Views of Turkey from the Gulf

Last week I was in Qatar, and then in Kuwait at a similar event organized by the publishing house, on the occasion of presenting my last two books, published in Arabic through an organization by the Qatari newspaper al-Raya.

My two latest books bore the titles "Social, Political and Cultural Change in Turkey" and "Islam in Turkey Between Tradition and Modernity"; earlier, during the month of Ramadan, I had had the chance to present and discuss the same books with Arab intellectuals living in Turkey.

On the occasion of these books, in both meetings held in Qatar and Kuwait and in the many majlises and diwaniyas I attended in both countries, the agenda naturally was Turkey. In truth, the Turkey agenda there is not one that began and ended with my speaking because I was discussing books about Turkey. In both countries Turkey has for a long time been among the most important items on the agenda. But in this agenda the political and economic dimension generally comes to the fore. One foot of the great majority of the citizens of both countries is now in Turkey. As I mentioned on a previous occasion, of every 10 people you meet in Kuwait, nearly 7 have passed through Turkey within a month or two. Most of them have homes, workplaces and investments in Turkey and therefore come and go constantly. Those who have no homes or investments come and go for vacation or other occasions. In fact there are many places in Europe they could go to, but they specifically prefer Turkey, citing their affection for Turkey as the only reason.

That is why what happens in Turkey is followed with great interest and attention across all the Gulf countries. The course of the economy and the probable results of the 2023 elections are already a subject of greater interest and curiosity than they are in a city in Turkey. They follow the political agenda very closely. Their contributions to Turkey are many, economically as well as culturally and politically. In the Arab world this population constitutes an invisible and powerful source of Turkey's soft power.

In fact, behind Turkey's recently increasing economic dynamism also lies the opening toward this world. The Arabophobic-Islamophobic resistance that has formed inside Turkey against the results of this opening proves that it is in open hostility toward Turkey. And what about their shamelessly proclaiming with pride, citing Atatürk's fabricated and false remarks about the Arabs, that one should keep away from the Arabs? As if the Arabs were a burden upon us and as if, once rid of them, we had reached heaven, seen the peaks of contemporary civilization, advanced and developed.

It is a fact that we were cut off from the Arabs for a period as a matter of a special policy. Unfortunately there has always been a vein trying to establish the Turkish national identity on anti-Arabism. We did not even see that all the members of our Western alliance, which caused our break from the Arab world, tried with great appetite to fill the void we left, that in doing so they looked only at the profit they made, that they approached the Arab's face and the sugar of Damascus with a great appetite. We stayed away from the Arabs for the love of Britain and France, then the USA, in the name of the contemporary civilization we supposed they represented, but we also did not see that these countries, by means of these very delusions, set us back and clung to the Arab countries. They did not speak of the problems of the Arabs among themselves; they managed these problems very well, established their relations and benefited to the very end. We, on the other hand, with a false contentment like "our food is little, our head free of aches," kept consoling ourselves with the benefits we supposed we gained from staying away from the Arabs. We did not even realize what a great swindle was pulled on us, and there are still those among us who do not.

Yet the cultural and mental distance of the Arabs from the Turks is certainly much greater than that of the Europeans. But the Europeans of others, when necessary, using all their academic, journalistic and economic means to the full, find ways of establishing or maintaining relations with the Arabs in the most mature way, in a manner that will not disturb the Arabs, and obtain what they want from this market. We, on the other hand, looking at this picture, saying the Arabs don't like us anyway, consuming plenty of Orientalist discourse about the Arabs and belittling them, expect some benefit or loyalty from them.

Thank God the Arabs either do not see the discourse of some racist know-nothings among us, or even if they see it, do not give it credence, do not regard it as attitudes and views reflecting the real feelings of the Turkish people, and do not take it seriously.

Thank God again that in Turkey there is, recently, an administration and an economic ground that does not give credit to these foolish attitudes adopted in the name of a self-proclaimed national pride.

When you look in Qatar and Kuwait, and indeed in all the other Gulf countries, at how people look at Turkey, at their relations, their investments and the motivations behind these investments, you see clearly how great an advantage Turkey has over all other countries. There is a tremendous desire and will not to establish with others any exchange that can be established with Turkey. The only reasons are historical and cultural ties, a feeling of brotherhood and, of course, their strong sympathy for the stance Turkey has recently displayed.

In fact, this very picture itself sheds light on the nature of the rupture that took place after World War I. These countries, these peoples did not abandon Turkey, and would not have, unless someone acting in the name of Turkey abandoned them. Indeed, some of the Arabophobic discourses produced against the Arabs tragicomically manage to produce for themselves a national pride out of this estrangement.

While the victors of the war against the Ottomans would be expected to break the chains of mental bondage they imposed on these losers, they keep up a heedlessness and misguidance to the point of being able to praise these chains. What can we say, may God save them.