As I was reading the story of a man who was diagnosed with a rare delusional disorder, I could not avoid making a comparison with the current mental state in Turkey
Nationalism(s) and Islamism(s) also reinforced anti-Western feeling as a popular ideological tool to put the blame on the West - and Israel in particular - for all problems
I spent last weekend in Tehran, talking about Turkey’s regional and foreign politics. I have been to Tehran many times before for different occasions, but this was the first time that I saw Iranians display such a negative mood toward Turkey.
As I suggested last week, the Turkish government is trying to present its “policy shift” concerning the “struggle against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)” in “different terms” than those of the Western-Arab coalition.
The so-called Sunni powers have not been able to adapt to the changing political atmosphere in the Middle East, and Qatar and Turkey have resisted to the end
It feels like if we condemn ISIL without finding excuses we will betray our religious identity, legitimize Western interventionism, or even whitewash Western imperialism
Muslims all over the world rightly hate to be held responsible for the atrocities committed by some groups or organizations (like ISIL recently) in the name of Islam. Yet, they (in fact, “we”) have the responsibility
ISIL poses more moral dilemmas concerning the question of who is to be held responsible for such horrendous religious ideology and politics. Is it Islam itself that contains the seeds of radicalism?
It is rather difficult for me to write about the new prime ministerial candidate, Ahmet Davutoğlu, since he is a classmate from university years and an old friend.
