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Erdogan's Rising Islamist Militarism in Turkey

(Weekly Standard) Eric S. Edelman and Merve Tahiroglu - Nationalism is running high in Turkey. Turkish President Erdogan has done his best to promote militarism among the populace, including by openly encouraging the formation of civilian militias claiming to defend his government - and the Turkish nation. Over the last year, the Turkish government has facilitated militaristic student parades, while Turkey's state-run religious affairs directorate is teaching Turkish children about the grandeurs of martyrdom. Some state-run schools even replaced their recess bells with Ottoman military marches. The Turkish government blames the U.S. for both the failed July 2016 coup and the rise of Kurdish self-rule in northern Syria. Most Turkish people, opinion polls show, now consider the U.S. the top threat to their national security. Erdogan has promised to deliver an "Ottoman slap" to the U.S. and "bury" U.S. special forces soldiers operating in Syria. The U.S.-Turkish relationship cannot survive if the bulk of the Turkish population sees the U.S. in such adversarial terms. Eric S. Edelman is a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Merve Tahiroglu is a research analyst.
2018-03-07 00:00:00
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