Absent regional cultural identities and structures
Had the Arabs not delivered the message of Islam to the Turks,Had the Turks not unified Arab lands for five long centauries,Had the Arabs not laid the cornerstone of the campaign to take Istanbul (the jewel of Anatolia) represented by the grave of the companion of the prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) Abu Ayyoub Al Ansari,Had the Seljuk Turks followed by the Ottomans not lifted the Arab Muslim State from the edge of the Abyss,Had they not been the protectors and guardians of Islam and Muslim honor since the fall and destruction of Baghdad,Had none of this history and chemistry existed and the Arabs and Turks were merely two neighboring nations, one of which is suffering difficulties while the other is undergoing a period of revival and selfdiscovery.Facing a common danger while enjoying the potential benefits of a unique economic integration of markets, manpower and natural resources should be imperative. It would have been necessary, without question, for the two nations to speedily agree upon a common ground for coming together to form a bloc suitable to this age of conglomeration in which separate lands and nation-states are doomed to failure.Another fact leads to the very same conclusion. These two nations have entered the 21st century in a different mood from that experienced in the early 1900s. Old wounds have healed and feelings of animosity have melted away over time. New common dangers require a new political roadmap with a new way of thinking in order to face the future in a calm manner -sustaining progress and refraining from the emotional extremes that so characterized previous eras.Some see this statement as both factual and pragmatic, while others may acknowledge its inherent truth but still doubt if it could ever be implemented in practice. This idea needs to be lived and practiced by those who believe in it in order to win over the skeptics. It also requires a stable environment in which to flourish, unaffected by political changes. In other words, it needs the institutions of civic society to be healthy and effective.We are not faced with an unsolvable equation here. Just as members of a family may sometimes need to evoke memories of the good times to help reach conciliation after a souring of relationships, so do nations. And if such memories do not exist, nations seeking mutually beneficial advantages should work tirelessly to alter historical precedent in order to create collective understanding. The European Union exemplifies these necessary relationships as its member states had to compensate for the absence of a shared history of cooperation in order to create an entirely new vision for Europe.Conversely, our regional archive contains 120 million shared memories. It is the third biggest archive in the world, two thirds of which are concerned with the Arab world. This archive is a cultural map of our inherited shared regional identity and a witness to the last five centuries of how our peoples lived their lives together.Despite new developments and the considerable reserves of social goodwill that we enjoy, we still face the problem of defining our common regional identity in order to mend the sociopolitical fabric of our region. This is an area in which Europe has exerted herculean efforts - not to mend their common social fabric (they never had one in the first place) but rather to patiently and skilfully weave a new regional sociopolitical cloth using only scraps of unrelated fabrics.Most of the archive's content has not yet been studied by researchers. Some of the material sits on the library shelves of academic institutions like diamonds used to beatify articles of jewelry instead of being used as drill bits to cut impervious stones. This archive contains many truths that, if understood, could right modern day mistakes and rectify commonly held misconceptions. It contains examples of the medals of honor exchanged between Arabs and Turks, like the honor of being called the Najeebet Millet, a name given by the Turks to their Arab neighbors - the nation they viewed as producing the finest and greatest sons of Adam. This common archive also contains the fundamental knowledge of how to create a functioning multicultural society (something that modern day Europe has unquestionably benefited from). This is of course in reference to the Ottoman archive.There are parallels between the past Ottoman society of the and present day Turkish society in terms of social character. Both are reticent, introverted societies. They are societies that do not advertise or promote their cultural norms and standards, something that other nations excel at.In the 17th century, the Ottoman social system initiated a policy to encourage the nomadic Roma to settle. Free education was provided to Roma children and their areas of settlement were considered as unitary administrative areas. A minimum wage was introduced to stop exploitation and they were given the right to protest state decisions; all with the aim of improving the conditions of this minority group and integrating them into society.To be concerned with minorities' issues should be normal for majority groups and, furthermore, should be demanded by those in less represented groups - this is, after all, how a multicultural, multi-ethnic society is formed and maintained. This is the social mechanism that allowed Ottoman society to prosper for six centuries. A period defined not by dynastic succession but by a social order. To this day, modern Europe has not yet been able to find solutions for the problems of Roma communities living in EU countries. They remain a neglected minority living under the constant threat of deportation or re-settlement.Unfortunately such useful cultural gems remain locked in archived documents and referenced only every so often when we are faced with a passing problem, although no systematic examination to re-discover lost truths or to help build the cultural identity of the nation has been undertaken.The question is: how much has the absence of these forgotten truths contributed to the current insignificant cultural contribution of Muslims when compared with other nations? It How many of those who work so hard to come up with new definitions of citizenship to please the West realize that current Western laws concerned with the protection of minorities are based on the "Nizam Milleli" produced in the context of the Ottoman social structure as the first minority rights legislation in history? A general guess is that only a few know this fact, and the result is a regional confidence crisis. Our region needs new cultural standards in order to leave our mark on this age, like others have already done.Just as it is said that the Declaration of Human Rights was born when Omar bin Al Khattab uttered the words, "What gave you the right to enslave people when their mothers had born them free," and just as it is said that the Greeks are the fathers of Democracy, it should be said that the Ottoman Turks where the pioneers of minority rights legislation. These banners can be found in many places, listless and ineffective.Any visitor to the Office of Minority Rights Protection in the Swedish parliament is told that, "This is a system brought from Istanbul by King Charles XII who lived in exile in the city from 1709 to 1714. This system was copied by Finland in 1919, Denmark in 1955 and Norway in 1963, followed by most democratic societies outside Europe. No one knows that these are our laws and systems because we remain silent. An even bigger issue is that the socio-cultural forces that produced these systems are totally unknown. These forces are shaped by the ideological vessel of our region which today lies in ruin.There are examples in Turkey that mirror this cultural silence and reticence of the past even now. Who would have known, if it weren't for a shortlived political crisis, that 100,000 illegal immigrants live and work in Istanbul today, competing for jobs with Turkish nationals and sending their hard currency home in the midst of the international economic crisis. The hanging legitimate question in this world of total propaganda is:Why is such pride-worthy field data not used by the state for the betterment of society? Why is this situation not an issue for Turkish society in general? And why is society unconcerned with this situation in comparison to its European counterpart where immigration issues top its agenda?
Answers to such questions are not to be found in a political or national discourse, they are rather to be found in the sociological records of this society. Ottoman society was affluent like no other, with similar scenarios that prove this attitude as the norm and not the exception.
These facts are silent, sociologically unexplained, unheard amongst the noise created by Armenia (and broadcast through the Zionist trumpet). If the facts were better known, this noise would surely fade away.
There are the crises that exist in parts of our region that pose more unanswered questions – why do we have rampant sectarianism and why does the collapse of the state and societal disintegration affect this region so deeply. Other areas in our region enjoy a considerable degree of success, which leads to even more questions, the answers to which will help point the way to important strategic concepts and draw the outlines of a model for social cohesion that this region has been so desperately looking for.
Here, we have to look at Turkish social composition and ask a number of critical questions. Why is it that sectarianism has never found a foothold in this particular society? How did the issue of religion remain an easy, relaxed one with no complications to rival and impede the progress of secular life? Why is it that Turkish society regards as its own history as a continuation of Arab Islamic history? Why (unlike other societies) didn't Turkish nationalism undergo a chemical reaction with Islam to produce a new compound based on pre-Islamic glories and characterized by hatred of its Arab neighborhood? Why did it act as an incubator to protect other nations and religious beliefs that were threatened with extinction in their original homes? How did civic society grow and thrive in Turkish society in coexistence with the state despite the periods of dictatorship?Why was it the first to give birth to minority rights legislation by the world's own admission?These questions represent the ills of our region today. The answers (if we can provide them) are the much needed medicine, the language of inclusivity that allows Turkey to speak to its Arab neighbors, and the best gift that Turkey can give to a region in crisis. Turkey will then become a true aid to learning and provide the best possible lessons in public education. When this happens, Arab society will see a savior in this new discourse to which all sections of society will listen intently – Arabs and Turks, Muslims and non-Muslims, young and old. This is Turkey's true strategic depth of Turkey that is easily understood and appreciated by the ordinary man in the street or hinterland.On the other hand, if we remain silent on these healthy social phenomena, the region will be deprived of this vital societal education, opening the door for more destructive social philosophies that seek to damage its very social fabric. Indeed this is exactly what is happening today. If this were to come about, no political reform or economic revival will be enough.Turkey's Arab neighbors are watching Turkish society with wonder, unable to explain what they see in a way that fits their experiences and ways of thinking. They simply cannot understand how a non-Arab nation can serve as an example for Arab societies.This national Turkish social construction will remain misunderstood so long as it remains separated from the historical social structure of its region and as long as the concepts and ideas that brought it into existence remain unexplained. It will remain weak, wounded by the cultural battles that accompanied the disintegration of the region.If our socially torn region is to have a presence in this age of super nationalism, this concept has to be polished and packaged not as an exclusively Turkish product, but as a regional one (which in all truth, it is). This will create a feeling of ownership and will help the region overcome its moral cris. Being proud of the past achievements of Al-Andalus or Baghdad or Damascus is not enough when it comes to the creation of confidence in our time. However, if the doors of our archives were to be opened and its documents read and understood, that would be enough to turn some long held regional convictions upside down and create an intellectual pulse heralding in a newfound regional revival. If a storm can start with only one drop of rain, a simple idea could signal the start of a coming golden age.We are faced with the task of rescuing a regional concept, appreciation the creation of a cultural dictionary and intellectual reference point to explain our successes. We need to find a mechanism to allow this concept of a regional connection to flow freely in our societies, like an electric current through a conductor.In every geopolitical region of the world today there exists an unmistakable presence of a regional state that puts it on the world map – Germany in Europe, China in South East Asia, Japan in North East Asia, India in the Subcontinent, Brazil in Latin America, Russia in Central Asia and the Caucasus, and so on. Our region is conspicuous by its absence from this list and the price we pay for this is a heavy one.There are a number of important characteristics of these regional states. First, its relationships with its neighbors are normally typified by cooperation rather than dominance, it is a state where the rule of law is respected and where the institutions of the state act as an example to be followed. Second, it normally shares a common history and a common set of values with its neighbors, which creates a sense of safety, security and wellbeing in the region. And finally, it respects the independence of its neighbors, sharing common strategic and economic regional interests with them so that its presence does not create feelings of exploitation.We know from examining our shared archive that the last five centuries witnessed the transfer of the political administration of the region from the Arab world to Anatolia after the fall of Baghdad and was a period of regional integration. Anatolian society, which became the modern Turkish state after the World War I, continued to be an integral part of the wider regional society, just as Arab society gave birth to the various Arab states of today. This has to be at the forefront of our collective regional mind today. The fact that this is a necessity is undeniable, what remains is to build the mechanisms and to put them to work to create this vision.The one thing we do not have is time.
* Researcher and expert in Turkish - Arab strategic relations and minorities affairs.Director of Centre of Al-Mashreq Al-Arabi, Birmingham, U.K.
Last Update: June 25, 2014 15:47