The Arab Conundrum

"An Arab is whoever speaks Arabic, wishes to be an Arab and calls himself an Arab." 

 – Sati al-Husri

The term ‘Arab’ and peoples ascribed to it, is a modern-day conundrum that sometimes shirks detestations in international circles especially with recent advent of terrorism fears around the globe. Mainly domiciled in the Middle East where their ancestors originally hailed from in the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabs have expanded to dominate the cultural, religious and political cosmos of nearly all Middle Eastern States and adjourning lands. The reason for this not being farfetched from the origins of Islam among the Arabs in the 7^th Century AD; these originators of the religion set about unifying the diverse disunited Arab clans of the Arabian Peninsula and thenceforth set about empire conquests of adjourning territories and peoples which was inclusive of territories held by the then mighty Byzantine and Sassanid empires of the Levant and Middle Orient.

Source: http://www.mideastweb.org/islamhistory.htm

The earliest peoples designated as Arabs were the nomads of the Arabian Peninsula. The term ‘Arab’ in itself is interpreted to meaning ‘nomad’ synonymous to ‘Bedouin’. Other adjourning non-Arab peoples such as the Arameans, Phoenicians, Assyrians et al were over the centuries systematically assimilated into the Arab culture, thereby in most cases losing their language and distinct cultural identity in most cases.

While the Arabization quest passed on for Arab political dominance of conquered territories during the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphate periods, the advent of the Mamluk and Baibars Sultanate began to pose an existential threat to the indigenous non-Arab populace most of whom were non-muslims. Whilst most non-Arab conversions to Islam entailed a full passage into the Arabization system, it must be acknowledged that some peoples such as the Persians and Kurds retained their distinct cultural affiliations despite being subjugated by the Arabs and then converted to Islam. Nevertheless, whilst Arabization nearly passed on for Islamization for Arabs and non-Arab peoples of the Middle East, there remains ever shrinking pockets of indigenous non-Muslim populations   among Arabs and non-Arabs in the Middle East especially amongst the Ghassanid and Lakhmid Arabs and several non-Arab groups most of which are Christian.

Ancient Delineation of Arab domains
Source: http://www.canadianarabcommunity.com/sevenarabkingdoms.php

The period of Turkish rule inaugurated by the Ottoman conquest and dismantling of the Byzantine empire and by extension rulership over the former Arab Caliphate ignited a new political era in the Middle Orient with the Ottoman Sultanate ascribing spiritual guardianship of the Muslim peoples to the Ottoman Sultan. Hence, for the first time since the advent of Islam, political and spiritual ruler ship of an Arab conquered territories and the established religion (Islam) passed on from Arabs to entirely non-Arabs.

And so, Arab subjugation continued without complaint so long as their domineers were Muslim and held the Arabic language as first choice in communication until a Turkish political revolution in the early 20^th century.  A coup by young Turkish officers seeking to reform and restore the glorious past of the waning Ottoman empire which was dubbed as ‘the sick man of Europe’. Their reforms called for a radical ‘Turkification’ of the Ottoman governance system, a resultant which saw repressions of non-Turkish peoples especially in the Anatolian peninsula. Non-Muslim peoples were worse hit by the policy as it latter saw the expulsion of Greeks from Anatolia and the widely acclaimed ‘Armenian genocide’

Turkish rulership of Arabs was yet loathed despite they being spiritual brethren of most Arabs and in the wake of World War one in which the Ottomans fought alongside the Axis powers, the Allies led by Great Britain took advantage of Arab dissent against the Ottomans to stir the ‘Great Arab Revolt’ of 1916. The Arabs in themselves looking forward to reestablishing the glorious Arab Caliphate from ‘Aleppo to Aden’ rallied under the banner of Sharif Hussein Bin Ali and in serious of revolts and skirmishes against the Turks renounced Ottoman rule. Yet they came under Allied rule with France and Great Britain partioning the conquered territories as spheres of influence under the famous Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916.

The 1916 Arab Revolt was British Inspired by 'Lawrence of Arabia'
Source: https://www.pinterest.com/phyllis0660/te-lawrence/?lp=true

The Balfour declaration of 1917 which granted Jewish rights to a homeland in parts of the conquered Ottoman dominion referred to as historical Palestine added another twist to the Arab conundrum. With the Religious importance of the allotted land to the Jews also claimed by the Arabs, the 1947 UN partition plan of Palestine between Jews and Arabs was rejected by the Arabs. And with the eventual creation of Israel in 1948, the Arab polity united in one voice to crush the nascent State; but after subsequent defeat and territorial loss, the fury of the Arabs turned upon the Mizrahi Jews (also referred to as Arab Jews) who had historically lived in North Africa and the East Levant. As such, Arab Jewry were sacked from their home and properties. Cities such as Casablanca, Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, Aden, Aleppo etc which once had hundreds of thousands of Jewry were emptied of their Jewish populace.

Whilst the British floated the idea of a Pan-Arab organization in 1942, the Arab League which was a resultant of that idea only became birthed in 1945, and its first task was to liquidate Jewish efforts of establishing a State within Arab realm. Alongside the Arab league, the rise of the Baath party in several Arab countries also endeavoured to unite the Arab cause. Despite its downside for repressing minority identities especially as pursued in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq against the Kurds and Assyrians, the Baath party in its hay days was a real bond for Arab unity and it even enamoured the short lived union of some Arab Countries in loose confederations.

The Iranian revolution of 1979 reawakened the agelong sharp/bitter religious schism of Islam especially betwixt the Shia-Sunni divide. Whilst there are several Islamic sects aside the Shittes and Sunnis, albeit these two commanding the largest followership now define the deep divisions that exists within the Arab and Islamic world. After the collapse of pro-secular Arab Governments and the Baath party in most Arab Countries, and revival of Political Islam seeking to establish the glorious Caliphate past have reignited the divisive dichotomy that sunk the early Arab Caliphate.

Rallying Arab unity and administering Arab affairs seems a wearying effort. Aside the unanimous denouncement of Israel, the Arab polity never seem to agree on mediative efforts to conflict situations in respective Arab countries and strengthening economic cooperation. This Arab Conundrum is expressed in the Syrian and Yemen conflict. For all the economic prosperity of the gulf states aside Oman and Yemen, Arab Countries of the Levant such as Syria and Iraq are dismantled in conflict situations meleed along Sectarian religious lines. And whilst Western/foreign intervention accounts a great deal as the causative factor, Arab disunity cannot be excused as the Arab league in all these have in the words of Mohamad Bazzi become a ‘glorified debating society’.

It is most disheartening that the Arab polity despite being protegees of the harnessers of mathematical science and the mastery of cultural assimilation are stooping in regressive terms to divisive delineating status of over a thousand years back. While the global polity is bemused with new conflict and humanitarian situations around the globe, the Arab polity will do humanity a favour by seeking steps to resolve theirs from within themselves.

THE INTRIGUES OF THE ETERNAL CONFLICT BETWEEN ISRAEL AND ARABS IN PALESTINE

A perpetuating conflict characterizing the Middle East since the inception of the 20^th Century especially since 1948, the once known Arab- Israeli wars has now metamorphosed into a Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Israel-Hamas conflict, Israel-Gaza conflict etc.

It all began with the settlement and the right of return question for Jews to Palestine instigated by the creation of the World Zionist Organization by Theodore Hezerl in 1897. The land in question was that which straddled the Jordan River to its West and East Bank (though the core agitation was majorly for lands to the West Bank of the River Jordan). Adding to this land agitation was the religious and cultural delineation between the Jews and Arabs. The Arabs being predominantly Muslim and the Jews being Judaizers both attest to being custodians of the World’s major religions viz; Islam, Christianity and Judaism and both claiming a common progenitor in Grand Patriarch Abraham.

THE JEWISH AGITATION LINES

The Jews claim rights to Palestine by ‘Divine right’ as stated in verses of the Pentateuch. Nevertheless, following historical lines, the modern day Jews are also regarded as descendants of ancient Hebrews who first settled Palestine or Canaan (as it was then called) by assimilation and conquest from the 12^th century BC? After series of wars and political upheavals, the Hebrews were deported from Canaan by Assyrian and Babylonian rulers and the final rout to Jewish presence in Palestine was delivered by Roman Emperor Hadrian in 135AD when a ban was placed on any form of Jewish presence in Jerusalem and Greater Jerusalem (Judea) on the pain of death. These periods is referred to in Jewish history by Josephus as the great Shoah.

Jews has since then lived in Diaspora and clogged around communes with a central identity of a Synagogue. From that time onwards, Jews had distinct referrals to their settlements. Jews of Europe were referred to as Ashkenazi Jews, and those who settled around the Middle Orient and North Africa were referred to as Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. With distinct religious observations, Jews were sometimes targeted for destruction at their various settlement locations such as during the Spanish Inquisitions, several deportation orders from England and other European Countries during the Middle Ages, the Russian Pogroms and ultimately the widely acclaimed Jewish Holocaust attributed to the Nazi regime during the Second World War.

ARAB AGITATION LINES

The Arabs as known to today’s contemporary World are a group of people endemic to the Middle East and North Africa most of whom are largely adherents to the Islamic religion.

The groups of peoples referred to as Arabs are an agglomeration of several nomadic tribes delineated by several clansteads once endemic to the Arabian Peninsula. During the initial spread of Islam upon the death of its founder (Mohammed), a United Arab Islamic Militant force rode out of the Arab Peninsula and conquered far reaching lands as far West to the Iberian Peninsula of Spain and Portugal to the steppes of the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan in the Near East. Apart from the massive conversions of subjugated peoples and kingdoms to Islam, there was a growing resentment against Arabization that came with Islamization of these subjugated peoples. This is eminently seen today in the Kurdish agitation in Iraq, Berber discontent in North Africa, the Darfur conflict of Sudan which are all remnants of Arab Muslim vs Non Arab Muslim agitations.

Thus, the Arabs since the 7^th century AD have spread their physical presence from their enclave in the Arabian peninsula to dominate the religious, political and cultural lives of the entire Middle East and North Africa whilst assimilating and wiping off existing cultural identities of these lands.

THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION?

The land referred to as Palestine is that which straddles the East bank of the Mediterranean Sea to the West Bank Jordan and from the sand dunes of the of the Negev desert in the South to the Anti Lebanon Mountains in North.

Anciently referred to as Canaan (the land flowing with Milk and Honey), it was originally peopled by several Semitic groups before it was conquered by wandering Hebrew tribes in the 12^th century BC. After series of conquests and deportations, the land was almost emptied of its Hebrew presence in the 2^nd Century AD before it ultimately conquered by the Arabs in 7^th century AD. From then on, the several heterogeneous peoples that populated the territory became assimilated/ adopted the ruling Arab culture.

The name ‘Palestine’ in itself is the Greek referral of ‘Philistine’- a group of ancient Indo-European peoples who once settled and founded 5 city states along the East Mediterranean coast namely; Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron and Gath. These peoples were ultimately subjugated by serial wars with the Assyrian-Babylonian Empires and ultimately lost their cultural identity through waves of conquest and deportations by the subjugating armies.

The Ottoman Empire succeeded the Arab led Islamic Caliphate of the Middle East. With its capital at Constantinople (Modern day Istanbul), the Ottoman Turks established an empire covering the Hejaz region of the Arabian peninsula in the South, parts of North Africa, the Balkans, the Anatolian Peninsula and Mesopotamia.

THE AGE OF NATIONALIZATION AND EMANCIPATION

Though Sunni Muslims themselves, the Arabs began to resent a weakened, pro secular Ottoman Government and readily accepted Allied promise of emancipation from Ottoman rule in return for an alliance during the 1st World War and followed it up with the Arab revolt of 5^th June 1916 in support of British/Allied effort to dismantle an already waning Ottoman Empire.

With promise of liberation and emancipation at hand, the Arabs pursued this cause vigorously as Allied powers established spheres of influence amongst themselves in conquered territories.

Initial Partition of the Levant according to the Sykes and Picot agreement of 1916
Source: http://www.mythsandfacts.org/conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.htm

TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS

An agitation for a Jewish state to solve the looming ‘Jewish question’ in Europe and moves by the Organization evoked the British in making the Balfour Declaration which guaranteed a Jewish homeland in Palestine under the watchful eyes of British trusteeship.

The Allies (Britain, France and Russia), further signed the famous ‘Sykes and Picot’ agreement which partitioned the Levant into Spheres of British and French influence. Thus, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq were created with the first two under French control while the British controlled Egypt, Iraq and Iran.

Revised Partition plan delineating Proposed Jewish and Arab Spheres of Influence
http://www.mythsandfacts.org/conflict/mandate_for_palestine/mandate_for_palestine.htm

THE FIGHT FOR THE SOUL OF PALESTINE

A wave of Arab Nationalism in the 1920s & 30s saw the independence of most Levantine Countries, except the region referred to as Palestine, which was under UN-mandated British trusteeship. Considering the cultural and political differences of the agitating groups (Arabs and Jews), the UN promulgated a partition plan for two separate countries to emerge on the land referred to as Palestine.

The lands to the East Bank of the Jordan River were designated as exclusively Arab and were called Trans-Jordan (modern-day Jordan). Jerusalem and Bethlehem were designated ‘International Status’ to be administered by the UN due to their religious significance to Jews, Christians and Muslims, whilst the lands to the West Bank of the Jordan River were partitioned between Arabs and Jews for two distinct, separate states to emerge.

The Arabs rejected the partition plan outright. The Jews reluctantly accepted with hopes for lasting peace and unilaterally declared independence, calling their land ‘Erez Y’Isra’el’ (Israel). The Arabs declared war on the emergent Jewish state with the intention of grabbing more land and exterminating the Jewish population of Palestine. The Jews defeated the belligerent Arabs, captured more territory and turned out hundreds of thousands of Arabs into refugees. The Arabs retaliated by expelling over a million indigenous Mizrahi and Sephardic Jews from their lands and confiscating their properties.

UN Partition plan of 1947
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandatory_Palestine

UNENDING WARS OF ATTRITION

Ever since the 1947-1949 Arab-Israeli wars, several others have followed in 1956, 1967,1973 and 1982. With the ego of the Arab governments of Egypt and Syria punctured in surprise defeats at the hands of Israeli forces each time at battle, the Egyptian and Jordanian governments signed a peace treaty with Israel and recognized the Jewish rights to Palestine. Other Arab countries have still stood firm on the initial Arab denial of Jewish rights to Palestine.

As Arab governments backed down from an outright direct military confrontation with Israel, Palestinian Arabs have taken up their cause in their own hands ever since with the emergence of militant groups such as Fatah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, etc, to agitate for their independence.

Sporadic wars of attrition have been fought between Israel and these militant groups ever since, each time at the slightest provocative instance, such as stone-throwing Palestinians against Israeli forces, Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, etc.

Israeli Sphere of Influence after the 1947-1949 wars of Independence
Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/v3_israel_palestinians/maps/html/israel_founded.stm

PLACATIVE OPTIONS

Regardless of the side supported, humanitarian emotions are always raised anytime the usual conflict/intifadah breaks out between Israel and Palestinian Arabs. Nevertheless, one cannot neglect the historical antecedents of the conflict. What if the Arabs had accepted the 1947 UN partition plan? Would the world be experiencing any conflict in the Levant? Surely, there was a grave historical mistake by the Arabs.

Both sides, Arabs and Jews, have come a long way in spilling blood for every inch of territory. Palestinian Arabs have been displaced, and so also Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewry have been expelled from Arab lands.

No matter the emotions, the Israeli-Arab agitation will continue so long as there’s blood to be shed unless both parties acknowledge the following:

1.     Jews have come a long way and have sacrificed all their homelands and around the World, including in Arab countries, and so have a right to Palestine.
2.     Noting that there has also been a mass wave of forced emigrations which has altered the 20th-century cultural landscape of the Middle East, such as the Armenian genocide/deportation, the crushing of the Assyrian uprising in Iraq and the Kurdish question, Arab refugees from Palestine, should be allowed to settle in whatever countries they fled to else Arab countries should be ready to be receptive to their kith and kin.
3.    The Jewish State should realise the need for a peaceful coexistence with the Arabs of the West Bank and should realize the human cost in the flesh and blood of any attempt to seize additional territory.

If these facts are not acknowledged by both parties, it will be a continuous warfare of intermittent truce until all the Souls perish in the struggle for territorial control.

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THE ARAB SPRING: IMPLICATIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED

The public uprisings across the Middle East that greeted the dawn of the year 2011 came as a bewilderment to many. Ever since the middle ages, the Middle East-the home of the Arabs and the Spiritual home of the Islamic world has been ruled by several theocratic minded  governments and empires; in all, the reign of the Caliphs is still being referred to as the gloriest of all. The end of the First World War saw the demise of the Ottoman Empire and for the first time since the time of the Crusades, parts of the Arab world was ruled by Western Powers under the League of Nations Mandate. At first, the Arab world basked in the euphoria of freedom from Ottoman rule but later, Arab independence was sought.

Unlike the time of the Caliphs when the Arab world was under one government, this time the Arabs found themselves partitioned into several countries and at independence, Western powers (Great Britain and France) installed monarchical governments from the Hashemite clan to rule. Iraq had King Faisal 1, Jordan had King Abdullah, Egypt had King Fouad and Libya had King Farouk.

Apparently, these installed Monarchies were client regimes to the Allied powers and so a wave of Arab Nationalism arose shortly in the mid 20^th Century- The Baath party and Muslim brotherhood movement was born. The former party seized power through zealous Nationalist Military men and installed a wave of secular regimes across the Arab world.

These regimes were characteristically Sunni led except that of Syria and Iran which was Alawite and Shiite led. From the time of the Caliphs, the Arab world has been split along sectarian lines in terms of Islamic orthodoxy and this trend is a marked irreconcilable rift among the adherents to the Islamic faith; the Sunni and Shia sect being the most prominent among other miniature Islamic sects and subsects. At a time of Arab consciousness, the over 1000year rift once again came to prominence.

The Western powers preached democracy and were ready to take their crusade to heights in Africa especially at times of financial aid. However, when it came to the Middle

East, just like the USA’s power play in Central/Latin America in the 20th century, the West was basically interested installing client regimes-‘doesn’t matter whether democratic or autocratic’ provided the Jewish State was safe and their loyalty was ascertained.

For too long, several minority groups or indeed the Arab world in its entirety was held under repression. The Kurds, Berbers, Muslim Brotherhood, Sunni, Shiite, human rights et al; where held below freedom limits and thus a revolution was not farfetched! The USA and her allies despite fighting off Iraqi expansionist tendencies in the first gulf war and destroying significant Iraqi military machinery were involved in the first regime change in the Middle East all in the quest for ‘democracy among other motives’- the result, an unstable and ungovernable democratic Iraq!

Saddam Hussein's Statue at the centre of Baghdad being felled by Iraqi's after US troops entered the city in April 2003
Source: bbcnews.com

Like the fall of Saddam’s Statue in Baghdad, the Arab spring was greeted with cheers and thoughts of a prospective Utopia and Nationalistic bliss. Starting with the fall of the Tunisian regime of Ben Ali (who has always won previous elections by 98%) to Egypt’s Mubarak, the agony of the Arab Spring oozed with the military repressions in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria. Yet, the unimaginable fall of the regime of the King of Kings of Africa and Imam of Muslims in Gaddafi’s Libya through Western help gave the impetus for a prolonged Syrian uprising that has seen Bashir Al-Assad sit tight despite having over 100,000 killed and just a little less than 2million displaced internally and externally as refugees.

Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi while they still held sway
Source:bbcnews.com

For Tunisia, it witnessed multiparty elections with a religious backed party forming the government; the apparatus of state being intact though expectations are still yet to be met.

The fall of Gaddafi did usher elections too, but with the apparatus of State in full collapse and the country awash with weapons, the Spring has brought nothing but an unsafe state truly governed by armed clans and gangs.

In Egypt, the Military did play a role in fall of the Mubarak regime and when elections finally came, the long repressed Muslim Brotherhood came to power. With expectations high, it’s been one protest after the other for and against government policies. Everybody now has a say and the exuberance was felt on the streets. The resultant- with just a year in power, the Muslim brotherhood led democratic government was brought down by protests albeit a Military coup.

Bodies of slain Egyptian protesters, most of them members of the Muslim Brotherhood
Source:bbcnews.com

The Egyptian Streets and squares have exhibited the democratic exuberance of all sides and parties in Egypt and for progress sake; the Military has stepped in a crackdown to clear the streets of protesters but not without a drop of blood!

The Egyptian Military clearing
Source:bbcnews.comthe Muslim Brother hood protesters in Cairo

It has been bloody in Yemen and Bahrain and Syria continues to shed more. What lessons do we have to learn?

      Revolutionary results as initially swift will not come easy and fast. Patience is the virtue.

      Religious parties have to redefine governance in a secular atmosphere, such that would accommodate minorities and respect the rights of everyone. Maybe Tunisia scored important points in this case.

      Care must be taken to ensure the preservance of the apparatus of state because revolution aftermaths are usually chaotic. Once again, thumbs up Tunisia!

      Revolutions should have a defined cause, devoid of significant external influence

 But the hardest lesson is that, by itself, people power is not enough. Translating popular protest and popular anger into real and lasting change is the real deal for any successful revolution.

TURKEY—‘A MUCH NEEDED MIDDLE EASTERN POWER?’

The first major victory of the Seljuk Turks over the forces of the declining Byzantine Empire at the battle of Manzikert on 26th August 1071, gave prominence to the Turkic peoples especially those associated with Osman the great Turkish Muslim warrior. These peoples later became known as the Ottoman Turks or Osmanlılar (Turkish for “those associated with Osman”).

Like the battle of Gaugamela in 331BC, in which Alexander the great dealt a crushing blow to the glorious Persian armies of Darius III, the Seljuk Turks or Ottomans in series of military triumphs, dealt the final blow to what was left of Emperor Constantine’s empire in the levant in the subjugation of Constatinople by Mehmed II in 1453. The conversion of the Hagia Sophia (the capitol of orthodox Christianity and the seat of the Patriach of Constatinople) an architectural master piece of Athemios of Tralles and Isodorus of Miletus by the victorious Ottomans to a mosque emphatically announced the rise of another Islamic power after the decline of the glorious age of the Arab Caliphs and Caliphates.

The Ottomans (a non-Arab Muslim people) struck a chord different to the rulership style of their spiritual Arab brethren (the originators of Islam) in that, they sought a blend between the Orient and Occident. This was clearly emphasized in the administration of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror (1432-1481) to Süleyman I, The Magnificent (1494-1566), Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1520-1566), during whose reign the empire reached its zenith of power and splendour. During his reign, the Ottomans rocked the gates of Vienna----the seat of the Hapsburgs and lords of the Holy Roman empire.

At a moment when the Arabs lacked natural leadership, the Ottomans (Spiritual Bethren of the majority Arab Muslim middle east), proved a congruous force in bringing the middle east at par with advances of the ever seeking dominant European powers. The Ottomans were able to effectively administer their heterogenous religious and ethnic populations with minimal issues of tensions among the various subjugated peoples.

                              A   PATH       TO         DECLINE

In signing the treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, the Ottoman Empire began to tread the path of a steady decline and non-relevance in international politics; and by the end the first world war in 1918, the Ottoman empire was in ruins! All subjugated peoples of the empire had gotten their agitation for independence and Constatinople (the Seat of Ottoman power) was under Allied (British, French and U.S) occupation.
At the moment of Ottoman desperation, a vanguard for Turkic liberation arose in Mustafa Kemal who in his nationalistic fervour  revoked the Treaty of Sèvres and pushed the Allied occupation force out of Constatinople. Abolishing what was left in the 623 year rule of the Ottoman Sultanate in deposition of Mehmed IV Vhadettin, Turkey became a republic on November 1, 1922. Mustafa Kemal, later known as Ataturk (Father of the Turks) instituted revolutionary reforms in his new found republic among which are:

  The abolishment of  the Sultanate and Caliphate (making Turkey a republic),

  The ban on the wearing of Islamic dress in public (the fez cap and the hijab),

  The separation of religion from state,

  The Latinization of the alphabetical characters used in writing the Turkish language—a departure from the use of Arabic alphabetical characters. He also de-Arabized the Turkish language.

  The introduction of European styled canonical law for governance.
Ever since then, Turkey began a pro-western path and it was no surprise when Turkey joined the western military alliance (NATO) in 1952; becoming a buffer against Soviet expansion in the Levant during the height of the cold war.

Thus, Turkey has been a darling to both the western powers and its Arab and Muslim neighbours in its unique relationship with both the middle orient and the occident. No wonder Turkey (a Muslim nation) has diplomatic relations with Israel (an unwanted entity to most Arabs) to the tune of joint military cooperations.

From its fall after the second world war, the population of Anatolia has witnessed a steady rise in Muslim population while the traditional Christian population has declined. Persecuted Muslim populations of the Caucasus found a welcoming home in Turkey and thus the Muslim population of Turkey has swelled from over 50% in the early 1900’s to 99%.


Despite Turkish attempts in joining the European Union after series of westernization policies, Turkish membership has been declined in reminisce of  its religious significance as a Muslim majority nation. This may not be seen as a set back for Turkish cause as she needs to identify her role as a bridge between the Levant and the Occident.

Whilst this role was well administered by the defunct Ottoman empire in its glory days, mordern day Turkey can draw an inspiration from its glorious Ottoman past. Her ability to chide Israel and still maintain diplomatic sanity with the Jewish state, walk arm in arms with the Western powers and still maintain spiritual communion with its Arab muslim neigbours most of whom practice Sunni Islam (the orthodox form of Islam) does lends a credence to any purported form of Turkish dominance of levantine politics.

Whilst Egypt, Iraq, and Syria have tried and failed trump the Arab and Muslim cause in the middle east and Iran (a majority Shiite nation) not seen as a credible option by most Sunni Arab Muslims, Turkey provides a worthy leadership.

At a time when western powers are wary of military intervention in the middle east in the face of inconclusive battles and withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, there’s a vacuum for a Muslim leadership in the middle east as the Arab league lacks clear leadership vigour in tackling the unrest in the middle east.

As the Syrian conflict drags unending with countless hundreds of thousands of civilian causalities and the UN security council powers bickering their interests rather than resolve the quagmire, the initiative beckons on Turkey to front the leadership of the Muslim middle east!