What's going on in Turkey?

Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan, who has been doing his best to turn Turkey into an Islamist state, was booed out of a soccer stadium he had helped to build. As Mideast scholar Barry Rubin describes it, "The [TV] announcer, well-known journalist Mehmet Ali Birand, is in shock at an unprecedented display of antagonism toward the regime that has been trying to fundamentally transform Turkey from its traditional status as a secular republic and reverse its long-time alliances with the West in favor of aligning with Iran, Syria, and revolutionary Islamist terrorist groups."

There has been a long series of anti-Western, pro-Islamist statements and actions from the Turkish government for some time now. It's too soon to know if this incident will be followed by others - but I certainly hope so.

A fool

The fool I'm talking about is the new British prime minister, David Cameron. He tried to curry favor with Turkey by slamming Israel, referring to Gaza as a 'prison camp'. Pandering may have its uses, but the current Turkish regime is most likely to pocket Cameron's groveling - and demand more concessions from him.

Meanwhile, the Wikileaks documents reveal that British forces in Afghanistan have caused at least as many civilian casualties as have the Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank. That makes the United Kingdom - which is supporting the one-sided Goldstone Report condemning Israel - itself vulnerable to attacks from the 'international community' for various purported war crimes. Fawning over the current Islamist leaders of Turkey won't ward off that problem. (Thanks to Daily Alert.)

Who lost Turkey?

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates apparently thinks that, had the EU been more welcoming to Turkey, Turkey would not now be so hostile to Western interests.

Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi has an alternative view (hardly surprising): he sees Turkey as the Trojan Horse of Islam. As he put it: "If Turkey joined the European Union ... the European continent [would] no longer [be] a crusade or a Christian as it was, but Islam has become a strong partner in the European continent..." Syntax aside, he sees Turkish membership in the EU as a great opportunity - to help make Europe Muslim.

Not only do I think Gates has the equation backward; I would feel better had there been any indication Gates was aware of the rising tide of anti-Americanism in Turkey. For the past several years, it's been reflected in numerous public opinion polls, in Turkish media, and in Turkish TV shows and movies. This problem has nothing but nothing to do with the EU - and our Secretary of Defense ought to know that.

A win for the Muslim Brotherhood

The win in question is a big one - the radicalization of Turkey. The ruling party there, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), came to power swearing that it was a 'moderate' Islamist party. In the intervening years it has moved to silence domestic opposition, and to ally itself with radical, not moderate, Islamic countries.

As Soner Cagaptay writes here, "Islamism in Turkey, though traditionally non-violent, possesses six virulent characteristics; it is anti-western, anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, anti-European, anti-democratic and holds anti-secular sentiments, all of which are adopted from the Muslim Brotherhood."

The government's latest steps have been to exclude Israel from joint military exercises (a decision praised by Iranian president Ahmedinejad) and the broadcast of a television series depicting Israelis as cold-blooded and evil. Levels of anti-Americanism are already at record highs. The film, as described by Barry Rubin, is powerful propaganda much closer to the lies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion than to reality.

So what has the response of the U.S. government been to these developments? Nothing, as near as I can tell.