uneducated, unrefined, and religiously conservative residents of Kasimpasa. While Etiler feels like a street in Paris, Kasimpasa is like an urban slum in Damascus. Wealthy Etilers drive through Kasimpasa in luxury cars with tinted glass. They send the driver to run errands and shop, while remaining at arm’s length from the street.

Etiler and Kasimpasa represent the fissures in Turkish society. Turkey is polarized between members of the wealthy and working classes, between secularists and pious, between the educated and uneducated. In state building, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk created the veneer of social harmony. He adopted a mantra: “Happy is he who can call himself a Turk.” Turkishness was both a shared identity and a unifying concept. Beneath the surface, however, underclass resented the privileges and European lifestyle of the secular elite. The upper class looked down on the poor, whose religiosity was a threat to Turkey’s secularity and coherence. Migrants and minorities were viewed with suspicion.

Access to education was also an important social determinant. Erdogan was hard-working, but not a brilliant student. He graduated from the Kasimpasa Piyale Primary School in 1965 and then received his high school education at Istanbul Fatih Imam Hatip School. So-called Imam Hatips were established in accordance with Ataturk’s basic education law of 1924. They are parochial schools funded by the state, offering religious education and vocational training.⁷ One quarter of the curriculum involves study of the Qur’an, the life of Muhammad, and the Arabic language. Social sciences are taught according to conservative values. Other subjects are math, literature, history, and science.⁸

Like his contemporaries, Erdogan studied the Qur’an at an Imam Hatip. He attended meetings of a nationalist student group called “Milli Turk Talebe Birligi.” The group sought to raise a conservative cohort of young people to counter the rising movement of leftists in Turkey.

The Imam Hatip’s principal, Ihsan Hoca, introduced Erdogan to Islamic studies. Erdogan recalls: “The teacher asked ‘Who will pray?’ I raised my hand and he called me over. He placed a newspaper on the floor. I said ‘Teacher, we cannot pray on top of a newspaper. The table cloth may work.’ The table cloth was spread across the floor and I prayed.” Ihsan Hoca gave Tayyip a congratulatory slap on the back. Ihsan Hoca told Ahmet Erdogan, “We should send Tayyip to Prayer Leader and Preacher School.” Ahmet Erdogan responded, “Whatever you see fit.” According to Erdogan, “This is how the Prayer Leader and Preacher School entered my life.”⁹ Erdogan’s classmates began calling him “hoca,” which means “Muslim teacher.”¹⁰

Erdogan was inspired by his experience at the Imam Hatip. When he became prime minister, he adopted a “pious generation” education project.¹¹ The project expanded the state-sponsored religious schooling system and broadened religious education in secular schools. While providing a more conservative cultural environment for students, the pious generation project also entrenched religiously conservative personnel in schools and the education bureaucracy.¹²

Girls attended Imam Hatips, but social relations between boys and girls were frowned upon. Erdogan adopted an egalitarian world view. He objected to the fact that girls were not allowed to wear the hijab at publicly funded educational institutions or to their work places in public administration. To Erdogan, wearing the hijab was a matter of privacy and personal choice. “In this country, ones covered and not covered should enjoy all the opportunities,” said Erdogan. “They should all have the same rights—not one more or not one less.”¹³

Erdogan was pious as a teenager, but not overly devout. In Kemalist Turkey, employment for students who graduated from Imam Hatips was limited. Even gifted students had few choices beyond becoming a preacher. Erdogan was distinguished by his oratorical skills. He developed a penchant for public speaking and excelled in front of an audience. He won first place in a poetry-reading competition organized by the Community of Turkish Technical Painters. His prize was five hundred lira, a princely sum. Subsequently, Erdogan was included in oratory competitions at the high school level. He acquired skills of critical thinking, preparing for his speeches through reading and research. According to Erdogan, “These competitions enhanced our courage to speak in front of the masses.”¹⁴

He was also fiercely competitive. According to Erdogan, “I had a passion toward soccer,” which we played in “the school garden.” He joined a neighborhood team, becoming a member of the Kasimpasa soccer club and working part-time at an athletic facility. At seventeen, he transferred to the Camialti soccer club. According to Erdogan, “I equate soccer with politics.” Soccer requires a “collective understanding.” It necessitates “drive and belief in success.” Erdogan is a proponent of collective action on the pitch, as well as in politics. According to Erdogan, “You have to believe.” He proclaimed, “I accept that I was sinful for wearing shorts while playing soccer during those years.” Erdogan did not have his father’s permission to play soccer. “My father did not know, and when he learned he was furious, but then got used to it.”¹⁵

Playing soccer did not distract Erdogan from his studies. He worked hard to pass a high school equivalence exam.¹⁶ He wanted to pursue advanced studies at Mekteb-i Mulkiye, but Mulkiye only accepted students with a regular high school degree, not graduates of Imam Hatips. Mulkiye was known for its political science department, which trained many statesmen and politicians in Turkey.

Erdogan was admitted to the Eyup High School, a regular state school. He passed finals and received a high school degree, but his grades were not good enough for admission to Mulkiye. Erdogan was, however, admitted to Aksaray’s Economy and Trade Faculty in 1982, which was associated with prestigious Marmara University. He went on to study at Marmara University’s Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, all the while playing semi-professional football. It was unusual for a street kid to attend high school and gain admission to Marmara University.

Erdogan’s first foray in politics was in 1976 with the National Turkish Student Union, an anti-communist government-funded action group. He was charismatic and a natural leader. One of his peers commented: “This man would come ahead of all of us in the future.”¹⁷ He became the leader of a local youth branch of the Islamist National Salvation Party (MSP), a religious party founded in 1972 by Necmettin Erbakan. Erdogan regularly joined MSP rallies. These meetings were like an evangelical group gathering. They were attended by ultranationalist, conservative, and religious followers of the MSP. Speakers used ideological rhetoric to whip up the crowd. Erdogan was a good public speaker. He was acclaimed for his inspirational remarks when he introduced Erbakan one night at the Tepebasi Casino and Music Club.

Emine Gulbaran, a young girl from Tillo town of Siirt, in Southeast Turkey, was in the crowd that evening. She was a member of Idealist Women’s Organization, a political group of conservative Muslim women. Emine was devoted to Islamic studies, especially teachings of Said-i Nursi, a contemporary Islamic theologian. Emine was immediately drawn to Erdogan. According to Emine, “I had a dream of a man dressed in a white suit, and was told that this is the man you would marry. That man was Erdogan.”¹⁸

Erdogan noticed Emine from his position on stage. “At that meeting, my wife (Emine) was sitting at the front row and she drew my attention,” recounts Erdogan. “I was electrified and fell in love there. She was with me at all the party meetings and activities.”¹⁹ Erdogan and Emine married on July 4, 1978. They had two daughters, Esra and Sumeyye, and two sons. Their first son was named Ahmet Burak, after Erdogan’s father. The second son, Necmettin Bilal, was named after Necmettin Erbakan. All four children received strong religious education, graduating from Imam Hatips.²⁰ Erdogan extolled Emine’s virtues: “From the moment we married to today, I was never questioned: why did I come home late (from party meetings)?”²¹

Later Necmettin Erbakan founded the Felicity Party. It was banned after the 1980 military coup. On April 4, 1980, four Islamic youth protesting the coup were killed by the police. Erdogan led four hundred young Islamists in a protest march. When the police stormed their picket line, Erdo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I. Domestic Issues
• Part II. Regional Conflicts
• Part III. Crackdown
• Acronyms
• Glossary of Individuals
• About the Author
• Index