By Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian
Under the intensely nationalistic regime of
President RecepTayyip Erdogan, Turkey is moving further away
from its NATO partners. This has accelerated since the failed
coup of July 2016.
Unlike its allies, Turkey has refused to
distance itself from Russia. Their economic ties are
substantial. Turkey is Russia’s number two trading partner.
Erdogan and President Vladimir Putin met in
Ankara recently and agreed to speed up the delivery of S-400
air-defence missile systems sold by Russia to Turkey, a purchase
that has raised concern among Turkey’s NATO partners.
They also formally launched the construction
of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, a $20 billion project in
Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coastal region of Mersin. It is
being built by Russia’s nuclear regulatory agency, Rosatom.
The two countries are also building the
TurkStream pipeline, estimated to be worth more than $12
billion, to transport Russian gas to Turkey.
Erdogan has been particularly irritated by
the United States’ alliance in Syria with the People’s
Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish group that Turkey claims is
linked to terrorism.
He told legislators from his Justice and
Development Party that “if there are those who prefer a couple
of terrorists, marauders against such a nation, such a state, we
will no doubt slap this answer in their faces, on their hearts.
They should know that.”
Nationalism, as a political discourse
requiring a fundamental connection to a particular territory has
constantly referred to maps as evidence of the existence of the
respective nation.
In the case of modern Turkey, nationalism has
been sensitive towards the borders defining national territory,
and maps have been instruments for the cultural production of
nationalism in Turkey.
The favorite use of the map in popular
culture in recent decades has been the flag-map logo
superimposing the crescent-and-star of the Turkish flag onto the
outline of the national territory.
Isolated from its surrounding
geographical context, it implies a national unity within
Turkey’s boundaries.
Each and every classroom in elementary and
high schools is required to have a national map hung on its
walls. In addition, a decree regulating textbooks has also
required them to include national maps.
Some maps are frankly irredentist, claiming
territory as Turkish that is legally part of Greece or Cyprus.
The Aegean islands, which belong to Greece,
are shown in one school map while mainland Greece is cut out.
Depicted this way, the islands appear as located within the
territorial waters of Turkey.
In addition, the southern border of the map
cuts the island of Cyprus into two; the northern part, which is
a de facto Turkish state, appears, while the southern Greek
Cypriot part is omitted.
In some unofficial maps, northern Iraq,
including Mosul, Kirkuk and Erbil; all of Armenia; and Cyprus
and the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea are incorporated into
Turkey.
More extreme versions include a larger
portion of Iraq together with a considerable section of Syria,
including Aleppo.
As well, Turkey’s eastern frontier is
expanded to include territory in Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan,
while the western border is moved further to integrate Western
Thrace, including Salonika, now in Greece.
Most of these territories at one time were
part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Are such maps making sure
that this memory does not disappear?
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