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Mr. Obama Why Are You Courting the Muslim World in Turkey?

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  • Mr. Obama Why Are You Courting the Muslim World in Turkey?

    Mr. Obama: Why Are You Courting the Muslim World In Turkey?

    By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

    08 April, 2009
    Countercurrents

    http://www.countercurrents.o rg/ulrich080409.htm

    Mr. Obama: Why Are You Courting the Muslim World In Turkey?

    By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

    08 April, 2009
    Countercurrents.org

    Charles de Gaulle argued that authority is derived from
    prestige... and prestige 'is largely a matter of feeling, suggestion
    and impression, and it depends primarily on the possession of an
    elementary gift, a natural attitude' ... lately gone by the
    fashionable term charisma.' Mr. Obama's charisma veils what is either
    his inordinate ability to manipulate, orhis total ignorance of the
    Muslim world. His choice of cabinet suggests it is the former.

    On his first overseas tour as President of the United States,
    Mr. Obama deliberately chose Turkey to make his case to Moslems and
    stated that the United States is `not at war with the Muslim
    world'. The choice of country merits scrutiny.

    Mr. Obama praised Kamal Ataturk as someone `whose life is not
    something that can be cast in stone and marble. His greatest legacy is
    Turkey's strong and secular democracy', he said. True, Mustafa
    KemalAtaturk was the founder of the modern Turkish Republic but how
    relevant wasthis in reaching out to the Islamic world? Ataturk,
    perceived citizenship as the core of legitimacy-- citizenship based on
    the Western philosophy and ideology. Article 88 of Teskilat I Esasiye
    Kanunu 1924 ordained that all people living in Turkey, regardless of
    ethnic origin or religion were to be considered Turks (democratic
    values!). They had to be patriotic and civilized. The past was erased,
    total elimination of Ottoman and Islamic history, and someone else's
    values were borrowed - the West, to create a national identity - a
    `revolution of value'.

    It is an irony that Mr. Obama chose this `Islamic State' and praised
    its founder for having rejected Islamic values (although Islam as a
    `historic heritage' of overseas Moslem such those in Bosnia was
    accepted). Turkish non-Muslims such as Jews, Armenians, and Greeks
    could be citizens, but not nationals. And most importantly, the
    Turkish military is guardian of the Turkish Constitution and a
    bottom-up Islamic party is contrary to the Constitution.

    This is one reason why it must be an insult on all those who hear it
    to have Mr. Obama say: `Let me be clear: the United States strongly
    supports Turkey's bid to become a member of the European
    Union'. Joining the EU would weaken the military's interventionist
    policies in guarding the Kamalist state ideology and the Turkish State
    would no longerbe secular if it chose to reject the Ataturk-imposed,
    Western-based philosophy of citizenry.

    Furthermore, as a non-EU member, America has far more leverage on
    Turkey than it would if it were to become an EU member. Maintaining
    the status quo, the United States can give Turkey20a show of support
    and coax it into betraying its national interest while serving the US
    and Israel - a long time ally of Turkey's. This arrangement has not
    been without rewards. The Armenian Genocide has been suppressed in the
    U.S. even though it has been well recorded that six years after the
    Madrid Conference, in 1939, Hitler referred to the Armenian Genocide
    thus:

    `It was knowingly and lightheartedly that Genghis Khan sent thousands
    of women and children to their deaths. History sees in him only the
    founder of a state. The aim of war is not to reach definite lines but
    to annihilate the enemy physically. It is by this means that we shall
    obtain the livingspace that we need. Who today speaks of the massacre
    of the Armenians...'[i]

    In 2006, France passed a bill making it an `offence to question
    theArmenian genocide'. How likely is it that Mr. Obama will offend
    Israel and pass a bill making it an offense to question the Armenian
    genocide if he truly supports Turkey to join the EU? Mr. Obama, it
    seems, is not free to choose the man who would run his National
    Intelligence Council - Chas Freeman was pushed out by the Israeli
    lobby.

    Turkey has made great strides - however, one has to question
    Mr. Obama's true motives. If his intentions were to have a cordial
    dialogue with a Moslem nation, why was the largest Moslem populated
    country such asIndonesia not chosen? Alternatively, Malaysia would
    have been an excellent venue for addressing20the Moslem world. What
    makes Mr. Obama's sincerity questionable is the delivery of a `massive
    shipment of U.S. weapons to Israel on March 22nd' (Amnesty
    International Report) after the Israelis brutally massacred the
    Gazans.

    One is left wondering why it is that Israel, with all its nukes, its
    savagery, its violation of all international laws, including the
    latest incident of violating the sovereignty of Sudan, blatantly
    threatening Iran in violation of the basic UN Charter, is deserving of
    so much friendship [read dictating to the U.S.] and foreign aid from
    the United States of America, and Iran, which has not violated any
    laws, is being sanctioned? Mr. Obama should realize that Charisma
    cannot maintain effective leadership.

    Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich has a Master of Public Diplomacy from USC
    Annenberg for Communication. She is an independent researcher with a
    focus on U.S. foreign policy and the influence of lobby groups.


    [i] Samantha Power `A Problem from Hell - America in the Age of
    Genocide'. Perennial 2002
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