The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP – Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) in Turkey follows an ideology with historical dimensions extending to the days of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled for hundreds of years, gathering under the authority of the Sublime Porte the various Muslim confessions (the enmity between Turkey and Iran being a different issue) as well as minorities from other religions, and peoples of various national backgrounds, the countries of which had come under the Sultan's control through military force. Imperial-Islamic ideology played an important role in reinforcing such control, but fell apart with the collapse of the empire and the rise of nationalist ideologies in all parts of its former territories, including Turkey itself. Neo-Ottomanism, with Erdoğan, Davutoğlu and their party, is inspired by this ideology with all of its religious and strategic notions, which date back to centuries past, wrapped in modern terminology such as democracy and secularism – and this is not so much renewal as it is deception, aimed at preserving the relations built by the state of Atatürk with the West. As for considering it to represent an example to be followed for the remainder of the Muslim world, as claimed by some thinkers, it is to give it a confessional nature, and to assert that Ankara can be a NATO member, an ally of Israel, and a pioneer of enlightenment and democracy in the Muslim world. At the practical level, Neo-Ottomanism, or Neo-Seljukism, has failed to convince the Kurds, who are its own citizens and are of same confession as those in power, to abandon the dream of having their own country. It has failed to find a democratic solution to their issue, and in fact has gone to excesses in combating them, repressing them and even preventing them from speaking their language. In other words, Erdoğan has tried to cling to his Seljuk identity, and denied the national identity of a large part of “his people", ordering his army to wage attacks against them – all in the name of religion, which transcends national identity and does not know borders. Erdoğan has committed countless mistakes, because he is the hostage of an ideology that dates back to the Middle Ages, as well as the hostage of the colonialist policies of the United States. He has moved from promoting the notion of opening up the four seas to each other, when he was a friend of Syria and dreamt of restoring the glory of the Empire, to clinging to his Seljukism wrapped in religion and combating any other national identity. The state of affairs of the Kurds provides a perfect example. The moment the fighting between the Syrian army and armed fighters moved to the region of Aleppo, and the Kurds began to wave the flag of a “unified Kurdistan" (i.e. Northern Syria, Northern Iraq and areas where Kurds are present in Iran, and naturally in Anatolia), Ankara moved (much too late) with Massoud Barzani to intervene in order to rein in the Kurds, who had gained control of a few villages in the countryside of Qamishli. News has also circulated of a number of “Peshmerga" (armed Kurdish fighters) moving from Iraq to Syria to support the Turkish army if it were to decide to wage a battle in this area. Regardless of the soundness of such information, it is certain that Ankara is trying to draw in the Kurds of Northern Iraq so that they may have a role in appeasing the Kurds of Syria. There have also been many indications of Massoud Barzani returning to play such a role. The Kurdish leader has asserted several times that he had abandoned the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK – Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan) in Northern Iraq, called on it to relinquish its weapons, stood with Ankara against the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and sought to have him removed in exchange for exporting oil to Turkey without Baghdad's approval – in other words, Erdoğan conspired with the Kurdish province in smuggling operations. With unparalleled levity, Erdoğan is trying to export the problem of the Kurds abroad, relying on a policy of trade-offs. This levity of his has led him to believe that appointing a Kurd, Abdulbaset Sieda, as President of the Syrian National Council (SNC) would make of Syria's Kurds his allies, just like he imagined that supporting the Muslim Brotherhood all over the Arab World, and especially in Syria, would make him a new Sultan/Caliph to rule over them. Erdoğan and the leaders of the AKP are taking risks in Syria, believing their ideology to strengthen Turkey against the crises storming through the region. It is an ideology that has made them blind to the constituents of their people. Indeed, in addition to the Kurds, there are Alawites, Christians and Arabs, not to mention Secularists, Leftists and Anti-Seljukists. Journalist Semih İdiz wrote in Turkish newspaper Milliyet that “the problem in Turkey has not started yet. The problem will come during the phase after President Bashar Al-Assad".
