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The Turkish alternative
By Yossi Sarid
Tags: democracy, Turkey 

President Shimon Peres spent three days in Turkey where he was received with all the usual pomp and circumstance due to presidents. Peres, for his part, showered his hosts with compliments. They deserve every word of praise.

If we had to name the best world leader (admittedly from a pool of slim pickings), we would choose Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who heads the Justice and Development Party. Erdogan's party is Islamic-rooted, a fact which stirs the suspicion that it is a source of backwardness and terror.

It is not. Under Erdogan's rule, Turkey is rising like fresh bread for the baking in the world market. Erdogan, who was born in a poor suburb, sold bread in his youth and prays five times a day, is responsible for transforming his country into a modern state. Without him, belligerent Iran, medieval Saudi Arabia or shaky Pakistan (caught in the calipers of sinister madrasas and a state of emergency) would be setting the tone. Erdogan's Turkey is living proof of the existence of a different kind of state-sponsored Islam. The world knows - only through the model of Turkey - that Islam and democracy are capable of dwelling together.
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But the hedonistic West is still afraid of it. You have 70 million Turks in your court, Europe. Instead of embracing Turkey, you are sending it scurrying hither and yon. Instead of proving that this is not a matter of ego, prejudice and xenophobia, you are humiliating the very sane alternative that Turkey represents.

As though the Turkish democracy is the only one that's not perfect, the only one whose laws are flawed and in need of amendment - the only one violating civil and human rights. Romania and Bulgaria, for example, were recently brought into the European Union - even though they are neither models of "good governance" nor lack corruption and organized crime. Romanians, Bulgarians and Latvians, however, are "Ashkenazim" whereas Turks are repugnant "Mizrahim" - to put it in other words. Only nations that come from good stock are admitted into the club. Pleas at the gates will not persuade the selectors. In so doing, Europe is destroying the only alternative to fundamentalism and jihad.

Erdogan is amazing in his restraint: He is ordering an attack in northern Iraq to eradicate the Kurdish rebels, the PKK. PKK members kill Turkish soldiers and civilians on a daily basis, and local public opinion is demanding revenge. However, the Ankara government is coolly calculating its response. If only the United States would do the same; if only we would do the same.

Precisely because of this, the Turkish attitude toward the slaughter of the Armenian people is disappointing. It is not clear why Erdogan is refusing to acknowledge his country's responsibility for a genocide. After all, no one is blaming the new Turkey, which is not being asked to pay any reparations. All anyone wants is acknowledgment that one people fell victim to another.

Such admissions have been made in throughout history: Sons have had the wisdom to disengage from the sins of their fathers.

In this case, it is a matter of great-grandfathers who lived in the Ottoman period. Others have had the wisdom to climb down from the pillar of history's moral turpitude, take off their filthy uniforms and don the garb of "a different Germany."

About a month ago, the Turkish Ambassador to Israel, Namik Tan, wrote a letter to the editor of Haaretz, chiding me for my article, "Turkey and Armenians / Today's denial is tomorrow's holocaust" (October 12). He even accused me of "personal interests," because I nominated myself for the position of ambassador to Armenia. He also taught me a chapter in the history of the Holocaust of the Jews and accused me of insulting it.

I will never understand such an irritable reaction: Why is anyone who protests Turkey's outrageous behavior toward the Armenian people immediately considered its enemy? With enemies like these, like me, Turkey does not need friends - and it has a great many enemies. (Who doesn't?) This sensitivity reminds me of a similar sensitivity to any and all criticism. Israel, too, sometimes mixes up friends and foes.

Peres' visit is therefore timely - the right visitor in the right place. Tan, too, is the right ambassador in the right place. Both are doing unto the Armenians what Israel and Turkey (and probably every other nation) would hate to have done to them.
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  1.   Good Morning and A Warning 10:08  |  Atilla Karagözoğlu 16/11/07
  2.   Yossi who ? 10:41  |  Kobi 16/11/07
  3.   Israel should invest in Islam 10:56  |  john 16/11/07
  4.   Condemnation 10:58  |  Arev Kazanci 16/11/07
  5.   ERDOGAN KNOWS THE LIMIT, DON`T PUSH IT 11:02  |  indrajaya 16/11/07
  6.   to #4 Arev --- WELL SAID ! 11:10  |  Kobi 16/11/07
  7.   where Israel suppose to invest 11:10  |  John 16/11/07
  8.   #3 - John 11:13  |  קובי 16/11/07
  9.   You Don`t Push It Too Indrajaya 11:27  |  Yosemite 16/11/07
  10.   to #8 you know very well we don`t deal with terrorists 11:34  |  John 16/11/07
  11.   the usual total rubbish from haaretz 11:51  |  victor hardman 16/11/07
  12.   Turkey 11:53  |  Stella 16/11/07
  13.   #9, Armenians are pro-Western 11:55  |  Steve 16/11/07
  14.   # 10, JOHN 11:56  |  indrajaya 16/11/07
  15.   To John 12:00  |  David 16/11/07
  16.   to #10 12:07  |  Kobi 16/11/07
  17.   Israel and US support the terrorist PKK 12:18  |  mehmet 16/11/07
  18.   john 12:23  |  notblackorwhite 16/11/07
  19.   what an exageration 12:25  |  Can Turk 16/11/07
  20.   TO Kobi 12:30  |  Persian Kitty 16/11/07
  21.   EU PROCESS ISLAMIZING TURKEY, NOT REFORMING IT ! 12:30  |  Secular Turk 16/11/07
  22.   John#10 "we need to reach to the hearts of the peaceful majority" 12:40  |  Jacques 16/11/07
  23.   Yossi Sarid, what worries me is this... 12:59  |  Jacques 16/11/07
  24.   Persian Kitty #20 You make a good point. 13:09  |  Jacques 16/11/07
  25.   Turkey in Europe 13:10  |  Serge 16/11/07
  26.   Iran 14:15  |  Jeff 16/11/07
  27.   I beleive 14:24  |  Jeff 16/11/07
  28.   #21 14:27  |  Jeff 16/11/07
  29.   21. Secular Turk 14:45  |  Serge 16/11/07
  30.   #13 Steve 15:00  |  Yosemite 16/11/07
  31.   Another nonsense of an Old Babbler Sarid 15:25  |  Absolute Sweden 16/11/07
  32.   David 15:59  |  notblackorwhite 16/11/07
  33.   to PERISAN KITTY - #20 16:29  |  Kobi 16/11/07
  34.   skating on thin ice... 16:31  |  ravi 16/11/07
  35.   What is this guy smoking? 16:49  |  Mark Lincoln 16/11/07
  36.   Europe must embrace Turkey for the sake.... 16:52  |  Dutch Dirk 16/11/07
  37.   Admirable yes, European no 17:09  |  The Northern Wind 16/11/07
  38.   Israel best freind in the ME 17:18  |  My name is nobody 16/11/07
  39.   Just one thing 17:24  |  Danite 16/11/07
  40.   Sarid can neither write nor think straight 17:37  |  Rowan Berkeley 16/11/07
  41.   Secular Turk - You make a good point 17:46  |  David Israel 16/11/07
  42.   Hitler was modern and secular, should we embrace him? 17:55  |  Tavit Sassoun 16/11/07
  43.   SECULAR TURK 19:03  |  SECULAR ARMENIAN 16/11/07
  44.   to number 4 Nd 6 19:22  |  concerned armenian 16/11/07
  45.   Turkey 20:00  |  Frank Viviano 16/11/07
  46.   why not negotiate with Hamas? 20:15  |  John 16/11/07
  47.   to David #15 thanks for backing up my point 20:18  |  John 16/11/07
  48.   Secular Turk#21.... WHO SHOULD CHOOSE? 20:21  |  TrippleJump 16/11/07
  49.   To Kobi #33 20:27  |  Persian Kitty 16/11/07
  50.   to #16 Kobi terrorists are a fraction of 1% 20:32  |  John 16/11/07
  51.   To everyone 20:56  |  Nick 16/11/07
  52.   cont. 20:57  |  Nick 16/11/07
  53.   To #22 Jacques here is the mistake, 21:00  |  John 16/11/07
  54.   to Persian Kitty, Kobi 21:04  |  Nick 16/11/07
  55.   An important thing Danite 21:10  |  Mark Lincoln 16/11/07
  56.   To #22 Jacques here is the mistake,part 2 21:10  |  John 16/11/07
  57.   To Jacques #24 21:11  |  Persian Kitty 16/11/07
  58.   # 3 21:23  |  Yosi the Israeli 16/11/07
  59.   Yosi sarid represents 1% in Israel 21:32  |  Yosi, the Israeli 16/11/07
  60.   the Ottoman impire committed a Genocide 21:49  |  John 16/11/07
  61.   Yosi the Israeli #54 23:03  |  CHGODMK 16/11/07
  62.   armenians,jews,turks 23:36  |  bob okeegan 16/11/07
  63.   mark Lincoln 23:50  |  Danite 16/11/07
  64.   This article is proof of the Leftist-Islamist alliance 01:10  |  Jake 17/11/07
  65.   Sarid is talking absolute nonsense here 01:18  |  Jake 17/11/07
  66.   the Ottoman impire committed a Genocide 03:51  |  Mark Lincoln 17/11/07
  67.   to # 54 Yosi the Israeli 03:55  |  John 17/11/07
  68.   Oh, and ps 04:42  |  Mark Lincoln 17/11/07
  69.   I understand Danite 06:11  |  Mark Lincoln 17/11/07
  70.   CHGODMK 07:13  |  Danite 17/11/07
  71.   John #56 I wish it were that easy. 08:33  |  Jacques 17/11/07
  72.   AND THEY WANT TO JOIN THE EU: NOT BLOODY LIKELY 10:33  |  Grim Reaper 17/11/07
  73.   to #49 11:47  |  Kobi 17/11/07
  74.   to #50 11:50  |  Kobi 17/11/07
  75.   To Kobi #33 12:11  |  Persian Kitty 17/11/07
  76.   SERGE No.29 / THE REAL GOALS BEHIND TURKEY`S EU ASPIRATIONS 12:24  |  Secular Turk 17/11/07
  77.   Armenian issue 12:33  |  mehmet 17/11/07
  78.   Good Morning and A Warning 12:36  |  American 17/11/07
  79.   To Secular Turk 12:36  |  Persian Kitty 17/11/07
  80.   Oh, and ps 12:48  |  American 17/11/07
  81.   SERGE No.29 / REAL GOALS BEHIND TURKEY`S EU ASPIRATIONS 12:51  |  Secular Turk 17/11/07