The Western Condition - St Antony's College - University of Oxford

Faces of the West: Can Europeanisation, Americanisation and Autonomisation be reconciled?
version of secular Turks, the Kemalist state set out to suppress them, which ultimately led to its
self-destruction. Having inherited many of the tactics of his patriarchal predecessor, it is likely
that Erdoğan’s ambition to create an obedient, religious and hierarchically organised society will
also stumble upon similar obstacles.
History also writes of ambitious leaders who in their hubris overestimate the power they possess
and underestimate the challenges they face, only to see their grand visions come apart at their
feet. In this paper, we have argued that depicting Turkey as an island of stability between a
‘crumbling’ Europe and a ‘smouldering’ Middle East conceals the grim state of its democratic
deficits and socio-political fragilities and effectively contributes to the excessive self-confidence
of its decision makers. Indeed, the island imagery should serve as a sign of caution rather than
confidence: it was US President Jimmy Carter who in 1978 described, not Turkey, but Pahlavi
Iran as “an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world” only months
before revolutionary turmoil toppled its hubristic monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who
called himself Aryamehr, or ‘the Light of the Aryans’, and believed he was divinely ordained to
modernise Iran from above. 191 We neither forecast as tumultuous a prospect for Turkey, nor a
similarly ominous fate for its leader, who unlike the Iranian strongman continues to enjoy a
substantial level of democratic legitimacy. That said, the suggestion that a country like Turkey,
which has unresolved societal fault lines of its own and is deeply invested in the economic and
political infrastructure of its various neighbourhoods, can remain immune to changes of such
profound scale comes across as dangerously arrogant or, at best, extremely naïve.
Thus, we have argued for a more humble political rhetoric in Turkey that focuses on healing the
country’s own social and historical wounds rather than exploiting those beyond its borders for
the sake of its regional leadership ambitions. We have objected to the promotion of Turkey by
the US foreign policy establishment as a ‘moderate Islamist’ model to the Middle East, as this
discourse is more about what Turkey can do for the US in the region rather than what it could
stand for in the different geographical scales of its presence. We believe that a Turkey that truly
embodies the democratic institutions and the socio-political peace and stability that it claims to
represent now would serve as an inspiration to its neighbours in all directions. Yet, what is the
likelihood of such an inspirational turn, given the realities on the ground?
191 Mohammad Reza Shah wrote: “When I remembered the various episodes when I had had miraculous escaped
from death, and noted the fact that during my reign my country had also miraculously been saved from ruin, I
became aware that my mission to my country was not completed yet. I will frankly confess that I was convinced that
God had ordained me to do certain things for the service of my nation, things that perhaps could not be done by
anyone else. In whatever I have done, and in whatever I do in the future, I consider myself merely as an agent of the
will of God, and I pray that He may guide me in the fulfilment of his will, and keep me from error.” Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi, The White Revolution of Iran, translated by the Imperial Pahlavi Library (Tehran: Kayhan Press, 1967), p.
16.
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