Les trois calendriers du Proche-Orient

Aug 22, 2014 Volker Perthes

BERLIN – Trois trajectoires historiques distinctes déterminent les développements au Proche-Orient : les événements à court terme des luttes et des jeux politiques quotidiens ; l’évolution à moyen terme des changements géopolitiques, qui se mesure en décennies et finalement, l’horizon temporel à long terme des transformations socioculturelles, ou ce que l’historien Fernand Braudel nommait la longue durée. Bien comprendre chacune de ces échelles historiques est essentiel pour formuler une stratégie qui puisse vraiment changer les choses dans la région.

La courte durée est certainement celle qui reçoit le plus d’attention. Les médias suivent sans cesse les moindres détails de la dernière série de combats entre Israël et le Hamas ; des négociations récentes portant sur le programme nucléaire de l’Iran ; des activités permanentes de l’opposition et de la répression politique en Égypte et au Bahreïn et les massacres et les tragédies humaines qui se déroulent en Syrie et en Iraq.

Pour ce qui est de la pensée politique au Proche-Orient, elle est souvent associée à la seconde échelle de temps. En fait, il est impossible de comprendre l’histoire et la politique contemporaines de la région sans connaître l’avènement du système d’État régional succédant la Première Guerre mondiale et la chute de l’Empire ottoman.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 4 Comments on this article

Jephtah Lorch Aug 24, 2014

Western thinking tends to be logic attempting to serve western thinking, not Islamic-Arab thinking. When al-Baghdadi says he will "conquer Rome" he doesn't say how. Europe has a huge Arab and Moslem population, indoctrinated in mosques to hate the infidels (including western educated moslems), they 'hit the streets' and ruthlessly fight western police forces, plant bombs while living off EU social security, refuse to assimilate and will turn their backs on their EU hosts the moment weakness is seen. The threat is deep within EU, as Kdahfi said: "our weapon is the moslem woman's womb".
The root cause of todays Islami extremism is the Quran, it call to spread Islam and the wish to reestablish Mohammad's Khalifate, a wish shared by Iran, Erdogan, Hizbollah, Boko-Haram, Hamas, IS, and others. They massacre each other , why should they have mercy on Christians, Kurds, Druze or Jews for that matter. Dictatorships like Qatar, to weak to defend themselves, buy time by financing part of this malice. This reality can not and should not be dealt with using typical western thinking.

A note to the previous commenter on Israel-Palestine: There never was a Palestinian people until 1967. If there were they could have had a state till 1967 under resolution 181 calling for the establishment of an ARAB state to fulfill Arab Nationalist movement whose successors, including Hamas call for the destruction of Israel. The writers assumption is that Hamas (who also massacred Fathah people) will suddenly become western civilized, and their Multi Billion "leaders" will give up their fortunes for the wellbeing of their plebeians.
- Zsolt Hermann Aug 24, 2014
  
  I agree with you that conventional Western thinking will not offer any solution.
  And it is partly because it is "Western thinking, diplomacy", ambitions and interference that has contributed to the present situation basically since the Crusades.
  
  We could even say that gradually what takes shape is a global showdown in between radical, fundamental Islam and the Western way of life, value system, with all of the fundamental hatred, distrust, direct opposition involved.
  
  If we look at this picture we could see, with all due respect to the victims, and sufferers of the conflict, that the "over publicized" Israeli-Palestinian conflict is only a "sideshow" in a much greater war.
  
  And just as there is no direct resolution for the Israeli-Palestinian question without the whole region being settled, there is no Middle Eastern solution without the whole global world being "harmonized" since we all exist in a globally interconnected and inter-dependent system.
  
  So how can we find any solution when on one hand we cannot escape from each other, but are locked into the same network, and on the other hand we have unsolvable differences, ingrained, "primordial" hatred against each other?
  
  Only by a practical method that can teach us how to find common, mutual points, purposes we can use to build on above and despite the opposition and hatred. By grabbing those mutual, overlapping interests, goals, focusing on them mutually complementing each other instead of focusing on what is separating us.
  
  And here Israel, Jews, provided they can achieve an unconditional unity, mutual solidarity among them even without external pressure, can provide invaluable advice, help, since through thousands of years this is the method that kept them surviving against all odds.
  Unity, mutual connection "above reason", "love covering hate".
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j. von Hettlingen Aug 23, 2014

Mr. Volker Perthes says "three distinct timelines are shaping developments in the Middle East". Yet the three are interlinked. We tend to get caught up in "the short-term timeline of daily struggles and politics", that we sometimes can't see the forest for the trees - "the medium-term timeline of geopolitical shifts" and "the long-term timeline of sociocultural transformation".
Mr. Perthes insists "political thinking in the Middle East is often linked to the second timeline". True, the current "state system" is a result of the Ottoman Empire's demise in 1922. The Sykes-Picot Agreement allowed Britain and France to carve up the region among themselves. Their rule-and-divide policies met strong resistance and they left the region after artificial states, whose boundaries were arbitrarily drawn disregarding ethnic-sectarian fault-lines, gained independence. Their history had ever since been written in blood, with dictators coming to power, only to find themselves toppled in military coups. The Arab Spring saw the ouster of several long-time dictators. Elections had been held and the democratisation process has turned out to be tortuous. After the outbreak of sectarian violence in Iraq and Syria, many think that national reconciliation is illusionary. The Kurds had broken away from central governments in Baghdad and Damascus. Syrians and Egyptians are willing to trade democracy for stability and security.
Mr. Perthes says "confessional, ethnic, or tribal identities" would determine the "long-term timeline" of the region. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, chief of Al Qaeda in Iraq rose to prominence last year, after breaking away from Al Qaeda and formed his own group - ISIS. Following his "invocation" in June, he named himself the new Caliph Ibrahim of the Islamic State . He wants to emulate the Prophet Muhammad's youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), who founded the Abbasid Caliphate.
The Abbasid Caliphs, dynastic rulers from the mid eighth to the tenth century led an Islamic empire that stretched from Tunisia through Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and Persia to Uzbekistan and the borders of India. Yet the Abbasid Caliphs were tolerant and presided over a multicultural empire where conversion was no big deal. The Abbasids developed sophisticated systems of government, administration and court etiquette. Their era saw the blossoming of Arabic philosophy, mathematics and Persian literature. The Abbasids were responsible for patronising the translation of Classical Greek texts and transmitting them back to a Europe emerging from the Dark Ages. It was a Golden Age of Islamic civilisation and "the caliphate constituted a great power and a lodestar for all Sunnis". But Caliph Ibrahim is just another Joseph Stalin and his caliphate a modern day totalitarian state under the banner of the Abassids' black flag. Due to the cruelty of his jihadists his caliphate has been condemned worldwide. It's just a matter of time before it collapses. The rise of ISIS has served as a wakeup call for leaders in the region to stop its expansion. So its "long-term timeline" might soon be cut short.
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hari naidu Aug 22, 2014

“…the rise of Kurdish military forces against them [ISIS] raises the possibility that a full-fledged Kurdish state will eventually emerge….Wherever the political and socioeconomic conditions of the short- and medium-term timelines fail to provide order and stability, the confessional, ethnic, or tribal identities that emerged over the longue durée gain prominence…”.

Finally a dispassionate and intellectually coherent perspective and analysis on a difficult issue. In the longue duree Kurdistan will emerge, as a sovereign state, and fortify its historical home which (today) stretches from Eastern Syria to Turkey. And it’s to the credit of Erdogan (Turkey) that PKK has finally been recognized by Turkey, as a political entity. Contrary to wishful thinking in Berlin – re:Erdogan’s new Turkey – and the fact that Berlin has - all of a sudden - decided to supply direct military aid to Kurdish military forces - implies that regional threat of ISIS is now considered more serious than al Qaeda terror.

Kurdish tribe – like Palestinian Arabs – have always been deprived of a home of their own. Therefore current developments make it feasible that a Kurdistan State will finally emerge as a sovereign entity.

Israel, on the other hand, will now have to cope with a UN Resolution drafted by UK-French-German Government’s which besides other things demands lifting of its Gaza blockade and opening up of Rafha under UN/EU aegis.
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