The irony of Egpyt accusing Turkey with invading Istanbul and ‘oppression since 1453’

Turkey using its influence in Libya upon the request and in the interests of the country’s legitimate government has completely tipped the scales in the country. However, this change has also led countries to increase their efforts for diplomacy and review all their plans.

Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, who was increasingly isolated until now for incurring losses despite being the representative of the legitimate administration, is now at the center of everyone’s attention. He has become the most important player in Libya, with whom everyone, primarily Russia, wants to re-establish ties.

In the meantime, Libya’s pro-coup parties jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire in Cairo by striking poses with Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi; they were later joined by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia, Saudi Arabia, and France. However, France’s attitude toward Libya is viewed as strange in both Europe and NATO, because it is now being considered as a sort of autonomy that does not comply with any ethics of the alliance.

NATO’s strongest countries, the U.S., Turkey, the U.K., Germany, and Italy have taken a completely contrary attitude to France regarding this matter; and the NATO and the U.S. are rapidly adopting the stance of Turkey, which is providing support to Libya’s legitimate government. As a matter of fact, this means that the military victories achieved on the ground by the GNA with Turkey’s support have been positively reflected to the international political domain.

President Erdoğan and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump spoke yesterday with the main focus being on Libya, during which a consensus was also reached. Yet, allow me to reiterate: it was only six months ago that Trump held a telephone call with Libya’s putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar based on the trajectory of the battlefield. It was probably after that conversation, when Haftar’s rapport with Russia was made clearer, reconfirming its untrustworthiness, that the U.S. started to adopt the vision put forth by Turkey, with whose support the GNA made great advances on the field.

We need to accept that international relations also develop based on one’s power on the ground.

There are many examples in history of those who won on the battlefield but lost at the diplomacy table. Therefore, it is critical for the victories on the ground to be carried to the diplomacy table by a strong political will. Those who face defeat on the ground opening up fictitious areas in the discourse and propaganda domain in efforts to make gains by mispresenting the situation there is a common occurence. Thus, even if they cannot make any gains, they will be seeking solace or try to exact revenge from the winning side by spitting fire and cursing.

The alliance, whose chosen method in the Middle East is coups, is exponentially increasing its attacks on social media against Turkey and particularly Erdoğan in proportion to the smackdown they faced in Libya. The insults directed at Erdoğan through caricatures and photoshop effects are truly inversely proportional to their circumstances. It is not at all difficult to understand their mindset, but of course, there is also nothing about it to take seriously. In fact, the more such posts and publications increase, the easier it becomes to form an idea about the dimensions of that axis’ intention.

For example, out of nowhere, the Egyptian Fatwah Council made a statement describing the Conquest of Istanbul in 1453 as an “Ottoman invasion.” What was that all about? Positioning oneself against the Conquest, which is unquestionably accepted by the entire Islamic world, by associating the issue of Hagia Sophia – a current hotbutton topic in Turkey – with Erdoğan, purely out of resentment against him, will do Turkey no harm. However, it will completely disrepute the Egyptian Fatwah Council in the eyes of the Muslim world.

In fact, it appears that the matter was not heard by anyone other than a very small faction in Turkey and, hence, it drew no reaction here. Yet, every segment of the Muslim world, on the other hand, harshly reacted. For example, International Union of Muslim Scholars Secretary-General Ali Muhyiddin al-Qaradaghi said that the statement was a “mark of shame.”

Meanwhile, we also discerned an interesting parallel. At about the same time Sisi was staging his bloody coup with Tamarod in 2013, we were also experiencing a coup attempt in Turkey with the Gezi Park events. It was soon understood that they were both cooked up in the same kitchen. Of course, those who are still romanticizing the Gezi Park events cannot begin to comprehend this connection. However, one of the most provocative slogans of Gezi was a slogan written on the wall: “The Oppression started in 1453.”

It is not a great surprise that the religious staff of the coup that was dished up in Egypt during the same period are thus opposing the transformation of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. It seems that the disintegration between the coup plotters and those representing the values of the people which everyone knew about and has long been ongoing in the Middle East, needed to be thus exposed.

NOTE: When the statement made by the Egyptian Fatwah Council drew great reaction on social media, the council stepped back and made another statement saying, “The great conquest was realized by sufi Ottoman Sultan Fatih Sultan Mehmet, and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has no relation whatsoever to Sultan Mehmet.”