PM Erdoğan’s Darfur contradiction

Not only this but the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government has also seen it fit to invite Sudanese leader Omar Al Bashir to Turkey twice, even though International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has accused him of committing "genocide" and asked that an arrest warrant be issued for his arrest.

This is of course a glaring double standard for which the government has little explanation. Let alone explaining this, Erdogan appears comfortable in maintaining this double standard seeing as he hosted Al Basher’s principle assistant, some would say head henchman, Ali Osman Muhammed Taha in Ankara this week.

Had this visit not taken place immediately after Erdogan’s "Davos tirade," when he lashed out at Israeli President Shimon Peres Ñ in response to the latter's admittedly harsh outburst Ñ accusing him, and through him the Israeli people, of being child killers, it might not have attracted so much attention. It was inevitable, however, under present circumstances that Taha’s visit should not only attract attention, but also be commented on in a way that highlights Erdogan’s contradictory stance. Perhaps this is the reason why the Prime Ministry tried its best to ensure that this visit got minimal exposure.

There is more than sufficient material on the Internet for those who are not aware of what has been going on in Darfur these past six years or so. Suffice it to say here that members of armed Muslim militia have killed up to 180,000 people, according to the United Nations, many of them women and children. Some put the number of non-Muslim African’s killed as high as 400,000. The number of people chased from their lands in the process is put at somewhere between 2 million and 2.5 million. The Sudanese regime has been perpetrating these atrocities in the name of fighting terrorism, with reference to groups like the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army, or SPLA. As can be expected these non-Arab African groups are considered by the Al Bashir regime as "terrorist." The groups themselves, on the other hand, argue, like Hamas, that they are defending their people against oppression.

It is nevertheless interesting to note that Prime Minister Erdogan has hardly had any words of sympathy for those killed in Darfur, preferring a conciliatory and supportive position on Al Bashir and his regime. It is clear that the tens of thousands of children killed in this case do not move his sense of humanity as the deaths of the children of Palestine do. Why? This is the crucial question which brings some not so pleasant thoughts to mind. Is Erdogan’s approach based on the fact that the oppressor in this case is not just a Muslim but also a fundamentalist one at that. As long as the insensitivity of Erdogan and his supporters on Darfur continues, this question will stay on the table waiting for an answer. Because there is no other way to explain this glaring inconsistency. The second thing that comes to mind is this. If Erdogan’s reaction on Gaza, and lack of reaction on Darfur, can be interpreted as an expression of "Mujahideen solidarity" then how are we to respond to those who say that Turkey’s foreign policy priority is not shifting from its traditional ground.

Of course there are those in Turkey who try to explain the inhumanity in Darfur as "the result of imperialist machinations" and try in this way to exonerate the Al Bashir regime. But this is generally the response of those who do not like the pressure put on an Islamic country by the West. The fact is, however, if our subject is "humanity" then whatever the background argument may be, what has to be concentrated on in the first instance is the death of innocent women and children. Erdogan’s is trying to fudge this simple fact with his lack of interest in the people of Darfur.

In this case one wonders if the demonstrations on the streets of Sudan, ostensibly over Erdogan’s position on Gaza, are not actually motivated by the fact that he has shown support for people accused of committing genocide. A question worth pondering.