Science > Prophecies-Of-Nostradamus > The following article of fiction from the Christian Science Monitor should be taken with a grain of salt, but it is still worth reading none-the-less........16/2/5
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Science > Prophecies-Of-Nostradamus |
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16 Feb 2005 07:10:23 PM |
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The following article of fiction from the Christian Science Monitor should be taken with a grain of salt, but it is still worth reading none-the-less........16/2/5 |
The Christian Science Monitor - By Yigal Schleifer
Sure it's fiction. But many Turks see fact in anti-US novel.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY - The year is 2007. After a clash with Turkish forces
in northern Iraq, US troops stage a surprise attack. Reeling, Turkey
turns to Russia and the European Union, who turn back the American
onslaught.
This is the plot of "Metal Storm," one of the fastest- selling books in
Turkish history. The book is clearly sold as fiction, but its premise
has entered Turkey's public discourse in a way that sometimes seems
to blur the line between fantasy and reality.
"The Foreign Ministry and General Staff are reading it keenly," Murat
Yetkin, a columnist for the Turkish daily newspaper Radikal, recently
wrote. "All cabinet members also have it."
Several other columnists have also written about the book, suggesting
its depiction of a clash between the two NATO allies could become a
reality. Serdar Turgut, the editor of Aksam, one of Turkey's largest
newspapers, penned a recent column that took one of Metal Storm's
premises - that members of Skull and Bones, the secret society that
President Bush joined as a student at Yale, has taken control of US
foreign policy - and presented it as fact.
"Powerful people, nearly all of whom are members of a secret
'sect,' are aiming to bring a radical change to the order of the
world," Turgut wrote.
He further suggested that the US military is developing technology that
would allow it to trigger earthquakes, something that will eventually
be used against Turkey.
The book has arrived at a time when anti-American sentiments are
running high in Turkey. A BBC poll taken last month found that 82
percent of Turks believe Bush's reelection made the world a more
dangerous place, the highest figure in any country surveyed. During her
recent visit, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed concern
about the issue to Turkish officials.
Meanwhile, there is increasing tension between Ankara and Washington.
Turkey is frustrated with what it claims is US failure to take military
action against the separatists of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK),
who are holed up in the mountains of northern Iraq. The country is also
concerned about events in the oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where the
Turks say Iraqi Kurds are staging a power grab as a prelude to the
creation of an independent Kurdish state, something it views as a
serious threat.
Egemen Bagis, a member of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP) and chairman of the Turkey-US friendship caucus in
parliament, says the unpopular war in neighboring Iraq continues to
fuel anti-American feelings.
"This public feeling, this public tension, is not any different from
what is happening in other European countries or other Middle Eastern
countries," Mr. Bagis says.
But American officials in Turkey say the kinds of things they are
hearing represent something different.
"It's not an isolated phenomenon - you see it all across Europe, but
it is more of an exaggerated phenomenon here," says one US official.
"I'm not sure in Europe you would see the manifestations that you see
here, like this book."
Adds another US diplomat, who declined to be named: "Just like sex
sells, anti-Americanism sells right now. Unfortunately, it's nothing
to laugh at, because it's damaging to both American national interest
and to Turkish national interests. We're really pulling our hair out
trying to figure out how to deal with this."
A particularly striking feature of the book - one that may say a lot
about recent changes in Turkish opinion - is who saves Turkey from
defeat: Europe and Russia.
For decades, the European powers were derided in Turkey as the ones
that tried to carve the country up after World War 1. Russia, which
invaded Turkey in the early 20th century, had always been viewed here
with great suspicion. In fact, the potato-and-mayonnaise concoction
known in most places as Russian salad is called American salad here.
"In all the surveys, increasingly we see people more anti-American.
What is different today is that they are less anti-European," says Ali
Carkoglu, a political scientist at Istanbul's Sabanci University.
"Back in the [19]70s, they wouldn't even trust the Europeans," he
says. "The change has been very swift."
For Metal Storm's two authors, Burak Turna and Orkun Ucar, success
has come swiftly. This is their first published work.
Sitting in an Istanbul cafe, the two say the novel came out of the
conviction that the battle they depict is a strong possibility. The
book, they say, is their contribution to Turkey's well-being.
"Everybody was thinking about a clash like this in their subconscious,"
but it was articulated by Metal Storm, says Mr. Turna, who used to work
in an US-owned textile company but now devotes himself full-time to
writing.
Turna does not see the book as fiction. "From our point of view, it's
a philosophical and scientific calculation," he says. "It's more than
a novel."
The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=6274
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