Why You Shouldn't Take Everything Written in the US Seriously
In its last issue devoted to Turkey under the main theme of "Turkey's Islamist Danger," the US-based Middle East Quarterly (MEQ) printed two articles: one targeting the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the other targeting the Gülen movement.
Normally it is not worth engaging the Turkish public with things published in the US in a journal that has little influence, particularly in American academia; however, the Turkish press tradition of covering, in large fonts on their front pages, the articles on Turkey that seem to fit their opinion as if the chosen piece has any news value whatsoever forces us to clear up a few points.
Actually, it is possible to test the deree of importance of a foreign comment and decipher its meaning by asking the right questions, such as where it was published, the circulation of the medium, its editorial policy, its reader profile, its influence, the article's author, the author's competence, the school of thought they belong to, the interest groups they are connected to, the agendas of those groups, etc. Such questions might provide a healthier assessment of articles published abroad. Now I will try to look for answers to these questions in the context of the MEQ's recent articles and hopefully give a better view of the bigger picture.
The MEQ in the US is a low-circulation journal of semi-academic quality, led by some right-wing Jewish writers. It usually aims to push its agenda into academic and political circles. It is not seen as an objective and reliable source in US academia. Those who do respect the journal in Washington are usually on the line of the Israeli and American conservative right and the neocons. This is the line that influenced US foreign policy under George W. Bush. However, the influence of these groups has been reduced significantly, mostly due to the fiascos lived through in the Iraq war. It's expected that it will further diminish because the Barack Obama administration is more aligned with the American and Israeli left.
The publisher of the MEQ is Daniel Pipes. Its chief editor is Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, the admiral's ship of neocons. The Turkish public is actually somewhat familiar with these people, whose opinions and analyses on the Middle East are shaped by the drive to protect Israel. Of course, we owe much of this to our media, which keeps bringing Michael Rubin, an insignificant figure in the US who has no serious academic work on Turkey, to its pages and screens.
The approach of its publishers, who eye everything related to Muslims with deep suspicion — to the extent of Islamophobia, according to some commentators — also reflects on the character of their journal. The MEQ sees almost every political and social movement that has religious concerns as a chronic or potential threat. It is interesting how their reflexes at this point are in parallel with those of the Republican People's Party (CHP). Indeed, their sources are entirely limited to the Kemalist secularist elite. For this reason, in this journal one can see the tendency, like in Turkey's Kemalist secularist elite, to speak in defense of Ergenekon, a clandestine organization plotting against the government, and defame those who try to shed light on its crimes. Even though they don't openly defend military coups, they find it against their short-term interests that Ergenekon — an essentially anti-American, anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic formation with an extreme nationalist structure — is being destroyed.
Rachel Sharon-Krespin, the author of the negative and one-sided story on the Gülen movement, is a Turkish Jew who lived in Israel for many years. She is not even someone who stands out in the US Jewish community, let alone foreign policy circles. A source from the Jewish lobby said they barely knew Krespin, adding that he is not aware of her having any serious expertise on Turkey. Judging by her footnotes, she usually chooses to quote newspaper articles and opinion pieces supportive of her own opinion. There is no evidence, in her article, that she has read a single serious academic work on her topic. The information she provides and the arguments she puts forth give the impression that she has received the help of sources of disinformation in Turkey. Her social environment is filled with representatives of the pro-status quo, secularist-fundamentalist mentality abroad.
Krespin is a member of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a think tank that screens the world press with a right-wing Israeli perspective to foment public opinion in Western capitals. MEMRI founder Meyrav Wurmser is the spouse of David Wurmser, a former Middle East adviser to US Vice President Dick Cheney. Meyrav Wurmser works for the controversial Hudson Institute. It looks like these circles have never been content with the fact that Foreign Policy, one of world's most prestigious magazines in international affairs, put Fethullah Gülen in their top 100 public intellectuals list. They try to create confusion by constantly raising allegations that have been repeatedly proven wrong.
The gist of all this is that it is necessary to avoid exaggerating everything written in America. There is really nothing to be taken seriously about the MEQ and the like in their analysis of Turkey. It is impossible to make a constructive contribution to the interests of the US, Israel or Turkey with such provocations. On the other hand, one must not make wrong generalizations because of the connections of perpetrators with Israel and Jewry. These mistakes are isolated and the moderate majority cannot be held responsible for their actions; particularly at a time when temperance is needed perhaps more than ever while emotions are rising sky-high due to disasters in Gaza.
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