Background

Hakan Fidan has Kurdish ethnic roots. He was born in Ankara to a Kurdish father from the Varto district of Muş/Van province and a Turkish mother from Denizli. His father's family belongs to the Kurdish tribe Hesenan.

He began his career in the Turkish Land Forces as a non-commissioned officer before transitioning into civilian state service and academia, earning degrees from the University of Maryland and Bilkent University. He gained prominence as the head of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) and later served as a close foreign policy advisor to the Prime Minister. His most influential role came in 2010, when he was appointed as the head of Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization (MİT), a position he held for 13 years while radically expanding the agency's domestic and international operational capabilities. In June 2023, he transitioned directly into open politics when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed him as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, making him one of the primary architects of modern Turkish foreign policy and regional security strategy.

In his role as Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan frequently utilizes firm rhetoric toward Athens. In statements regarding the Aegean Sea dispute, Fidan has explicitly declared that Greece's military presence on the eastern Aegean islands constitutes a direct security threat to Turkey. He regularly warns Greece against taking "reckless" or "adventurous" steps, publicly underscoring that the Turkish Armed Forces and Coast Guard maintain a state of high alert.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall who is the Fairest of them All

Looking closer at this fading ego with the oily face, I can see the struggle of a whole nation with no identity yet.

In clinical psychology, standard projection is typically associated with mild-to-moderate psychopathology, whereas projective identification is linked to more severe borderline or psychotic personality organization. When applied metaphorically to political analysis, these concepts offer a compelling framework for understanding the collective mindset and historical anxieties of the Turkish state.

For instance, while Turkey itself is the primary perpetrator of genocide in the region, its leaders accuse others of genocide and portray themselves as champions of the vulnerable—the very people they historically targeted. Thus, regarding the concept of 'Turkish schizophrenia' raised by certain observers over the years, there is a clear contradiction between state behavior and official rhetoric.

It is completely normal for healthy individuals to exhibit mild personality contradictions. When these contradictions become deeply ingrained, rigid, and severe, they may indicate an underlying mental health condition. Typically, marked personality instability and internal conflicts are characteristic of personality disorders (such as Borderline Personality Disorder) or complex trauma, rather than schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a severe neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorder, but it is fundamentally misunderstood as a "merging of fantasy and reality." Rather, its defining feature is psychosis—a profound disruption in a person’s perception of shared reality. This manifests as clinical hallucinations (hearing or seeing things others do not), delusions (firmly held beliefs not grounded in reality), and disorganized thinking, which severely impair how a person processes the world around them.

Now, why do I think Turkey fits this description? This is the morbid fantasy they suffer from. Even if the entire human population of 7 billion gathered in front of the patient and assured them that their morbid delusion (for example, that a satanic and devious conspiracy is being plotted against them) is out of touch with reality, it would achieve absolutely nothing. The schizophrenic will mock everyone, because the only reality for them is their fantasy, and it dominates them completely. Fortunately, nowadays there is advanced antipsychotic medication that drastically reduces these severe symptoms of the patient.

Regarding "Dementia Praecox," the central delusion here is the supposed grandeur of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the delusion concerning the happiness of the conquered nations who had the "fortune" to live under this empire. Turkey's entire foreign policy and the essence of the Turkish state's self-image revolve around this central delusion of the Islamo-fascists/Turko-Nazis regarding vital space (German: lebensraum), which they call the "Blue Homeland".

Any reaction to or questioning of this schizoid narrative—whether verbal, diplomatic, or military—constitutes a shock to the pillar of Neo-Ottoman paranoia, and for this reason, it causes disintegrative anxiety to the Turkish state. According to clinical theory and experience, the extreme distortion of reality, as well as the equally extreme aggressiveness in statements and intentions on their part, are precisely a flight forward from this exceptionally painful, paralyzing anxiety.

The fact that the Turkish state traditionally launches military attacks only in cases where it possesses immense military superiority (for example, betrayed Cyprus) or when its intended victim is in a state of weakness (for example, the poll tax imposed on the Greeks during the Occupation, or the Istanbul pogrom of September 1955), shows precisely that behind this vulgar state bullying hides a collective soul full of insecurity, inferiority complexes, and, most importantly, guilt. The issue of guilt is particularly significant, since the blood of the countless victims of Ottoman and Neo-Turkish atrocities is embedded in the cultural DNA of this state and society. And this happens because they have never repented, and they have never recognized the countless crimes of their ancestors or their own.

The great Fathers of Orthodoxy, as well as prominent figures of psychoanalysis during the 20th century, emphasize from different perspectives—yet converging on the same final conclusion—that guilt for grave sins which is not accepted by its carrier (individual or group), and for which no atonement (religious, historical, cultural) is sought, nor any restoration of justice toward the victims of their crimes is made, becomes Erinyes (Furies) that destroy their psychological world. It transforms into aggressiveness, as they feel a deep inner disharmony and unhappiness, turning with destructive mania either against themselves (drugs, alcoholism, dangerous sports, etc.) or against their fellow human beings.

The creation of the Turkish state by the Young Turks constitutes exactly such a condition: complete denial of genocides and crimes, stubborn rejection of actual democratization, a flight forward and engagement in even worse crimes, as well as a constant threat to peace in our region. Every form of resistance or denunciation against this "state of shame" in civilized history constitutes an act in favor of culture, hope, and democracy.

Above are some thoughts based on comments from Father Athanasios.