The knife hanging over Turkey's 20-year effort

Ismail is a young Syrian entrepreneur who was born in Kuwait, completed his primary education there, then studied sociology at Sakarya University in Turkey and returned to Kuwait. During his years of study in Turkey he learned excellent Turkish and became a complete Turkey devotee. After returning to Kuwait he set his career plan so that he would work in a field in which he could also serve Turkey. For this, he decided that the best thing he could do was to build healthily and soundly functioning bridges of communication between Turks and Arabs, and he opened a Turkish course in a field in which he believes there is a great need in the Arab world today.

In Kuwait, Turkey's Yunus Emre Institute is in fact working to meet the demand that has arisen in this field and to develop that demand further and meet it too. But Ismail wanted to do this as a private-sector initiative, also applying quite new teaching methods, and started his course at first on a modest level. The demand that came in soon forced him to grow the business further, and today his course has turned into a strong institution that addresses not only Kuwait but all the Gulf countries, offering face-to-face and online teaching together. Within a few years, nearly 5 thousand students have benefited from this course at various levels.

This institution, run and served mainly by Syrian youths born in Kuwait, is undoubtedly only one example of the Syrians in the Arab world who are currently contributing at one level or another to Turkey's economy, culture and influence. Examples of Syrians who, in a similar way, at different levels and in some way connected with the Syrians in Turkey, produce serious added value for Turkey are too many to count. At one stage of his course, Ismail brings his students together with people from Turkey who are experts in their fields and organizes Turkish conversation sessions with them. Many people from Turkey have taken part before, and most recently Turkey's Ambassador Tuba Nur Sönmez also took part and had a fine exchange with the students.

Thanks to these sessions, the course goes beyond routine and is not limited to the grammar or linguistic dimension of Turkish; it gives students their first experiences of meeting Turkish in a lively way. With my wife, and with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aydın Aktay of Sakarya University and his wife, the ease and beauty of chatting about Turkey, Turkish and, through them, different subjects, in the course setting with people of different age groups and professions who were quite eager and excited to learn Turkish, was something else. The regular attendees of the course consist of quite select people who have investments in Turkey and who are trying to develop their ties more deeply. Many of them are interested in Turkey's television series at a level that is hard to believe. Most of them count all dramas or historical series together. Although Turkey's drama series are more attractive than American or European drama, the historical series in particular have not only greatly increased interest in Turkish-Islamic history but have also made it possible to establish a serious identification with the Ottomans and Seljuks.

This serious interest awakened in Ottoman-Turkish history has increased interest in higher-level academic studies too. There is even considerable attendance at the summer lectures on Ottoman history given by Prof. Dr. Faisal al-Kandari of the History Department of Kuwait University. At al-Kandari's invitation, we also attended his lecture and had the opportunity to give his students a talk on Ottoman history.

Turkey has a very strong perception that it has been working on, stitch by stitch (gergef gergef), in all the Arab countries for about 20 years. This perception has gone as far as love, respect and increasingly an identification with itself. This is something that hardly any other country, any other nation could easily do. Let no one think that this has been so since long ago. Twenty years ago, this was not the perception of Turkey in the Arab countries. On the contrary, the prevailing perception was of a Turkey in which every bad event in history was remembered, and which in our day had drawn close to the West and moved away from the Islamic world. Yet in 20 years the leadership Erdoğan has shown, the country's economic and social development, the dignity of remembering its own identity in relations with the West, especially Erdoğan's walkout at Davos, then his stance of standing by the Palestinian cause and challenging Israel and, when the time came, the USA, his positioning on the side of the peoples during the Arab Spring process, and of course his opening Turkey's doors to the people who came fleeing from Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq and Libya to save their lives, and approaching them with compassion, formed very strong, respected and heartfelt bonds regarding Turkey, especially among the peoples.

What some ignorant people cannot see is this: when the Syrians or asylum seekers came to Turkey, they did not bring only their problems, their troubles, their burdens. Because of the humane stance Turkey showed toward them, they also brought the appreciation, the support and the perception of all the Arab peoples, even of some countries. In this way Turkey became, among all Arab peoples, in every case the country most to be supported, traded with, invested in, and preferred as a tourist destination. I would say "what the racists cannot see," but it is not possible that they do not see it. I know there is nothing that will convince the racists on this matter. They hate Arabs in every case, because they hate Islam. They perhaps consider the money coming from it, the tourism, every kind of benefit, unnecessary. Fine, but must everyone be obliged to consider unnecessary what they consider unnecessary? Must the whole nation pay the bill for their despotic and beastly attitude?

While we are at it, let us say that theirs is in fact not even racism. In the end, what has emerged here is a great blow to Turkey's twenty-year great investment, a blow whose cost cannot be paid with hundreds of billions of dollars. The images in the Arab media of a knife waved in the hand of a dimwit have been used by certain people as an opportunity to throw into the trash the whole of the extremely functional public diplomacy that has been working in Turkey's name for years.

Just as there is hostility toward Arabs on the Turkish side, there are also circles among Arabs who watch for an opportunity for hostility toward Turkey. That is why Arab racists and Turkish racists serve the same purpose. If they were truly sincere even in their racism, they would do things that would thwart each other's moves. But with what they do both serve each other, almost in solidarity, and in the end they do things that produce a benefit not for their own race but for the same master, Israel.

Just as Arab racism is the poison of the Arab, Turkish racism is the poison of the Turk.