The Turkish assassin is a product of Tayyip Erdogan’s incitement


Date posted: December 20, 2016

Michael Rubin

The murder of Andrew Karlov by an off-duty policeman in Turkey shocked the world. It was the first assassination of a Russian ambassador since 1829, when a mob egged on by Muslim clerics sacked the Russian embassy in Iran and shot Ambassador Alexander Griboyedov.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after the incident, and both agreed that they would not allow the incident to derail their rapprochement.

Karlov’s murderer was Mevlüt Mert Altintas, a 22-year-old off-duty policeman, who shouted, “Allahu Akbar” and then declared, “We die in Aleppo, you die here,” as he fired nine shots into Karlov.

Erdogan may depict the assassination as an aberration, but Monday’s violence will be the new normal for Turkey.

Altintas did not grow up in a vacuum. Five years ago, Erdogan acknowledged his goal was “to raise a religious generation.” Altintas is its product. He was seven years old when Erdogan came to power; his whole schooling was under Erdogan.

Beyond education, Erdogan’s biggest domestic mark has been the transformation of Turkey’s once robust media into an engine of state propaganda and conspiracy. Journalists who do not toe the line end up in prison, or worse. Altintas grew up upon a steady diet of Erdogan’s Islamist pronouncements and worldview repeated and endorsed in classrooms, on television, in newspapers, and even in the cinema. If Altintas believed his actions to be heroic, it was because Erdogan’s speeches depicted the Nusra Front, the Al Qaeda affiliate fighting in Syria, as defenders of Islam’s honor.

None of this should surprise us. Erdogan is not the first leader to use media incitement and religious radicalism for short-term gain, only to realize too late that he cannot contain the wildfire he unleashed.

Consider Saudi Arabia: For generations, Saudi schools taught and television stations preached conservative Islamism even as Saudi princes partied on the Riviera or skied in Switzerland. Saudi kings didn’t mind; they derived legitimacy from their role as the guardian of Islam’s holiest shrines. Even if they shirked responsibility for the fact that 15 of 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis, the subsequent bombing campaign in Riyadh hit home. Today, Riyadh openly acknowledges its Islamist problem.

Or, there’s Pakistan: For decades, Pakistani elites ignored radical religious seminaries. They believed religion could be a glue to hold the country together or to inspire a cadre to harass rivals in India and Afghanistan. They ignored the cost: After all, fire-and-brimstone clerics as a problem limited to backwards, rural areas.

Once again, however, the fire burned out of control. In 2007, gunmen killed Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Eighteen months later, Pakistani Taliban invaded a district just 60 miles from the nuclear-armed state’s capital. Today, much of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and commercial capital, is a no-go area.

Then there’s Syria. Despite depicting himself as a secularist leader facing down Islamist radicals, President Bashar Assad was long their enabler. Captured documents show he transformed Syria into an underground railroad for foreign fighters and suicide bombers to enter Iraq. What Syria now faces is blowback, a crisis of Assad’s own making.

And, of course, there are the Palestinians: Palestinian television preaches hatred. Schools hide weaponry. Rallies lionize suicide bombers. What once Palestinian leaders may have seen as a strategy enabling them to demand additional concessions, they now recognize could imperil their own aging leadership more than Israel.

Dictators are arrogant. They see themselves as immune to history. They use religion and incitement for short-term gain, but seldom consider the long-term consequences. No leader has been able to escape blowback, however. If history is any pattern, the violence in Turkey is just beginning and Erdogan will not be able to contain it, even if he is inclined to try.

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute

Source: NEW YORK DAILY NEWS , December 20, 2016


Related News

Monitoring group documents 53 suspicious deaths since coup attempt

The Sweden-based monitoring group documented in a recent report 53 cases of what it described suspicious deaths both in and outside of Turkish prisons after the coup attempt.

What’s Friendship Got to Do With [Mr. Gulen’s] Extradition?

On a visit to Washington to lobby for Gülen’s extradition, Nationalist Action party parliamentarian Kamil Aydin expressed his belief that “America is going to refuse losing Turkey as a good partnership in the region.” But even if Turkish politicians do not believe that America operates according to the rule of law, they should at least be aware that most Americans are proud to think that it does.

Gülen Movement has been used to undermine Ergenekon trial

‘Whenever new evidence surfaces related to Ergenekon, some people claim that that evidence was planted by Gülen sympathizers within the police force. This is quite unrealistic because important documents have been found in places where the police have never been able to access’ 5 February 2012 / YONCA POYRAZ DOĞAN, İSTANBUL A veteran journalist has […]

Former politicians call on candidates to publicize personal assets

One hundred politicians who previously served in Parliament, including former ministers, issued a declaration on Saturday calling on the candidates in the upcoming local elections to declare their personal assets to the public to prevent allegations of bribery and corruption.

TUSKON: Media raids discourage foreign investors

Foreign investors will not come to a country where the media faces intense pressure, Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) President Rızanur Meral said, speaking in front of the Zaman daily offices in İstanbul on Tuesday.

Gülen’s lawyer files criminal complaint against several Twitter accounts

In the criminal complaint, which was filed at the Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office, it was written that suspects were claimed to have committed a crime by “tapping phone calls, and [making] audio and visual recordings [of] Mr. Gülen illegally.”

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Prime Ministry approved Kimse Yok Mu, now accused of ‘terrorism’

Conflict between Gülen Movement and Turkey’s ruling AKP reflected in business world

Archbishop Fitzgerald: Fethullah Gülen has inspired many Muslims to be engaged in interfaith dialogue

Will Turkish corruption scandal lead to return of military to politics?

A new Turkish Cultural Center launched in Kiev

Michael Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, was paid to investigate Fethullah Gulen during election campaign

Guinea-Bissau minister pay visit to Turkish school

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News