Necmettin Erbakan
I just checked the news and saw that Turkey's first Islamist prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan, has died at the age of 85.
I've written about him here:
Many of the AKP’s senior figures rose to prominence in the now-banned Refah Party, led by ousted prime minister Necmettin Erbakan. Refah, and the larger Milli Görüs¸ movement associated with it, unquestionably did represent a deeply sinister strain of Islamic radicalism, giving the lie to the claim that there exists no such tradition in Turkey. Erbakan came to power promising to “rescue Turkey from the unbelievers of Europe,” wrest power from “imperialists and Zionists,” and launch a jihad to recapture Jerusalem. One of his first acts, upon taking office, was to fly to Iran and fawn over Khomeini.
In 1997, Erbakan was ousted by the army. Refah was banned. The AKP’s senior figures, including the prime minister and the president, have publicly renounced Erbakan and his ideology. But the AKP’s enemies find it frankly preposterous to imagine that the leaders of the AKP have experienced some kind of road-to-Damascus conversion (so to speak). Necdet, as I will call him, a middle-aged man in the construction business, put it to me this way: “Once an Islamist, always an Islamist. There’s no such thing as moderate Islam. You Americans don’t understand that. That was your biggest mistake, supporting the Taliban against the Soviet Union. You can’t make Muslims into your allies. It isn’t possible.”
And here:
The founder of Refah, Necmettin Erbakan, is an anti-Semitic loon who less than a year ago declared that 200 of the world’s countries were controlled by “racist, imperialist Zionism,” deplored Jewish control of the world’s monetary system, and insisted that Jews collect 9 percent of global airline ticket proceeds. That so many of the AKP’s senior figures were once allies of this malignant buffoon should give any reasonable observer pause.
Erbakan and his party--the Felicity, or Saadet Party--had become marginal figures in Turkey. But the Millî Görüş movement remains extremely significant in Europe, and in Germany in particular.
There's a close link, or was, between Erbakan and the Islamist figures now in the headlines such as Ghannouchi and Qaradawi. I suppose this is a reminder that however influential they are, they are no longer young. As I've noted here recently, it seems that "aging" and "death" are not just rumors, but real phenomena.
There's an upside to that, I suppose.
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Jul '10
Re: Necmettin Erbakan
Reading that piece about Millî Görüş, I was struck by the fact that the Balkans weren't among the places it has flourished. Why is that?
Do Turk islamist types attempt to influence the Albanian populations in Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, etc.? It seems like those would be obvious targets. This piece lists some history of important cultural & political ties, but they seem to be of the secular variety.
Re: Necmettin Erbakan
Palaeologus: Reading that piece about Millî Görüş, I was struck by the fact that the Balkans weren't among the places it has flourished. Why is that?
Do Turk islamist types attempt to influence the Albanian populations in Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, etc.? It seems like those would be obvious targets. This piece lists some history of important cultural & political ties, but they seem to be of the secular variety. · Feb 27 at 9:29am
This is one of the best questions I've seen on Ricochet--seriously. The answer, in my view, has to do with the nature of the Turkish immigrant experience in Europe. Millî Görüş really flourishes among Turks for whom the experience of immigration has led to a deep sense of cultural insecurity and inferiority. It's a "national(-ist) salvation" movement, which is to say, it plays on the sentiments of anxiety to which fascist parties have traditionally appealed. Diaspora Turks in the Balkans have a long- established cultural role that dates from the Ottoman Empire; they did not arrive there as barely-tolerated "guest-workers." This creates a very different mentality. (Bill Walsh: I hope you'll comment on this question, too.)
Oct '10
Re: Necmettin Erbakan
"I read the news today, oh boy," indeed.