Arab Joy

Many Arabs expressed joy at the Turkish diplomatic assault towards our region, especially in terms of Ankara becoming involved, directly or indirectly, in the issues that keep Arab public opinion busy and concerned – whether they are domestic (Lebanon, Iraq…) or general (Israel, Iran…).

Such joy might hold the echo of pride that had been lost since the Ottoman Empire started to collapse or an unconscious link to a shared religious identity. However, it certainly has nothing to do with the facts and with the political goals that drove Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government to launch such an assault. Those were the facts of the current political situation in the region and the way Turkey deals with them. In other words, the Turkish assault is based on Turkey’s own goals and has nothing to do with that whole past to which the Arabs have pined for and considered to be a way to defend against the challenges that face them.

Such joy has revealed latent compensation for the tremendous powerlessness that faces the region, in terms of governments, political parties and individuals, in facing first the problems of the modern world, and then the problems of building the state, the economy and the individual, in addition to the problems of working together in a region brought together by bonds and interests that cannot be found in any other region of the world. It has also revealed the size of the political vacuum which attracts all kinds of foreign interference, and wagers on the possibility of making use of such interference to cover up some of this powerlessness, i.e. replacing illusory solutions and gelatinous wishes with stubborn facts.

For instance, and for an infinite number of times, the limits of the wagers on the role of the US in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict have been revealed. Furthermore, tons of ideas have been put forth in this respect, without this being coupled with any preparation to alter the balance of power, politically, socially, economically and militarily, with Israel. This has turned the Arabs, in this conflict, into a mere receiving party, one which is unable to act.

On the topic of the Iranian nuclear issue, one which concerns the region indirectly, especially with Iran having built up an appetite for hegemony and control, the Arabs stand very far from those attempts in which all the countries of the world are engaged to find a solution, knowing that the solution suggested by the group of 5+1 in some parts touches upon the region, when it speaks of Iran’s interests in the region and of respecting them.

Thus the region finds itself outside of any action to resolve the two regional issues that affect it the most. In the Arab interior, on the other hand, divisions are taking the shape of mechanisms of rule and of pretexts for it, much more than they are connected with realistic interests. The best example of this might be the issue of the Western Sahara, which has for decades been fueling the fanaticism of rule in both Morocco and Algeria. The issue of the football game between the teams of Algeria and Egypt has clearly revealed how a sports event can turn into a pretext for the ruling regimes, in both countries, to stimulate and mobilize their people, thereby once again obtaining legitimacy from them by leading them in this battle.

Moreover, if it has so far been possible to dwarf the appearances of division in Lebanon, after having reached the brink of civil war, this is due to submission to the reality of a military force, and not to agreement over common grounds between Lebanese factions. And such fragile calm will remain contingent on the ability to submit, not on agreement over consolidating the establishment of the state.

Such a reality of military force is missing in Yemen, where the fighting continues, without any indication of a decisive military victory or political agreement appearing. Rather to the contrary, it seems that the nature of the division and the fighting has been expanding in a way with which the boundaries of the Yemeni interior are being exceeded, with what this entails in terms of a regional confrontation which might reflect in further Arab social fragmentation.

Israel is increasingly inflexible in confronting the Arabs and Iran is expanding its interference in the region. And because we have not prepared for such inflexibility and for such a confrontation, we have expressed joy at Turkey taking the initiative to find solutions.