The AKP as a US project (13.10.2017)

The Justice and Development Party, the employer today of an “anti-imperialist” discourse against America, is a party that was established and came to power with considerable support from the USA following the 28 February soft military intervention.

It was established to counter Necmettin Erbakan’s anti-imperialist and anti-American Refah Party which had been removed from power by the military, by four people very close to Erbakan!
The party, established by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Abdullah Gül, Bülent Arınç and Abdüllatif Şener, came to power as a tool of neoimperialism and neoliberalism, branded as “Moderate Islam” and based on the “Americanist Islam” model.
The task planned for the AKP was to serve as an example with its “Moderate Americanist Islamic” identity to the rulers of “supposedly democratic”, “essentially Americanist” regimes in Islamic countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
Indeed, the tragedy called the “Arab Spring” that later turned into an “Arab Winter” was initiated under this model.
Presidents were overthrown and regimes were changed.
The result was that plenty of blood was spilled and all that remains is massive chaos in Libya, confusion and partition in Iraq, civil war in Syria, a military regime in Egypt and an unstable region!
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In my book “The USA’s Dance with Political Islam”, I wrote well in advance about America’s errors in this project for which it used Condoleezza Rice as a mouthpiece and gave prior notice of this disaster in the region. (See especially the chapter “Can Turkey Be a Model?” pp. 150-190.)
For sure, the most serious mistake that the USA made was to expect democracy from a regime that was to be set up on a religious axis.
In fact, the USA’s basic expectation was not for the mooted regimes to be democratic, but for them to be on its side and that of neoimperialism.
It simply used the discourse of democracy as camouflage, but was unable to see that the proponents of “Moderate Americanist Islam” had created a political, social and cultural environment that would nourish “Radical Political Islamist Terrorism”!
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Merdan Yanardağ gives a very good account of the establishing of the “The Justice and Development Party as a US Project” in his book with the same name:
In particular, the following headings in chapter one introduce articles that examine the matter in depth.
1. Moderate Islam’s test area.
2. Moderate Islam, 28 February and the “New Republic”.
3. The opportunity that the Iraq War presented to the AKP.
4. The civilian coup that opened the way for the AKP: How was the Ecevit government overturned?
5. Erdoğan’s secret US talks.
6. Being convinced at the wolves’ feast!
7. The AKP’s “historical opportunity” theory.
8. Dispute was unavoidable.
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This important book by Yanardağ invites willy-nilly the following two questions:
How convincing is the currently displayed anti-imperialist discourse and stance of the AKP, which was established and brought to power as a US project?
Is this discourse and stance the final act of taqiyya resorted to by a political rulership whose time is now up in the endeavour to gain extra time?
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ANTI-IMPERIALIST DEMOCRACY, RESIST!