ALL THE RIGHT MOVES: TURKEY’S CHARM OFFENSIVE INSPIRES HOPE

Daily Star
Sept 12 2008
Lebanon

The pace of the thaw taking place between Turkey and Armenia is
nothing short of breathtaking. Much attention has been focused on
Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s having attended a football match in
Yerevan at the invitation of his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarkisian,
but the two sides are already moving beyond symbolism. A deal has been
struck under which Armenian power stations will supply electricity to
Turkey, and state-run Turkish Radio Television has signed a cooperation
pact with Armenia 1 TV. In turn, the rapidly warming bilateral ties
are already fueling plans for a new grouping of countries in the
Caucasus, one whose remit would include multilateral arbitration of
international disputes. Gul has even professed full confidence that the
issue which caused Turkey to close its border with Armenia in 1993,
the latter’s war on Azerbaijan over the Nagorno Karabakh enclave,
can be resolved with relative ease.

Great challenges remain, of course, not least of which is how the
current crisis over separatism in Georgia will play out. But having an
effective regional forum would go a long way toward avoiding debacles
like that which took place last month, when the Georgian Army attacked
a breakaway district and the Russian Army stepped in with overwhelming
force. And by serving to enhance stability in the frequently volatile
region, the grouping would increase chances for the establishment
of pipelines and other forms of energy cooperation that would earn
billions of dollars and save billions more. There is also the fact
that Turkey’s position in the van of this entire process augurs well
for its willingness to solve its own separatist problem with the Kurds.

>From the Arab perspective, it is depressing to compare all this with
the lethargy that typifies intra-Arab cooperation. Despite having
faith, language and history in common – not to mention what should be
the irresistibly unifying issue of Palestine’s continuing occupation –
Arab governments are famously incapable of joint action. They talk
about things like free trade, regional electricity grids, monetary
union and the like, but almost never do any of these grandiose schemes
come fully into being, if at all. They talk, too, about Arab unity,
but they connive against one another with neither mercy nor shame and
they regard one another’s citizens as hostile aliens, denying them
travel courtesies and privileges extended automatically to visitors
from the other side of the globe.

Things have not always been this way, it having taken far too long
for Turkey to define a new role for itself after the collapse of
the Ottoman Empire, but the country’s leaders now seem determined to
become more assertive on the world stage. The possible benefits of
this more activist diplomacy are far-reaching. A more stable Caucasus
would tend to ease Russian concerns about foreign meddling in its
backyard, for example, perhaps allowing domestic liberalization
that helps that country escape its own funk since the demise of
the Soviet Union. In addition, as has already been demonstrated by
its mediation of indirect Israeli-Syrian talks, Turkey has enormous
potential to help stabilize the Middle East. Best of all, if it proves
successful, Ankara’s charm offensive will set a compelling example
for other countries (and perhaps even for some of its own generals)
of just how effective soft power can be in undoing the complications
wrought by the harder variety.