Al-Hayat columnist Hazem Saghieh this week analyzed the recent row between Israel and Turkey over the IDF's counter-terrorism operations in Rafiach.
On the pages of the London-based, Saudi-backed newspaper, Saghieh pointed out the dilemma faced by the ruling Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP). On the one hand, the Turkey seeks to maintain its allied relationship with Israel, but at the same time, as an Islamic-party-led state, it seeks greater contacts with co-religionists in Gaza. Saghieh also claimed that the Muslim Turkish masses are hostile to Israel, and the ruling party is also catering to those purported sentiments.
The conflict, however, is wider than Turkey's relations with Israel. The Al-Hayat columnist noted that the AKP and the military - keeper of the secularizing ideological flame of Ataturk - are clashing over efforts to introduce Islamic traditions in officially secular Turkey. At the same time, Saghieh claimed, the clash will not get out of hand, because Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan knows that the army is willing to resort to violence to enforce the rule of "basic Ataturkian principles."
"Turkey is deeply divided, and it goes without saying that the country cannot survive without its educated and Westernized middle class, and also without its army and its Ataturkian heritage. Yet, it primarily cannot live without... its people - represented now by the AKP."
On the pages of the London-based, Saudi-backed newspaper, Saghieh pointed out the dilemma faced by the ruling Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP). On the one hand, the Turkey seeks to maintain its allied relationship with Israel, but at the same time, as an Islamic-party-led state, it seeks greater contacts with co-religionists in Gaza. Saghieh also claimed that the Muslim Turkish masses are hostile to Israel, and the ruling party is also catering to those purported sentiments.
The conflict, however, is wider than Turkey's relations with Israel. The Al-Hayat columnist noted that the AKP and the military - keeper of the secularizing ideological flame of Ataturk - are clashing over efforts to introduce Islamic traditions in officially secular Turkey. At the same time, Saghieh claimed, the clash will not get out of hand, because Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan knows that the army is willing to resort to violence to enforce the rule of "basic Ataturkian principles."
"Turkey is deeply divided, and it goes without saying that the country cannot survive without its educated and Westernized middle class, and also without its army and its Ataturkian heritage. Yet, it primarily cannot live without... its people - represented now by the AKP."