Yesterday Laurence Zuckerman here pointed out that Turkish P.M. Erdogan was behaving politically when he pulled his theatrics at Davos. There is obviously truth to the comment; there are Turkish municipal elections in a month or so. But it raises the question: What's wrong with politics? Writes Nader Hashemi: This is why the West is opposes to democracy in the ME. Democratically-elected leaders in the Muslim world respond to the wishes of their constituents; not their foreign backers.
From Lally Weymouth's interview of Erdogan in the Washington Post:
Why do you have such a close relationship with Hamas, which is an arm of Iran and is run by Khaled Meshal, who lives in Damascus?
First of all, Hamas is not an arm of Iran. Hamas entered the elections as a political party.
If the whole world had given them the chance of becoming a political
player, maybe they would not be in a situation like this after the
elections that they won. The world has not respected the political will
of the Palestinian people. On the one hand, we defend democracy and we try our best to keep democracy in the Middle East, but on the other hand we [in the West] do not respect the outcome of . . . the ballot box.
Palestine today is an open-air prison. Hamas, as much as they tried,
could not change the situation. Just imagine, you imprison the speaker
of a country as well as some ministers of its government and members of
its parliament. And then you expect them to sit obediently?
those who try to claim that my attitude toward Israel's latest attacks
on Gaza is because I'm anti-Semitic or against the Jewish people.
And many American Jews are very upset about it.
And I'm very upset at them. Beginning with the Jews who live in my
country, they are witnesses to my attitude toward Jews. As an
individual, I have always declared that anti-Semitism is a crime against humanity. As a prime minister
I have always been against anti-Semitism and my frustration is against
the current Israeli government because they did not act fairly toward
us.
But I've seen the anti-Semitic signs around Turkey recently. . . .
These are individual attempts.
But they're very extreme. The Israeli Consulate has been picketed. It's been ugly.
There have been democratic demonstrations. . . . There are demonstrations in the United States, even in Israel.
Everything we have said is against the current Israeli government,
nothing against Jews. In my speeches I have stated very clearly that
anyone who even thinks about doing anything against the Jews in Turkey
will find me against them. Of course, I'm not going to ask Olmert to
write my speeches.
Is your relationship with Israel over?
We have a serious relationship. But the current Israeli government
should check itself. They should not exploit this issue for the
upcoming elections in Israel.
Do you expect President Barack Obama to play a more even-handed role between the Palestinians and the Israelis?
There is no justice right now. We expect justice from now on.
