Janus-Faced AKP On Israel, Syria And Egypt

Last week, a fatal blow was dealt to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) from one of its staunchest supporters and allies. In an interview with an Islamist and pro-AKP magazine, Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH) President Bülent Yıldırım, who was the head of the Mavi Marmara mission, heavily criticized the AKP for its failures in its Israeli, Syrian and Egyptian foreign policies.
Astonishingly, no one from the AKP has dared to respond to his criticism and his very serious claims. Such criticism and claims are so heavy that when they are normally voiced people are accused by AKP politicians of being traitors, CIA or MOSSAD spies or shady figures who work for foreign governments. This shows that Mr. Yıldırım, who has been working very closely with the AKP on several issues abroad, knows very well that the AKP does not want to infuriate him, and only behind closed doors will they try to calm him down and silence him.
The Muslim world, and especially the Arab world, must read the full transcript of this interview to see the Janus-faced, Envero-Kemalist and adventurist AKP, which is ready to use and abuse every single sensitive domestic and international issue for its political and financial benefit.
As reported by Today's Zaman, in an interview with Genç Öncüler (Young Pioneers), an Islamist monthly magazine, Yıldırım faulted the government for giving up on Bashar al-Assad's regime too early and criticized the continuation of trade ties with Israel and the encouragement of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to enter elections.
When the interview was covered by the Turkish media, Yıldırım claimed that he was misquoted or his remarks were taken out of context. Yıldırım reconfirmed his loyalty to the government and stressed that he did not jump ship and that the government has been supporting oppressed people. He also said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's leadership and the government have faced what he called “coup attempts.” Yıldırım also stated, “Our [continuing] struggle against Zionism is evidence that we have not jumped ship."
Nevertheless, I read the interview, and he is fatally attacking the AKP government for its Israeli, Syrian and Egyptian foreign policies. In terms of Israeli foreign policy, he clearly shows with concrete evidence and examples that the AKP government has never been sincere on the issue, and while it lashes out at Israel with words, in practice the AKP has worked together with Israel on several fronts, such as selling Iraqi Kurdistan's oil to Israel, increasing natural gas relations, receiving bribes from oil and gas companies that work with Israel, not sending necessary official documents to international courts that would allow Israel to be tried over the Mavi Marmara incident and not allowing the Mavi Marmara to sail again.
In the lengthy interview, İHH head Yıldırım also stated that the AKP had given up on the Assad regime too early and that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who was foreign minister at the time, should have made more trips to Damascus to mediate in the crisis. He also said: “The İHH never asked for a civil war [in Syria]. We said, 'Let's have peace.' For that we tried to mediate between Iran and the Syrian opposition, and even between the regime and the Syrian opposition.”
Yıldırım also heavily criticized the government for encouraging the Muslim Brotherhood to participate in elections in Egypt in 2012: “For example, the Muslim Brotherhood did not want to enter the elections. It entered following pressure from Turkey. They [leaders of the brotherhood] were right in their [earlier] decision to shun the elections because they would have taken the entire burden onto their shoulders. In fact, that was what happened, and the [Mohammed] Morsi government was presented as a failure.”
All these criticisms of the AKP come from a staunch anti-Hizmet movement person who cannot simply be labeled “parallel,” as the AKP loves to call Hizmet volunteers. The person who has presented these allegations is a radical Islamist who has had many private meetings with Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and who is still their ally. The AKP has used his İHH as a sort of semi-NGO in part of its international operations. Some of these operations have allegedly involved carrying weapons to Syrian rebels and others in the Muslim world under the cover of humanitarian aid. This has not been confirmed with evidence yet, but it does suggest the İHH and the AKP have an ultra-sensitive relationship and sheds light on why the AKP has been numb to his very severe criticism, claims and accusations.

İHSAN YILMAZ (Cihan/Today's Zaman)