Erdogan’s Turkic Vision!

On December 10, Azerbaijan held a military parade to celebrate its victory in a six-week war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in Azerbaijan. This round of hostilities between the two countries began on September 27 with Azerbaijan resorting to force to regain the territories around and within the enclave; it had effectively lost these areas to Armenia in 1994. The war ended with a peace agreement brokered by Russia on November 9 which went into effect a day later. Under the agreement Armenia was compelled to cede those areas in Nagorno-Karabakh and its surrounding areas which the Azerbaijan forces were able to bring under their control. Both countries also agreed to the presence of a Russian peace-keeping force along the line of contact.

Armenia and Azerbaijan were constituent states of the Soviet Union and with its collapse in 1991 emerged as sovereign countries. Nagorno-Karabakh has a Christian population which had wanted to join with Armenia but Azerbaijan did not let it go; the enclave is surrounded by Azeri territory. The Arminian people are Christian and share close linkages with those of Nagorno-Karabakh.

   

Azerbaijan has intimate ties with Turkey. Its majority population is Turkic speaking and considers itself part of the wider and historical Turkish world. In the complex politics of the Caucasus, Turkey is totally aligned with Azerbaijan while Iran broadly supports Armenia though an overwhelming majority of the Azerbaijan population are Shia Muslims. Iran has a very significant population of Azeri origin. They live in the north-west region of the country, adjoining Azerbaijan and the Aras river forms a boundary between Iran and Azerbaijan. Consequently, Iran has always been very sensitive to any call that can be interpreted as seeking to impart a separatist sentiment in its Azeri population. It is worth also mentioning that Iran has ethnic Armenians among its citizenry too.

Azerbaijan invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the victory parade. This was to acknowledge the full material and diplomatic support extended by Erdogan to Azerbaijan during the war. Indeed, without that help Azerbaijan could not have made the impressive gains it achieved. On its part Turkey made no attempt to mask its joy in Azerbaijan’s success. Erdogan visited Azerbaijan for the parade. During the visit he made a speech in which he recited verses from an Azeri poem. One of its verses was ‘They separated the Aras river and filled it with rocks and rods. I will not be separated from you. They have separated us forcibly’. The verse is an obvious reference and lament to the presence of the Azeri ethnic group in different countries.

Iran’s social media erupted in anger at what was perceived to be Erdogan’s attempt to erode Iran’s territorial integrity by inciting Iran’s population of Azeri descent. The Turkish President was lampooned and reminded of the fate of Saddam Hussein who had attacked Iranian territorial integrity when he launched a war in 1980 which lasted eight years and extracted a terrible human toll till peace and status quo was restored. The Iranian parliament passed a unanimous resolution to condemn Erdogan’s attempt against Iran’s territorial integrity. The Iranian foreign minister tweeted that “No one can talk about our beloved Azerbaijan” and the foreign ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest against Erdogan’s reciting the verse. Turkey’s response was strong. It objected to the targeting of its President and called in the Iranian ambassador to lodge a strong protest. It clarified that Erdogan did not refer to Iran at all nor was it his intention to take a negative position against Iran’s territorial integrity.

Within a couple of days though both governments moved to contain the situation for their interests coincide on a number of regional issues. Their foreign ministers spoke to clarify their stands and clearly the Iranian government accepted Turkish explanations because Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the media on December 14 “In my opinion, with the explanations (Turkish officials) gave, we can move beyond this issue but the sensitivity of our people is very important”. He added, “Based on my past knowledge of Mr Erdogan, it is very unlikely that he had any intention of insulting our territorial integrity. He always recites poetry in his speeches”.

While Rouhani has decided to overlook Erdogan’s poetry recital the fact is that the Turkish leader is vigorously seeking to revive pan-Turkic sentiments among the Turkic speaking people in Central Asia. He has now been at the helm in his country for eighteen years and during this period he has changed its domestic direction including, significantly, taking it away from the secularism of the Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. In July this year he decided to restore Islamic prayers at the Hagia Sophia which had been stopped in 1935. The Hagia Sophia was one of Christianity’s most famous and sacred churches and fell to the Ottoman Turks when they captured Constantinople in 1453. It was used as a mosque but its loss was never forgotten by the eastern Christian world. Thus, Ataturk’s decision to give up prayers and make it into a museum was a major gesture to the Christian world and especially to Europe.

Ataturk wanted to modernise Turkey and make it European in character. However, on their part the Europeans never accepted Turkey despite decades of Turkish attempts. Now Erdogan is emphasising Turkey’s Islamic and Ottoman personalities. On both counts he is treading on many toes—as this episode shows—but he is not bothered because he is convinced that he is a man of destiny.

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