Reflecting on Turkey

A Commentary by David Treybig
United Church of God Pastor, St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida

Preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving—a national day of appreciation for the country's blessings—many U.S. citizens are anticipating bountiful turkey dinners. But it's the country of Turkey—not the fowl—that now warrants our attention.

With part of Turkey located in Europe (bordering Bulgaria and Greece) and part of it located in Asia (bordering Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, and Syria), this country has long been the site where civilizations, cultures, and ideas clash. It's where East meets West, where the Christian and Muslim religions collide, and where Turks today are trying to fashion successful lives in a world of competing ideas and philosophies.

In trying to find a middle ground between conflicting messages and passions, Turkey searches for what every nation wants: prosperity, respect, and a secure future. Yet due to its geographical position, Turkey, has struggled and continues to struggle in its quest for these elusive ideals. So does every other nation in the world.

Recognizing one of the major causes of tensions in the world today, leaders from various cultural and religious backgrounds met in Turkey's largest city—Istanbul—on November 13 and "announced a United Nations initiative to resolve the conflict between the West and the Muslim world" (The New York Times).

These leaders "issued a framework for their effort, prepared over the past year, that singled out the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a primary source of the deepening split.

"'No other conflict carries such a powerful symbolic and emotional charge among people far removed from the battlefield,' Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, said at a news conference. 'As long as the Palestinians live under occupation, exposed to daily frustration and humiliation, and as long as Israelis are blown up in buses and in dance halls, so long will passions everywhere be inflamed'" (ibid.).

Kofi Annan's observation of the significance of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict matches what Bible prophecy long ago predicted. As God said of the end time, "it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples" (Zechariah 12:3, emphasis added). All nations and peoples are affected.

In the face of this troublesome conflict, the leaders of this most recent framework hope that their clear definition of the problem will lead to an equally clear solution. Reflecting this hope, "The host of the event, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, emphasized the symbolic importance of holding it in Istanbul, which bridges East and West and is the leading city in a predominantly Muslim country taking steps to join the European Union. Joining the European Union, he said, would 'prove that the polarization between cultures is actually artificial and contrived'" (ibid.).

But as the Turks know, polarization isn't easily overcome. Turkey's effort to join the European Union (EU) has already been an up and down affair. Initial hopes for a speedy entrance into the Union have recently diminished with a snub from France over whether the deaths of Armenian Christians in Turkey during World War I amounted to genocide. France claims it was genocide while Turkey says it was simply war and that many Muslim Turks died as well.

This Armenian issue coupled with disagreement over the political division of Cyprus have given many Turks the perception that the EU isn't fair and that they are still being snubbed because they were on the wrong side during World War I. As a result, "Some [Turkish] polls show support for EU membership plummeting as low as 30%."

Diplomats from Europe and Turkey, however, know that each side needs the other. Turkey, as a stable, secular country in an unstable Muslim world, is critically important to the West and access to European markets is equally important to Turkey. Yet the question remains as to whether Turkey will be admitted to the EU.

Human beings and nations know instinctively that it's in our best interests to get along with each other. We just don't always know how to do it. Unfortunately, the Bible reveals that human efforts to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will not succeed. As the latter part of Zechariah 12:3 notes: "all who would heave it [Jerusalem] away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it." The good news, however, is that the Bible also reveals that with God's intervention, humanity will eventually find the world peace and prosperity it has sought all along.

For something to really be thankful for, read about this wonderful future by requesting, downloading or reading online our free booklets: The Gospel of the Kingdom and The Middle East in Bible Prophecy.