Negotiations with the EU have scarcely begun and the Turks are already irked. They seem to be afraid they are going to be rejected (I hope they're right) and that they will eventually be embroiled in a victorious war with Britain and the US (I hope they're wrong). "Turks embrace novelist's war on EU," from the International Herald Tribune, with thanks to Omo:
ISTANBUL The year is 2010 and the European Union has rejected Turkey. Fascist governments have come to power in Germany, Austria and France and are inciting violence against resident Turks and Muslims. A vengeful Turkey joins forces with Russia and declares war against the EU. Turkish commandos besiege Berlin, obliterate Europe and take control of the Continent.Some critics will be quick to dismiss "The Third World War," a new futuristic novel by a 30-year-old Turkish writer, Burak Turna, as the wild imaginings of a conspiracy theorist and literary shock jock - and in many ways it is.
But the novel, which dominates bookstore display windows in Istanbul, has sold more than 130,000 copies in just two months and is rising on best-seller lists across the country. As Turkey embarks on 10 years of tortuous talks to join the EU, Turkish observers say the novel's popularity reflects the growing wariness of Turks about a Europe that is increasingly wary of them.
"Turks are getting fed up with the EU's constant demands - and 'The Third World War' has tapped into that," said Sinan Ulgen, a Turkish commentator. He noted that the book's pithy, cinematographic style has helped it resonate with taxi drivers, government officials and housewives alike.
Turna is no fringe figure. His first novel, "Metal Firtina" ("Metal Storm"), became the fastest-selling book in the history of Turkey when it was published in December, a time of deep Turkish ambivalence about the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The book is a fictional account of a U.S. invasion of Turkey that provokes a Turkish agent to detonate a nuclear bomb in a park in Washington, leveling the capital. Overnight, the grungy former journalist and philosophy student became a chat-show celebrity, a cult figure among 20-somethings and an unofficial cultural barometer for his country.
Turna says Turks' fear of U.S. domination, reflected in the popularity of "Metal Storm," is being supplanted by a growing Turkish ambivalence about Europe - an ambivalence that has lurked in the Turkish soul since after World War I....
These days, he says, he spends a lot of time playing video games. His favorite? A game called the Rise of Nations in which countries compete for global domination. "I love to pretend that I'm China and to bomb Europe into the Stone Age," he says.
"I love to pretend that I'm China and to bomb Europe into the Stone Age," he says.
Doesn't the resentment and envy just shine through? He knows his world is not as great as the one he wants to join so he'd rather see the greater one reduced to his level. Aahhh....
Perhaps it's time for the rest of the world to study U.S. nuclear policy going back to 1949, after the world rejected the Baruch Plan for ridding the world of nuclear weapons. It's not a passive plan for dhimmitude.
In a nutshell, after the imaginary bomb destroys Washington DC, Turkey will be utterly destroyed. One Trident submarine could do it. This is perhaps the best example of "be careful what you wish for" I've ever seen. Russian involvement would not stay the hand of the U.S. government, but it would ensure that far more than one Trident submarine is used in the retaliatory response.
Academics have been pushing the 'deterrence' myth since the Soviet Union broke apart. The Cold War has been distilled down to one doctrine which nearly failed dozens of times. In world history, no weapon has ever been too fearsome to ultimately be used in quantity. From the bow, machine gun, high explosives, saturation bombing, and finally the two bombs which ended the Pacific War, there were always 'experts' who claimed they could / would / should not be used.
"ambivalence about Europe - an ambivalence that has lurked in the Turkish soul since after World War I...."
Ah yes WW1, when the ANZAC's (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) liberated Israel from around 1200 years of Muslim oppression. With Turkey being Muslim, and the ANZAC's being infidel pagan/Christian - no wonder they are pissed!
"Constant EU demands"?
"I love to pretend that I'm China and to bomb Europe into the Stone Age"?
Oh yes, these are fair, kind, people. Exactly the kind that Europe wants. Wow.
Prophet Geoff
"I love to pretend that I'm China and to bomb Europe into the Stone Age," he says.
China? I guess Turkey's still in the Stone Age and can't bomb Europe down to Turkey's level so you have to get someone else to do the job (what else is new?). Eeesssh.
(Sorry to keep harping on the phrase but it's priceless.)
Makes you wonder: why do Turks want to join something they hate so much?
Prophet Geoff
A writer who might be of more interest to civilized Turks is Orhan Pamuk. His unremarkable suggestion that Turkey ought to officially own up to the Armenian genocide has led the Turkish government to institute proceedings against him, for defaming the state or some such idiocy.
Pamuk is an emblematic figure, for he too did not use the time alloted to the diminishing group of secularists to keep extending the Kemalist program, in order to further tie Islam up in knots. These secularists instead made money, and left the keeping of Ataturk's flame to the army. They were too sanguine about the permanence of Kemalism. But it is those who would undo, and are undoing, the Kemalist constraints -- first Erbakan, then Erdogan and a few million others, who are managing, cleverly, to use even the E.U. demands in the service of Islam, by constraiing any future moves by the army, and limiting its current power to defend against the encroachments of the Islamic parties.
Those who kept singing the praises of Kemalism, and believed it to be permanent -- and among them Bernard Lewis's name leads, like Abou Ben Adhem's, all the rest -- should make some kind of public declaration, the way he did in an interview to a German newspaper, predicting before the end of the century the islamization of Europe. He needs to state clearly, if he can, that he was wrong -- that he underestimated the menace, the immutable menace, of Islam, that he was wrong to support the Oslo Accords so enthusiastically, that he was wrong to think for one minute that a Light Unto the Muslim Nations Project could succeed in war-torn and peace-riven Iraq, with its ethnic and sectarian resentments and enmities that might better be exploited by Infidels, not patched up, he is wrong about the permancence of Kemalism and his long-term support for Turkey which, he can see, has not remained what he thought it always would, and now poses a threat to the most successful civilization of all, which can go under merely through the overbreeding of people hostile to the entire enterprise, and to the wellbeing of Infidels everywhere.
Lewis owes it to those who found him so impressive and so enchanting in manner, such a change from the Espositos and the Saids. So he was. So he is.
It is not, at this point, nearly enough.
"Fascist governments have come to power in Germany, Austria and France and are inciting violence against resident Turks and Muslims. "
Please, this idiot's a lot more facsits than Europe is. Europe is about as fascist as the Easter Bunny.
Bring it on, turkey...
This author is a 30 year old video game fan (or fanatic); his readership seems to be mainly in the 15 - 25 year old age bracket. With this novel he has created for them a variation of the video game, only this one is in print.
Turkey is full of internet cafes, mostly packed with young men, usually smoking, madly playing video games while the latest soccer game flashes on the TV screen, and rock music (or worse, Turkish music) blares or wails through the stifling atmosphere. These individuals make up Turna's audience: a group out of touch with reality, brought up by adoring female subordinates, pampered and favoured, intent on easy entertainment. Take all those testosterone charged, sexually frustrated young males, and feed them a diet of fantasy war scenarios of the attack and destruction of the great enemy, America, and you have the recipe for a best selling novel.
Whether this will feed the not-so-latent Turkish animosity to the West and become a recipe for future disaster, only time will tell.
Turna...a turkish Tom Clancy???
Parmuk is the perfect excuse for those countries who don't want Turkey forced on them - Germany and France are baulking at it already. It's just another example of the arrogance of these Islamists that they persecute one of their major novelists while whining about how unfairly treated they are by Europe.
The Rise of Nations thing was hilarious.
1) The muslim world sucks so much, he needs China to defeat Europe.
2) At least Europe CAN be bombed into the Stone Age. The muslim world is already in the Stone Age. If you reversed it and used Europe to bomb the Middle East, they'd be sent to... that age before the Stone Age. The No Age.
Turkey is one portal into Europe and the novel may not be so far fetched as Turkey has a large and battle hardened army...
"There is nothing new under the sun."
Recall the movie 'Red Dawn'? Russia invades the US by way of Mexico, with Mexican troops in the mix.
Someone will be writing a similar story 100 years from now. But it is still something to think about.
In the last round of EU accession, many people in the "old EU" felt "ambivalent" (or worse) about the new members, but at least the people in the new member countries thought highly of the old members and wanted to feel a part of the whole show.
But with the Turks, not only do many "old EUers" dislike (quite sensibly) the idea of Turkish membership , Turks themselves think badly of the people, the history, the culture, and yes, the religion of the countries they are going to be uniting with. Mutual dislike. Why on earth even bother with this lunacy?
(As for Russia, there's enough loonies there hankering for a return to the "glory days" that a war with Europe could be possible. But as far as I can tell, those "loonies" dislike the Muslim world even more than your average JW reader, making a Russia-Turkey alliance kinda, umm, unrealistic. But, loonies being loonies, I guess anything's possible.)
Remember, folks, this is the same country where Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion have been selling like hotcakes for the last several years. (I could stand to be corrected, but I believe the former is banned in Germany.)
What kind of bubble are the EU operating from anyway?
Hating to be the devil's advocate yet again, we are talking about ONE WRITER'S OPINION. Why even bother to reply? The whole thing is as stupid as that American preacher that wanted Hugo Chavez murdered. Did anyone - but Chavez and Fidel - blamed America for the opinion of one idiot?
This whole thing only serves to show two things:
a) that Turkey is an impotent former imperial power
b) that people who judge a whole country by the novels of one particular writer (that seems to quench the Turkish impotence I mentioned) should go easy on the cafeine.
Greetings Cruzado,
Yes, in essence you are right, but I think the point of the posting is that it is a best seller.
So even though it is the fictional writings of one man, alot of people are buying in to the leanings the guy has shown.
130,00 units shipped in 2 weeks is alot of people thinking & feeling along the same lines.
Best regards
Albion
Orhan Pamuk being mentioned as possible for Nobel
this year..books include "Snow" and "My Name is Red".
Remember, folks, this is the same country where Mein Kampf...... has been selling like hotcakes for the last several years.
Posted by Waterdragon 52
Well remembered! Here is the link:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43380
In fact, Mein Kampf was in the best sellers list in Turkey when Burak Turna's "Metal Storm" was sitting at Number 1.
For any Europeans reading here, this piece of news is the best possible argument to use against those who think Turkey should be allowed to join the EU. Somebody I know changed their opinion from yes to no within minutes after reading an article similar to the link above. Just spam it to everyone you know and let the facts do the rest.
I also wonder what Jack "too terrible to contemplate" Straw would make of this? No doubt he wouldn't bother thinking about it at all, on the grounds that it is too terrible to contemplate.
Turkey for the EU, anyone?
never mind Nobel for Orhan Pamuk..looks like it
went to deranged moonbat Harold Pinter..
Reality can be tough sometimes, so some people immerse themselves (and in this case others also) in a fantasy world.
Sounds a bit like Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall.
"As a student of biblical prophecy, he [David Ben-Ariel] is alarmed about Germany and the Vatican’s increasing control of the European continent, remodeling it after the Holy Roman Empire. As the outspoken author of Beyond Babylon: Europe’s Rise and Fall, he is determined to do all he can to help wake up the world to the clear and present danger Germany poses to world peace, with a special emphasis on the Middle East."