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ANKARA: We are good, neighbors aren't

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  • ANKARA: We are good, neighbors aren't

    Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
    July 13 2013

    We are good, neighbors aren't

    MURAT YETKÄ°N


    Bashar al-Assad, who should have left his place to his deputy Faruk
    al-Shara as Syrian president almost a year ago according to the
    expectations of Ankara, convened the Baath Party executive committee
    on July 9 and fired almost all other members, including al-Shara.

    This was an interesting move. His hand against the Muslim Brotherhood,
    or `Ikhwan-i Muslimin' opposition, with which he has been in a civil
    war for more than two years now, has been strengthened by two major
    developments over the last few weeks. First, there was the in-house
    coup in Qatar where the former prime minister, a main supporter of the
    Ikhwan in Syria, was removed from office by the emir, who stepped down
    at the same time on June 25. Second, the Egyptian army took down the
    elected president Mohamed Morsi, a prominent member of the Ikhwan
    movement, on July 3. One may speculate that al-Assad had acted as if
    he thought there was a secret consensus between the U.S. and Russia to
    get rid of his current Syrian regime but not leave it to the hands of
    Ikhwan before the Second Geneva talks, which will hopefully take place
    in the autumn. Al-Assad's explanation for his move was different. He
    said that all those aides had misled him into mistakes; in a way, he
    was saying that he was good, but his inner circle was not.

    Those words reminded the Turkish people of an excuse cliché used for
    those high up when corruption allegations are widespread: He (or she)
    is good, but the close circuit is not.

    Turkish foreign policy experienced two of its high points when
    President Abdullah Gül started diplomacy with Armenia in 2008, and
    when then-new Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu started open diplomacy
    with Iraqi Kurds by visiting Arbil in 2009. Then proud of Ankara's
    `zero problems with neighbors' policy, DavutoÄ?lu was underlining that
    only Turkey was able to talk to all political actors - official or
    unofficial - in its region, from fighting factions in Iraq to Hamas,
    from Iran to Israel.

    Now, following the overthrow in Egypt, Ankara is not happy, mainly for
    two reasons. One of them is because of the coup against the elected
    president. Secondly, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK
    Parti) has developed very special relations with the Ikhwan movement,
    especially after it started to adopt a more legalistic, political
    approach. This is the case not only in Egypt; AK Parti advisors also
    helped the Ä°khwanist election campaigns in Tunisia and Egypt. The main
    opposition group in Syria against al-Assad are the Ikhwanists, while
    Hamas in the Gaza Strip of Palestine also have close links with
    Ikhwan.

    Ankara has not been talking to Israel since the Mavi Marmara tragedy
    in 2010 anyway. Plus, the polarization in the region since the Syrian
    civil war started in 2011 has affected Ankara's links with Iran,
    Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Shiite majority in Iraq.

    Over the last few weeks Ankara's relations with its western allies,
    the U.S. and the European Union, have been going though a test as
    well. This is not only over Middle Eastern issues, but also over
    rights and freedoms regarding the anti-government demonstrations in
    Turkey and over the coup in Egypt.

    DavutoÄ?lu had convened some of his ambassadors in key countries, the
    intelligence organization MÄ°T, and the prime minister's foreign
    relations staff, as the ideological dynamo of the policy. He clearly
    needs a fine tuning for Turkish foreign policy following the trauma of
    Egypt. To repeat, `we are good, neighbors aren't' as an answer to
    explain the stumbles in the `zero problems with neighbors' policy is
    no longer convincing.
    July/13/2013

    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/we-are-good-neighbors-arent.aspx?pageID=449&nID=50617&NewsCatID=409

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