Lebanon: trip-tics (1)

Complex as the cradle of theo-political conflicts
If the global epidemic had not intervened, we would have gone to Lebanon, which I had wanted to see for a long time, together with Meryem. Finally, we made our visit with a group of academics, mainly of our historian friends Fatih Erkoçoğlu and Mehmet Azimli. We celebrated our October 29 Republic Day there, and I can say that I once again grasped the importance of the founding philosophy of the Republic of Turkey. We arrived at the hotel on the morning of October 28, while some of us were resting, some friends had descended on the Pigeon cliffs, the symbol of Beirut. A hundred meters from the hotel, there is a famous coastal road, full of cafes, that is, the place that comes here and waits for Beirut like two gigantic sentries. In addition to the drawings that write hope on the walls, there are also drawings reflecting the pain of the civil war, surrounded by wires to prevent the entrance to the square where the demonstrations are held, in short, you can see the summary of this in the photo below. Let this be an introduction to my travel notes.
Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, the places known as 'dusham' in the Ottoman period and their situations are known. Due to the recent Beirut port explosion, global epidemic, and political economic conflicts, there was no incoming and outgoing tourism revenues. In fact, please don't call it a tourist; In my opinion, he is a “modern traveler” by being careful not to use up the illusion, that is, the historical and cultural codes of the region with ready-made package programs. I take Ibn Battuta as an example in my own way. I'm trying to be in the "best possible" position instead of getting lost in a value ladder that progresses from the real to the false journey by increasing my experience in geophilosophy, in a way. The reason why I go to the side streets while visiting the planned places or when I find time is to try to establish the particular-universal relationship; My travel-comments are based on this.

A novel for each trip

I take a book/novel to every place so that I can read it on the roads and while waiting for the plane. While I was working as an archivist at the General Directorate of Foundations, I took Oğuz Atay's "Tutanamayanlar" with me to read again, which was recommended by a valuable literary comrade. I had reread Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre on my way to Liverpool, England for a course. I say it again because I think these are now classic works, I am trying to establish a familiarity again by saying that human memory is disabled with nisyan.
Jane Eyre has a special place, because while describing love, she tells about the social structure, the resistance of women in a male-dominated society and the oppression of the religious structure. This is actually your story, my brother, I say, "I am saying that there is a possibility of a resistance like Jane Eyre and the position of women in the conflicts in the regions where inequality between men and women is increasing day by day in the Islamic world, where Iraq and Syria are now called Afghanistan, which I prefer to call Southern Turkestan."
I don't think there are people who miss the dominant situation in the Arab and other Islamic worlds, even in the Turkish republic, which is founded on equality between men and women and secularism. So much so that there are even academics who think that it is necessary to go to Afghanistan and contribute to the legal structure there, I don't know if they really think that they will be taken seriously, especially in Arab countries. They are disturbed by the fact that a theology tradition based on the coordinated reading of philosophy, kalam and mysticism disciplines has continued in these lands for centuries and they think of a theology without philosophy. What's the deal, isn't this a travel note, if you say yes, it is a travel note, where Abrahamic traditions once lived peacefully together and I don't find this expression consistent, but because it is generally accepted, I say Beirut, the Paris of the Middle East, Beirut on which songs have been written. and Lebanon is in complete chaos.
People are used to solving the electricity problem, which is given for two hours a day, with a generator, but we are heartbroken that that sparkling city is usually plunged into darkness when it gets dark, except for the markets and cafes. I don't know how many thousands of motor vehicles these luxury vehicles are considering, when asked how this happens, Hezbollah transported the fuel it bought from Iran to the country via Syria, distributed some of it and sold some of it. This has relatively softened the country's relations with Syria. But despite all the tension, when I saw the ladies who took their children from school at noon on the first day and drove the cars, which were quite beautiful, I said why I remember Jane Eyre. What's the matter, you are jumping from branch to branch, did you say that I will stop reading now, a little patience please!
I took two books here, Edward Said's Orientalism and George Orwell's Burmese Chronicles. You already know Said's famous book as a Palestinian scholar. While reading about orientalism, the new discovery of colonialism, it is necessary to talk about the consistency of his readings called occidentalism. . I always used to say “Big Brother Is Watching You” in Orwell's 1984 novel, while the other was on his first trip to Syria and Jordan in 1993, while passing through Aqaba to Egypt, while visiting Umrah. Because they are all a communications (intelligence) state. This time Orwell describes his experiences as a colonial policeman, the locals who cooperated with England in the region, those who opposed the oppression and exploitation order, in the context of love, hate and passion. The situation is the same here, the country is on fire, but someone is combing their hair and still continues to exploit the country's income as much as possible. I was not very successful in reading, you will see in my travel notes anyway, I preferred to rest fully and constantly on the move, napping in between. These are the notes of Sleeping Awake;
Well, we got it, enough of that, don't say late to the travel note, this entry was for Khalil Gibran's sake, because on the first day we went to Rafik Hariri square, then we visited the town of Basharri where Gibran was born and the Mar Sarkis Monastery, which is used as a museum in his name. We prayed at Refik Hariri's grave, where the Qur'an is constantly recited, next to it are the graves of his 21 other comrades who died in assassination, he lies in the courtyard of a large mosque that he built himself and whose architecture is very familiar (with Seljuk Ottoman influences).

The Assassination of Rafik Hariri and the End of Hope: The Rekindling of Theo-Political Conflicts

Refik Hariri, The assassination on 14 January 2015 is given with the headline of Özal of Lebanon in Turkey, (Sabah newspaper) actually outlines the position of the murdered president. Looking at the wealth he left behind, I didn't know if it was a natural process for him to go to Saudi Arabia to work as a child of a poor family and to found the construction giant Saudi Oger after marrying King Fahd's sister, and progressing in the banking and media sector. The fact that his country will ensure social peace after 15 years of internal conflict, especially the rebuilding of Beirut and initiating important reforms has made him a loved and cared person.
In addition to those who claim that this is not natural, there are also those who say that a beloved person and alternative President of the country has been eliminated. But what is important is that a certain part of the country is Shiite, a certain part is Sunni, and in an important region Christian Catholic (Maronite) and Christian Armenians and Druze are divided into four. If we say that there is a relatively small area where Druze, Christians and Shiites live together, as well as a small place where Druze and Christians live together, the geographical distribution of theological structures and the demographic structure will also emerge.
Christian Armenians are also in significant numbers, as the lady from whom Meryem took zahter spoke to us in a broken Turkish after dinner. Turkish is very popular, this lady said that her family speaks Turkish at home, but friends we met especially in Tripoli and Sur said that their children learned Turkish from the internet and TV series. One of these two cities was Sunni and the other Shiite. Shiite Hezbollah's control of Beirut, its airport and sea ports has already made it a parallel state.
Let's keep this demographic map in the back of your mind and ask again whether the influence of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Hezbollah in the region, Israel's discomfort with it, have equivalent effects on Rafik Hariri's death. I don't know, but did the nephews of the Sauds have an effect on the reason why his son Saad Hariri resigned from his duty as prime minister in Saudi Arabia in November 2017 and could not leave there for a while or, as the then Lebanese President Michel Aoun put it, he was held hostage? It is known that being from the Saudi family was the trigger while acquiring the wealth above, but did they see this as a natural right because he was a citizen of Saudi Arabia? As a matter of fact, the Lebanese President saw this incident as a hostage taking and said that the resignation of his son Hariri would not be accepted without a face-to-face meeting. Prime Minister Saad Hariri was able to return to his country only 17 days later. I wonder if the reason for this situation was the question of whether Hezbollah should be included in his government for the social peace that his father was trying to achieve? I don't know this either, but Rafik Hariri's efforts to resolve the internal conflicts that lasted for 15 years (1975-1990) ended with an assassination, and the country could not recover. That's all I know.
The whereabouts of Ayyaş, a member of the Hezbollah organization, who was sentenced to life imprisonment 5 times in 15 years by the International Special Tribunal for Lebanon affiliated to the United Nations on 11 December 2020, is unknown, but Saad Hariri called for this person to be handed over. Hezbollah, which acts as Iran's parallel state in Lebanon, says this decision is not correct. It is certain that that event was a turning point for Lebanon, as it is said that much more than was used in the Beirut explosion was used in the assassination of Rafik Hariri. His son Hariri said, "There is no place where Iran has not left fear and destruction. Hezbollah is a resistance fighter. It claims that but points its weapons at Syrians and Yemenis. The wicked hands reaching out to us will be cut off" can also be read in this context.
A few days ago, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) saw Lebanese Information Minister Christian George Kardahi's statements describing the Yemen war as absurd and declaring that the people are oppressed and aggrieved and accusing the gulf countries as supporting the Shiite Houthis, followed by Lebanon in Yemen. Please consider withdrawing his ambassador in this context. Or Walid Canbolat, the Druze leader of the country, said the same thing, others also said the same, there are also those who say that the problem must be sought elsewhere. As a matter of fact, we can see the extent of the theo-political war when we look at Riyadh's request for help from Tehran to stop the wars waged by the Houthis in Yemen on the Saudi borders, but that they could not interfere in this matter and that they recommended that they send an envoy to Hezbollah. When the Arab Spring broke out, I was an officer at the University of Sanaa, Yemen. I also stated at that time that the Shiites there were Zaidis, that they kept their distance from the Jafari fiqh, that only the Houthi group was supported by Hezbollah and Iran, and that it was inconsistent to try to fight the war with a Shiite-Salafi theological justification. I left Yemen the day before President Ali Abdullah Saleh was attacked with a bomb, and I stated in my articles that the region was dragged into an increasing civil war, that the Arab Spring had turned into winter, and that basically ensuring the legitimacy of the political economy war on the basis of sects was meaningless. It seems that the same will happen in Lebanon; that is, the risk that theo-political conflicts will soon turn into civil war again began to increase. There is a strange heaviness in the street, that chirping Beirut seems to be experiencing the silence before the storm. Instead of closing the hole created by the bombs that killed Refik Hariri, everyone seems to be deepening the hole they fell into with a pick in hand.
The influence of the Catholic Church and France over the Maronite Christians in Lebanon can also be considered in this context. Seeing the military vehicles of the United Nations in the city of Sur and the Spanish soldiers at the airport on the way back, remembering the French-England share in the Middle East and the crisis over the fishing between the two in the last days, it became clear that all of the ancient colonialists were here.

(To be continue)