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European Journal of Applied Sciences – Vol. 10, No. 6

Publication Date: December 25, 2022

DOI:10.14738/aivp.106.12819. Gurevitz, M. (2022). ‘ArduMania’ – A Syndrome of Overblown Arrogance. European Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(6). 27-28.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

‘ArduMania’ – A Syndrome of Overblown Arrogance

Michael Gurevitz

Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Ecology

George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University

Ramat Aviv 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel

The Ottoman Empire existed approximately 600 years (1300~1900) occupying in addition to

Anatolia large portions of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Not only that the subjugated

populations enriched the Ottoman treasury (e.g., the impressive build-up of Constantinople,

now Istanbul), it also inspired Turkish leaders seeking a return to the great days. Luckily, the

defeat of Turkey in World War I eradicated these imperialistic aspirations, and the constitution

of Turkey as a republic by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923 established a liberal state that even

joined NATO after World War II. Its large size and critical location between Asia and Europe

contributed significantly to the transformation of Turkey into a successful economy with

tremendous industrial and agricultural potential. Unfortunately, many of the social and cultural

achievements, especially those of women rights and the lift in religious control, as well as the

developed economy were recently extinguished following the 2014 elections and the winning

of the Justice and Development Muslim Party headed by Recep Yayyip Erdoğan (Arduan). The

build-up of his political power and control over the army and police was accompanied by

imprisonment of thousands of his opponents (liberal politicians, scientists, intellectuals, army

officers, judges, artists and reporters), as well as changes of social rules instigating various

Sharia customs, which increased women oppression and suppressed the pluralism and

liberalism founded by Atatürk. These steps along with militaristic aggression against the ethnic

Kurd population, involvement in the Syrian civil war, and mutilation of the relations with

Western countries as well as with Israel (with which they heavily cooperated both economically

and militarily) deteriorated the Turkish economy, foreign affairs, and international reliance.

Quite clearly, Arduan’s arrogance, inflated self-esteem, and religious piety domineered his

rationale, and so, supported by his close circle of religious fans (those who are interested to

sustain their hierarchy), he was unaware to the devastating results. Since the conspicuous

deterioration in Turkish economy and foreign affairs due to Arduan’s reforms was preceded by

a long period of democracy, cultural pluralism and economic flourishing, the public frustration

was particularly noticeable and the hopes for improvement by joining the European

Community declined. Amazingly, despite the accumulated disappointment, Arduan managed to

escape a revolutionary attempt in 2016, and almost miraculously kept his power. Since Turkey

has not gained much from Arduan’s reforms and extremism, but rather excavated the gap

toward the European Community and the United States, the evident question is why have the

Turks rescued him during the revolutionary attempt? The answer does not seem to be rational,

especially when religious fanatics and inflated self-esteem were the leading factors. Despite his

rich political experience (Major of Istanbul and Prime Minister of Turkey), it seems that

Arduan’s obsessive Islamism, which was good for maintaining his power, harmed the economy

as well as the international foreign affairs of Turkey. The crisis in Turkey-Israel relations

demonstrates how radical Islamic attitude is destructive as it wipes off long-term relations,

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European Journal of Applied Sciences (EJAS) Vol. 10, Issue 6, December-2022

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

which took years to develop. Arduan ignores the history of Israel, that was established

thousands of years before the rise of Islam, and the Jewish affiliation to their ancient homeland

and Jerusalem. By reinforcing the Palestinian (originally refugees of the Arab states

surrounding Israel and Beduins from the south) fabrication of their history and rights over this

piece of land, and supporting the two terror organizations Hamas and Hizbullah, he categorizes

himself as an Islamic extremist, while losing the credit Turkey gained prior to his election.

Although Israeli experts claimed just a decade ago that the intense and regionally important

military and economic relations between Israel and Turkey were unbreakable, we could all

witness how the wrong man at the top of the pyramid, was able to demolish these relations

instantaneously. The take-home message from Arduan’s failure as well as from the results of

the ‘Arabic Spring’ and temporal rise of Islamic extremists like Mohamed Morsi in Ejypt is that

a dictatorship based on religious obsession may impede modern development and lead to

regression rather than advancement. The case of Arduan and Turkey provides an example of

how ‘religious mania’ and inflated self-esteem of a fanatic leader damages his political appeal

and destroys previous hard-to-get values of democracy, liberalism, and cultural pluralism.

These impractical, overblown manners may represent a prototype of a novel syndrome -

“ArduMania”.