Ankara Demonizes Hezbollah
Ankara’s tough, religiously nuanced reactions to Shiite Hezbollah only reinforce perceptions of Turkey’s pro-Sunni foreign policies in the Middle East and Syria.
The entry of the military forces of Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah into open battle alongside the Baath regime to take back the Syrian town of Qusair from the rebels and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's May 25 declaration that “This is our battle” created much indignation in Ankara.
The next day, on May 26, one of the leading figures of the Turkish government, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag, lashed out at Hezbollah using religious references. Speaking at a conference called “Problems of the Islamic World and Their Solutions,” organized by a religious foundation in Ankara, he labeled Hezbollah (the "Party of God") as the "Party of Satan."
He said, "You [Nasrallah] say you are on the side of Assad. Where do you get that power? Those who say they are on the side of those killing their own brothers to kill Muslims, those who cause fratricide among Muslims, to have them slaughter each other, are Satan. Let no one be offended; I am talking openly, bluntly here. They have to change their name from Hezbollah to 'Hezbollsatan.' You call yourselves Hezbollah and then you declare war to kill innocent women, children and elderly you don’t even know. What nonsense is this? How can they even think about it?"
The deputy prime minister then warned the Islamic world against sectarianism and added, "We must all understand sectarianism. Iran must see where it stands. So must [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-]Maliki. We must all be aware of the position Turkey is being pushed to. All sects are concrete examples of efforts to undertand the Quran and Sunnah. They are not the Quran and Sunnah. They are guidance.”
