While hardly
a fan of Turkey's Erdogan, I find it richly ironic that the United States leads
the charge in demanding that Turkey reopen Halki Seminary near Istanbul. Closed
in 1971, it has been a focus of US diplomatic efforts since the 1990's. The
United States and many others have pushed Ankara to allow the Greek Orthodox
Church to open this famed and historic institution.
Why is it
ironic? It was closed in 1971 in the backdrop of a US sponsored coup. The
regime was closing all private educational institutions in an attempt to quell
voices of dissent. Of course in addition to backing the Turkish military and
its coup, the US was also backing the military junta running Greece. When the
junta fell in 1974 in the wake of the Cypriot coup and subsequent Turkish
invasion, it would lead to Greece embracing Leftist politics pulling out of
NATO and for many years posturing itself against the United States... though
the contemporary Greek Left insists that Greece still submitted to NATO and
thus the United States.
The United
States in all its hypocritical glory meddles in the affairs of Greece and
Turkey, helps to foment the social unrest, backs military dictatorships and
then dares to try and inform internal policies... all the while claiming to
stand for human rights and freedom? It's offensive.
Unlike the Christian
Right we do not believe in government control of religion or any form of
censorship. We find it deplorable. But considering the history of the region
and America's bloody role and exacerbation of the tensions, it is offensive and
absurd that US diplomats and leaders would dare to speak on this subject.
But, the
only dupes are those who swallow the lies. It is no accident that the volume on
this point has increased as Erdogan's Turkey increasingly falls into disfavour
and Greece is being wooed to stay within the European orbit. The US feigns
friendship, smiling and shaking hands with Erdogan all the while scheming
against him and backing his detractors such as Fethullah Gulen, the Kemalist military
and on a darker note people associated with the Grey Wolves. This agitation
over the seminary is just an additional point of irritation for the Erdogan
administration.
But it's all
couched in typical and thus hypocritical American propaganda.
For more on
Gulen and America's role in the complicated world of Turkic and thus Eurasian
politics...
