Nikos Mpiniaris: Erdogan in the footsteps of Sultan Ertugrul – The Hagia Sophia and the leap into the void

An article by Syed Sharfuddin entitled “One Vision, Three Countries: Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia” appeared in the pro-government Sabah newspaper on July 8. The article refers to the summit of the Islamic states at Kuala Lumpur, which was organized last December. There, Malaysia sought to promote and resolve the problems of the Islamic world, with the presence of Turkey, Iran, and Qatar.

Saudi Arabia abstained and forced, as is said in diplomatic circles, Pakistan not to participate in the summit as the Sunni kingdom considered that Malaysia and Turkey were trying to replace it at the supremacy of the Muslim world. At that meeting (and at the UN General Assembly last year), the three countries agreed to set up a globally broadcasting television station.

As the Sabah columnist writes: “What was often missing from impressive news and politically charged analyses. “The rich cultural heritage of Islam and the values to be upheld, the faith, tolerance, the rule of law, peace, and human rights as essential elements of the Muslim national identity.”

Sultan Ertugrul and Hagia Sophia

In this effort, the newspaper included a successful Turkish TV series called “Ertugrul Resurrection”. It refers to the father of Osman, the founder of the Ottoman state and the Ottoman (Osman, Ottoman) Empire. He is the sultan who, in order to avoid the Mongol attacks, crossed from Central Asia west to Asia Minor and became a mercenary of the Seljuks there, who gave him an area to rule.

In fact, in Turkmenistan there is an imposing statue of Ertugrul, donated by Turkey, to commemorate the relations between the two countries. Ertugrul’s adventures, then, were broadcast on the Pakistani state channel and were hugely spectacular. They were even translated to make them more understandable to the Pakistani public.

The great success of the TV series about the heroic ancestor of the Ottomans is presented as a harbinger of the vision of the three countries to create a global Islamic television network. The decision on the Hagia Sophia is nothing more than a consistent sequence of realization of Erdogan’s intentions. Its aim is to instill in the consciousness of Muslims worldwide that Islam is wronged, exploited and needs someone to defend it internationally. And the entity that will do so is the last Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire.

Erdogan’s messages

It should be noted that Ertugrul was called Gazi, meaning a faithful fighter of Islam. He was not a common political leader, but a soldier of the Faith of Islam as the new ideology of the world. This is confirmed by Erdogan by turning the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. He first declares to his followers that he is fulfilling his promises.

It also opens a confrontation with the West, avoiding getting to the heart of Turkey’s economic and social problems. Finally, with the in absentia trial that has begun, concerning the assassination of Saudi journalist Kasogi and the conversion of the most imposing Christian church into a mosque, he is declaring that Saudi Arabia is incapable of leading Islam.

In addition, it is aimed at the Arabs, who are in internal turmoil due to the threat of Israel to integrate parts of the West Bank. It mainly reduces Egypt to its main ideological and political rival in Libya. Al-Sisi cannot explicitly condemn the Israeli decision because it is financially dependent on the United States and in terms of counter-terrorism action by the Israeli armed forces in Sinai.

In addition to his messages to the Middle East, Erdogan cites the example of Islamic countries disobeying the rules laid down by the major Western countries, which are nominally Christian. He states that rules that do not take into account the needs and positions of Islam in the world are not rules, but restrictions laid down by the former colonialists.

Leading force of Islam

As Erdogan said at Kuala Lumpur, it is unfair for a quarter of the world’s population, Islam, not to be represented on the Security Council. It is true that Islam, as one of the 5-6 cultural entities on the planet, does not have a country-core, which expresses its whole. There are some important states, but none have the influence to promote and lead the tradition of Islam adequately.

Turkey wants to play this role not only because it has visionary aspirations, but because the reality of conflict in the Islamic world calls for an influential Islamic power to promote solutions, or even impose them by force. Western interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, the Sahel have all failed. In fact, Turkey, beyond Erdogan’s aspirations, is facing a historic challenge.

The 57 Islamic countries do not have much opportunity to express themselves politically as blocs with common interests. In fact, in addition to the common religion, which is very diverse, Islamic states have different interests and security requirements. Religion is a cohesive web, but most of the time it is not enough to create a common platform of decisions, nor mechanisms for enforcing them.

Kemalism, Pan-Turkism, Islamism

The conversion of Hagia Sophia invalidates Kemal’s beliefs in a secular state. The series “Resurrection of Ertugrul” is the propaganda of Pan-Turkism. This position is close to Kemalism, which organized the Turkish nation-state, exterminating the minorities of Asia Minor. Schools start in Turkey with the morning statement “I am proud to be Turkish”.

For Turkey, a Russian-dominated Central Asia is an opportunity to expand its influence, where the big game of the new Silk Road is being played. So far, secular Kemalists, nationalists and pan-Turkists have common aspirations and common agendas. Hagia Sophia is the symbol of the greatest conquest of the Turks and the failure of the Arabs after their great conquests, such as Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Ctesiphon.

But Islamism is contrary to the secular vision of Kemal of a western Turkey. Here the Hagia Sophia case takes on another dimension. While at first it seems to serve the internal imbalances in favor of Erdogan in Turkey, at the same time it engages it in an uncertain game with the Arab ruling class, Iran and the Islamic Asian countries.

The beginning of the end

Islam is not one and indivisible, as is Christianity. Yes, Muslims may be proud that an Islamist goes beyond the taboos set by Western colonialists, but the Turkish Islamic model is not the only one and is not feasible for many. What Erdogan is trying to do is an official act of extreme expression of Islam that says in a more polite, but in the same cynical and barbaric way, what the Islamic State and the Taliban are saying and doing.

Turkey cannot present a “mild” Islam, which exists only in the imagination of Western intellectuals, without taking the quintessence from the textbook of the pro-fundamentalist Islamists. It is also a prisoner of the violence that has raged in Syria, Iraq and now Libya.

Without the extreme Islamists (in words and deeds) it cannot carry out its plans. The policy of Islamism is a trap, with no way out. Turkey’s attempt to play the leading role in the Islamic world will be the beginning of its failure and disintegration.