Through Turkish dictates, Ghannouchi fights to save the Brotherhood’s ‘mastership’

Doaa Emam

Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi is still adhering to the Brotherhood in Tunisia to form a government based on the whims of the movement, in accordance with the dictates carried by him from Turkey during his recent meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This is rejected by most political forces, as Tunisians questioned how Ghannouchi could consult Turkey regarding Tunisian affairs and the proper composition of the government.

Political reluctance

Many of the major parties within the parliament have expressed their refusal to participate in a government formed by the movement. This reluctance to share power with Ennahda is the result of Tunisia’s previous experiences since 2011, as all parties that participated in Ennahda’s rule were doomed to political fragmentation.

Tunisian journalist Nayla al-Selini said that Ghannouchi and his movement currently represent the active part of the international Brotherhood organization, stressing that the collapse of the mother group’s rule in Egypt and the dissolution of the organization in Jordan made the responsibility of Ennahda and its leader heavy to ensure the organization’s so-called mastership of the world.

Selini continued that Ghannouchi is a soldier in the Brotherhood and the survival of his movement is the survival of the entire organization; therefore, he does not take initiative but relies on instructions.

Erdogan: World’s most dangerous Brotherhood leader

In an article published on October 28, Selini said that the Ennahda leader works from a Brotherhood program on how to achieve the organization’s lost dream in the most successful way and how to avoid missteps, which is why he consults Erdogan prior to the government’s formation or any Tunisian event.

She pointed out that the Turkish president has now become the most dangerous Brotherhood leader in the world, nearly managing the international organization himself. He even believes in the Brotherhood’s ideas and doctrine more than Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the group. The most important of these principles is “mastership of the world”, or ruling the world, but Erdogan does so in manner of his Ottoman ancestors.

Selini recommended that Tunisian civil society work to stop the Brotherhood’s march and cut off their sovereignty, which is now growing in a terrible manner, adding that it is “as if Tunisia has become a Turkish state.