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WATCHFUL EYES ON TURKEY AS IT APPEARS TO TURN EAST
Dan Bilefsky
The International Herald Tribune
October 28, 2009 Wednesday
France
With Turkey's prospects for joining the European Union more elusive
than ever and the country reaching out to predominantly Muslim
countries with a vigor not seen in years, an age-old question is
vexing the United States and Europe: Is this large secular Muslim
country turning east instead of west?
When President Barack Obama visited Turkey in April - a gesture that
underlined its strategic importance - he emphasized Turkey's role
as a bridge between East and West, acknowledged its mediation in the
Arab-Israeli conflict, and threw his weight behind Turkey's becoming
an E.U. member.
Now, six months later, some in Washington and Brussels are questioning
Turkey's dependability as an ally. Relations with Israel have seldom
been worse. And many Turks - insulted by opposition in France, Germany
and elsewhere to the country's joining the E.U. - are asking whether
Turks should reject the E.U. before the bloc rejects them.
When it comes to their European credentials, an influential member of
the U.S. Congress, Robert Wexler, asked last week, "how many speeches
do the Turks have to endure?"
Mr. Wexler, chairman of the European Foreign Affairs Subcommittee
of the U.S. House of Representatives, recently announced he would
resign from the House to head the Center for Middle East Peace and
Economic Cooperation.
"You wonder why Turkey is curious about different avenues?" he asked
at a conference in Istanbul about Turkey and the Middle East. "Look
at your own behavior and attitude, Europe."
Fears of a Turkish lurch toward the Muslim world were fanned this
month when the country canceled air force exercises with Israel,
straining ties that were already frayed after Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan got into a public fight over the war in Gaza with
President Shimon Peres of Israel in front of peers at the World
Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, early this year.
Turkey's decision to put its special relationship with Israel on hold,
some Western diplomats say, has been accompanied by overtures toward
Iran. During a visit by Mr. Erdogan to Iran on Tuesday, President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised him for opposition to Israel. "Your
clear stance against the Zionist regime had a positive impact in the
world which undoubtedly made all nations happy," he told Mr. Erdogan,
the state media in Iran reported.
When the official result of Iran's presidential election was announced
in June, leading to bloody demonstrations, Turkey raised eyebrows by
being one of the first countries to congratulate Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Last week, Mr. Erdogan called on the international community to ease
its concerns about Iran's nuclear program. Earlier, he had exhorted
the West to remember that "those who possess nuclear weapons do not
have the right to tell others to not acquire them, too."
Some analysts blame the E.U.'s mismanagement of its relations with
Turkey for pushing the country in another direction. President
Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany
have expressed vociferous opposition to Turkish membership in the
E.U., signaling, however tacitly, that a large Muslim country, most
of whose territory sits outside of Europe, has no place in a club of
nations that are predominantly Christian.
Even a partial collapse of talks with the E.U. would have far-reaching
consequences. Turkey is an indispensable ally for the United States
and Europe. Bordered by Iran, Iraq and Syria, Turkey, which has NATO's
biggest army after that of the United States, is a powerful symbol
of the compatibility of democracy, capitalism and Islam. Situated
between the Middle East and the former Soviet Union, Turkey has vital
strategic importance as a transit country for natural gas. It also has
deep influence in Afghanistan and is a regional leader in the Caucasus.
Yet the country's E.U. negotiations are in a precarious state. Eight
negotiating chapters have been blocked because of a dispute with
Cyprus. For the first time in years, leading figures in the business
establishment, which has always led the drive for E.U. integration,
are questioning the wisdom of continuing a negotiating process that
appears to have no end.
"Ten years ago I was fighting for us to join the E.U., but I have
lost all faith in the honesty of the process," said Hasan Arat,
a Turkish venture capitalist. "We Turks are a proud nation, and we
don't want to go to a house where we were invited but where the host
keeps slamming the door in our face."
For all its wounded pride, officials and analysts in Turkey insist
that it has no intention of abandoning the West but, rather, is
developing an independent streak in line with its growing economic
and political clout.
Rather than reorienting Turkish foreign policy toward the East,
Egemen Bagis, Turkey's minister for European affairs, argued in an
interview that the recent outreach to its neighbors - including the
opening of its border with Syria, the rapprochement with Armenia,
the engagement of Iran and a raft of agreements solidifying ties with
Iraq - was helping Turkey to become a more effective interlocutor
for its Western allies.
"Any bridge with one strong leg and one weak leg can't stand for long,"
he said. "For a bridge to be useful and stable, both legs need to
be strong."
Ibrahim Kalin, chief foreign policy adviser to Mr. Erdogan, added
that Western critics of Turkey's new inclusive foreign policy were
applying a double standard. "When the U.S. makes an overture to Russia,
everyone applauds this as a new era in diplomacy," he said. "But
when Turkey tries to reach out to Iran, people ask if it is trying
to change its axis."
Yet Mr. Kalin acknowledged that the anti-Turkish rhetoric emanating
from several European capitals was making it harder to convince the
Turkish people about E.U. membership.
Support for Turkey's E.U. aspirations four years ago topped 70 percent,
he noted, but today fewer than half of Turks think joining the bloc
would benefit Turkey.
"We keep hearing cultural arguments about why we are not suitable for
the E.U., that we are different, that we are Muslim," Mr. Kalin said.
"If this type of talk continues, it will become increasingly difficult
to make a case for Turkish membership in the E.U. to public opinion."
While a growing anti-E.U. backlash in Turkey has invariably made
a rapprochement with the Arab world more attractive, some Turkish
analysts argued that cultural and economic interests were also at play.
Ersin Kalaycioglu, a professor of political science at Sabanci
University in Istanbul, noted that the global financial crisis had
contracted European economies, prompting Turkey, a large export
country, to seek alternative markets.
Other analysts noted that leaders in the governing Justice and
Development party, or A.K.P., a socially conservative party with
Muslim roots, felt more at home in Riyadh, Damascus and Baghdad than
in Paris, London or Rome. "The A.K.P. has reached the Arab Street
and Arab radicals in a way that previous Turkish governments didn't
do in the past," Mr. Kalaycioglu said.
Indeed, many secular Turks say they are concerned that outreach to
the Muslim world is being replicated by the expanding influence of
Islam on daily life at home.
Last year, Parliament voted to end a ban on women's wearing of head
scarves at universities, prompting a challenge from the constitutional
court that the ruling party was trying to subvert Turkey's secular
state. A growing number of hotels along the Mediterranean coast boast
segregated beaches where liquor is not served.
Egitim-Sen, a leftist teachers' union, has accused the ruling party
of allowing Islam to encroach on the national curriculum.
Government officials retort that secularism is enshrined in the
Constitution and that Turkey is inextricably tied to the West, both
economically and strategically.
"I am against limitations on freedom, whether someone is trying to
ban a woman from the right to wear a head scarf or is trying to limit
a person's right to enjoy a glass of wine," said Mr. Bagis, the E.U.
affairs minister.
Rather than fearing that Turkey is moving toward the East, Cengiz
Aktar, a leading E.U. expert, argued that the West had more to fear
from a wounded Turkey turning to Russia. Already, Russia has been
courting Turkey as a distribution point for energy supplies to the
Middle East and the southern Mediterranean, while Turkish investment
in Russia is intensifying.
Mr. Aktar expressed alarm that Mr. Erdogan's government - whose tax
authority recently imposed $4 billion in fines and penalties on a
leading media group critical of the ruling party - appeared intent
on imitating Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's autocratic style
of governance.
"People should be far more concerned about Turkey getting closer
to Russia and applying the Russian approach to governance than they
should about the turn toward the Middle East and Islam," he said.
"This government is perfectly capable of saying 'no thanks' to Europe
and instead shifting toward Russia."
Dan Bilefsky
The International Herald Tribune
October 28, 2009 Wednesday
France
With Turkey's prospects for joining the European Union more elusive
than ever and the country reaching out to predominantly Muslim
countries with a vigor not seen in years, an age-old question is
vexing the United States and Europe: Is this large secular Muslim
country turning east instead of west?
When President Barack Obama visited Turkey in April - a gesture that
underlined its strategic importance - he emphasized Turkey's role
as a bridge between East and West, acknowledged its mediation in the
Arab-Israeli conflict, and threw his weight behind Turkey's becoming
an E.U. member.
Now, six months later, some in Washington and Brussels are questioning
Turkey's dependability as an ally. Relations with Israel have seldom
been worse. And many Turks - insulted by opposition in France, Germany
and elsewhere to the country's joining the E.U. - are asking whether
Turks should reject the E.U. before the bloc rejects them.
When it comes to their European credentials, an influential member of
the U.S. Congress, Robert Wexler, asked last week, "how many speeches
do the Turks have to endure?"
Mr. Wexler, chairman of the European Foreign Affairs Subcommittee
of the U.S. House of Representatives, recently announced he would
resign from the House to head the Center for Middle East Peace and
Economic Cooperation.
"You wonder why Turkey is curious about different avenues?" he asked
at a conference in Istanbul about Turkey and the Middle East. "Look
at your own behavior and attitude, Europe."
Fears of a Turkish lurch toward the Muslim world were fanned this
month when the country canceled air force exercises with Israel,
straining ties that were already frayed after Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan got into a public fight over the war in Gaza with
President Shimon Peres of Israel in front of peers at the World
Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, early this year.
Turkey's decision to put its special relationship with Israel on hold,
some Western diplomats say, has been accompanied by overtures toward
Iran. During a visit by Mr. Erdogan to Iran on Tuesday, President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised him for opposition to Israel. "Your
clear stance against the Zionist regime had a positive impact in the
world which undoubtedly made all nations happy," he told Mr. Erdogan,
the state media in Iran reported.
When the official result of Iran's presidential election was announced
in June, leading to bloody demonstrations, Turkey raised eyebrows by
being one of the first countries to congratulate Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Last week, Mr. Erdogan called on the international community to ease
its concerns about Iran's nuclear program. Earlier, he had exhorted
the West to remember that "those who possess nuclear weapons do not
have the right to tell others to not acquire them, too."
Some analysts blame the E.U.'s mismanagement of its relations with
Turkey for pushing the country in another direction. President
Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany
have expressed vociferous opposition to Turkish membership in the
E.U., signaling, however tacitly, that a large Muslim country, most
of whose territory sits outside of Europe, has no place in a club of
nations that are predominantly Christian.
Even a partial collapse of talks with the E.U. would have far-reaching
consequences. Turkey is an indispensable ally for the United States
and Europe. Bordered by Iran, Iraq and Syria, Turkey, which has NATO's
biggest army after that of the United States, is a powerful symbol
of the compatibility of democracy, capitalism and Islam. Situated
between the Middle East and the former Soviet Union, Turkey has vital
strategic importance as a transit country for natural gas. It also has
deep influence in Afghanistan and is a regional leader in the Caucasus.
Yet the country's E.U. negotiations are in a precarious state. Eight
negotiating chapters have been blocked because of a dispute with
Cyprus. For the first time in years, leading figures in the business
establishment, which has always led the drive for E.U. integration,
are questioning the wisdom of continuing a negotiating process that
appears to have no end.
"Ten years ago I was fighting for us to join the E.U., but I have
lost all faith in the honesty of the process," said Hasan Arat,
a Turkish venture capitalist. "We Turks are a proud nation, and we
don't want to go to a house where we were invited but where the host
keeps slamming the door in our face."
For all its wounded pride, officials and analysts in Turkey insist
that it has no intention of abandoning the West but, rather, is
developing an independent streak in line with its growing economic
and political clout.
Rather than reorienting Turkish foreign policy toward the East,
Egemen Bagis, Turkey's minister for European affairs, argued in an
interview that the recent outreach to its neighbors - including the
opening of its border with Syria, the rapprochement with Armenia,
the engagement of Iran and a raft of agreements solidifying ties with
Iraq - was helping Turkey to become a more effective interlocutor
for its Western allies.
"Any bridge with one strong leg and one weak leg can't stand for long,"
he said. "For a bridge to be useful and stable, both legs need to
be strong."
Ibrahim Kalin, chief foreign policy adviser to Mr. Erdogan, added
that Western critics of Turkey's new inclusive foreign policy were
applying a double standard. "When the U.S. makes an overture to Russia,
everyone applauds this as a new era in diplomacy," he said. "But
when Turkey tries to reach out to Iran, people ask if it is trying
to change its axis."
Yet Mr. Kalin acknowledged that the anti-Turkish rhetoric emanating
from several European capitals was making it harder to convince the
Turkish people about E.U. membership.
Support for Turkey's E.U. aspirations four years ago topped 70 percent,
he noted, but today fewer than half of Turks think joining the bloc
would benefit Turkey.
"We keep hearing cultural arguments about why we are not suitable for
the E.U., that we are different, that we are Muslim," Mr. Kalin said.
"If this type of talk continues, it will become increasingly difficult
to make a case for Turkish membership in the E.U. to public opinion."
While a growing anti-E.U. backlash in Turkey has invariably made
a rapprochement with the Arab world more attractive, some Turkish
analysts argued that cultural and economic interests were also at play.
Ersin Kalaycioglu, a professor of political science at Sabanci
University in Istanbul, noted that the global financial crisis had
contracted European economies, prompting Turkey, a large export
country, to seek alternative markets.
Other analysts noted that leaders in the governing Justice and
Development party, or A.K.P., a socially conservative party with
Muslim roots, felt more at home in Riyadh, Damascus and Baghdad than
in Paris, London or Rome. "The A.K.P. has reached the Arab Street
and Arab radicals in a way that previous Turkish governments didn't
do in the past," Mr. Kalaycioglu said.
Indeed, many secular Turks say they are concerned that outreach to
the Muslim world is being replicated by the expanding influence of
Islam on daily life at home.
Last year, Parliament voted to end a ban on women's wearing of head
scarves at universities, prompting a challenge from the constitutional
court that the ruling party was trying to subvert Turkey's secular
state. A growing number of hotels along the Mediterranean coast boast
segregated beaches where liquor is not served.
Egitim-Sen, a leftist teachers' union, has accused the ruling party
of allowing Islam to encroach on the national curriculum.
Government officials retort that secularism is enshrined in the
Constitution and that Turkey is inextricably tied to the West, both
economically and strategically.
"I am against limitations on freedom, whether someone is trying to
ban a woman from the right to wear a head scarf or is trying to limit
a person's right to enjoy a glass of wine," said Mr. Bagis, the E.U.
affairs minister.
Rather than fearing that Turkey is moving toward the East, Cengiz
Aktar, a leading E.U. expert, argued that the West had more to fear
from a wounded Turkey turning to Russia. Already, Russia has been
courting Turkey as a distribution point for energy supplies to the
Middle East and the southern Mediterranean, while Turkish investment
in Russia is intensifying.
Mr. Aktar expressed alarm that Mr. Erdogan's government - whose tax
authority recently imposed $4 billion in fines and penalties on a
leading media group critical of the ruling party - appeared intent
on imitating Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's autocratic style
of governance.
"People should be far more concerned about Turkey getting closer
to Russia and applying the Russian approach to governance than they
should about the turn toward the Middle East and Islam," he said.
"This government is perfectly capable of saying 'no thanks' to Europe
and instead shifting toward Russia."