I’ve mulled over this the last few days.
I would much rather keep Turkey and NATO going over not… long term, over the next few centuries, we would be better off with the bloc, but to be honest, the US can go it alone, and even if it costs the US out NATO alliance, and Turkey goes full into the Russia orbit, I would rather lose our alliance to a increasingly fascist state than to compromise our integrity in turning over Gulen to Erdogan… I can’t imagine a act more stinking aweful and degenerate than playing into the game of a Mussolini, Hitler or Stalin. If we are to have a long term relationship with Turkey, it has to come at the understanding and potentially the cost of saying we wont compromise our central values or allow you to do the same yourself to you… Turkey is in a very dark time, Democracy and the rule of law has all but vanished, political purges are happening on a mass scale. It is the sort of thing that excites fools like Fixed Cross, but I am not impressed, he doesn’t see the long term consequences of such actions, how long it really takes to recover… it is measured in generations, not mere years. It is the intellectual death of a nation, including it’s philosophical diversity. It takes years to break free of the impulse towards censorship and enforced moderation on the population… much of a civilizations ability to adapt and change comes from its intellectuals.
Gulen is one of these intellectuals. He isn’t completely selfish, but he cares deeply about Turkey and it’s internal and external development. I can’t help but admire him. His voice is the sort of voice you want in a alliance. Has he financially benifitted? Yep… but he does call for a higher degree of unity and friemdly understanding. He is very strongly pro-democracy.
His voice is the sort of voice we want to hear in our allies. We want to see a willingness to exchange ideas and promote a common future. If we throw away Gulen, we throw away the very best of what Turkey stands for.
Erdogan… Erdogan only cares about himself. He plays by a very limited playbook, how to build a classical tyranny. He isn’t immortal, he will die someday. How canwe risk stayimg in a alliance with Turkey… look it in the eye in 300 years, and admit to it that in it’s darkest hour, we betrayed our most impirtant principles and let it turn against itself?
Both Gulen and Erdogan are old, will be passing. This storm will pass, perhaps we must go our seperate ways. Ultimately, Russia is declining… nothing Putin can do will stop its demographic collapse, his strategy of kindling grandure is ultimately one of failure, as that isn’t what gets people to breed. Copying off a failed state… and this is exactly what Russia is, we are witnessing nostalgic death throws, isn’t going to work for Turkey… especially considering ISIS next door, kurdish militancy in the face of unjust repressions, and that Erdogan’s stunts tend to wreck the economy. Perestroika happened because after a while, nobody could believe in the Soviet State. Turkey too, with all it’s hipocrisy abd denial, will too awaken, realizing the lies it was fed. We need to do what we can to ensure the political opposition can thrive outside of Turkey, and evolve.
I also think it is time to establish a Radio Free Turkey, just as we used to broadcast (still do I guess) a Radio Free Europe to the Soviet Domains. Turkey is no longer a free society, and will continue for a rime to morph into a insidious character.
It has a history of a tug of war between civilizations, we should hold true to preserving what is best in Turkey, and await for its return. I don’t care if Erdogan evicts us from our base, keeps our planes and equipmemt and sells it to the Chinese, I would rather lose Turkey than betray Turkey, and worst, betray ourselves.
Under no circumstances should we turn Gulen over. You can keep wiggle room in diplomatic talk, look the otherway to keep on bombing ISIS… which is the worst of evils, but if we got to back out, do it. After enough time, the middle east will eventually kill off ISIS themselves. They will forge a capable coalition… it will be very costly… what is happening in France and Belgium will be nothing… but these things will eventually come to pass anyway… solutions to these acts will arise in time, I promise it. It will be a good awakening for the left that the real world still exists, and that we have to deal with it first… both for Europe and the Middle East. I don’t think betraying Turkey will help it whatsoever in the long term. It won’t be able to develop the sentiment and mentality to develop a stronger future constitution to prevent Erdogan and his ilk from arising again, if it thinks it’s closest allies will merely undermine it’s system for shirt term strategic gain. Turkey… it must be a very long term alliance, counted in the centuries. We love you enough, respect you enough, if need be, to do without you when you turn your back against your most important principles. I don’t want to live in a world run by Nietzscheans, but rather good men who take a love for their country to heart in the long term, who don’t destroy it for shirt term egoism and megolomania. A country is stronger and more important that any individual, even it’s kings. Erdogan can’t be allowed to compromise Turkey’s future… it is philosophers like Gulen that guarantee such futures are still feasible. Turkey will need his vision, and that of his successors, someday when it is rebuilding itself. We need to make it very apparent that the US is a safe refuge to do so. We need to make political asylum for its intellectuals a high priority. If Erdogan can’t allow this, then the NATO alliance is off… either Turkey is leaving it, or the US will, but we will never abandon Turkey, however hard the breakup becomes. We must always look out for its best interests, as this is what a long term alliance is about… respect and brotherhood, as opposed to short term alliances of overlapping interests as we do with other nations.
Under no circumstances can we give up Gulen. We give him up, we give up ourselves.
