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Turkey’s AKP government shaping a pro-Sunni foreign policy
(Al-Monitor) – In one of its worst repercussions on Turkey, the Syrian crisis swept away the dust that covered the sectarian cracks in the depths of Turkish society and politics. Up until Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan marked his Syria policy with an emphasis on Damascus being a “Nusayri minority regime,” the question of whether the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government was shaping a pro-Sunni foreign policy had been raised only timidly. The general outlook of Turkish foreign policy suggested equal dialogue with all parties without sectarian discrimination.
As Iraq joined Iran in the opposite camp in Syria, the sectarian dichotomy became the main factor in Ankara-Baghdad tensions. In the meantime, Erdogan began to mention the Syria break-up scenario for Iraq, too. On Dec. 22, 2012, he made striking remarks on NTV television: “The unrest in Iraq could be mirrored in Syria as serious sectarian differences exist there, too. Iraq’s central administration is a minority government. But because of the support it gets for being Shiite, it brutalizes its own people.”
Baghdad did not mince its words either. In response to Erdogan, Iraqi lawmaker Kamal Saidi said: “Erdogan is no longer able to control his sectarian impulse. He thinks he is the leader of the region. Has anyone ever appointed Erdogan as the custodian of Iraq? Does he think he is a sultan ruling Iraq?”
Sharpening Syria rhetoric
The Syrian crisis further exposed the sectarian rhetoric. Turkish officials began to call the Syrian Alawites “Nusayri,” to distinguish them from Turkey’s Arab Alawites, and they persistently described Damascus as a “Nusayri minority regime,” framing support from Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah to Syria as “Shiite solidarity.”
In Sept. 2011, AKP Deputy Chairman Huseyin Celik targeted main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, an Alevi. “The Baath regime relies on a 15% portion [of Syrians]. Is it perhaps a solidarity out of sectarian affinity that leads Kilicdaroglu to defend Syria?” Celik said.
“Grim” bridge and Reyhanli bombs
Things grew even rougher as the spirit of Sultan Selim The Grim reverberated from foreign policy into domestic politics. Naming the prospective third Bosphorus bridge after the sultan was a message not only to the Alevis but also to Iran and Syria. Even though Erdogan keeps repeating that “we should cast out those fomenting sectarianism,” naming the bridge after The Grim fuelled the anger of Alevis, already irked by the way Turkey intervened in Syria. The Alevi wound had previously been re-opened amid a series of incidents such as the marking of Alevi homes in Adiyaman, Izmir and Gaziantep, and a wall graffiti in Erzincan threatening to “burn all infidel Alevis.”
On top of places like Hatay, which are populated by Arab Alawites, Istanbul’s Alevi-majority Gazi neighborhood was already in a state of a low-intensity revolt on June 14, when Erdogan rubbed salt in the wound. In a speech at a party function, he said the May 11 bombings in Reyhanli had “martyred 53 Sunni citizens of ours” — the first time a prime minister highlighted the Sunni majority in such a context.
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