ANKARA TRIES TO PLAY HONEST BROKER
By Delphine Strauss

FT.com
January 21 2009 02:00

Ahmet Davutoglu, top foreign policy adviser to Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Turkey’s prime minister, returned from eight days of frantic talks
in Cairo and Damascus to a telling-off from his daughter. "You’re
travelling every day, we don’t get to see you but there are still
children being killed.

You’re not doing your job," was the 10-year-old’s verdict, he says.

The anecdote illustrates the twin impulses driving Turkey’s response
to the crisis in Gaza – its ambition to lead diplomatic efforts to
resolve the violence and an emotional reaction out of sympathy for
Palestinian suffering.

In recent months, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development party (AKP)
has been basking in international praise for a burst of diplomacy in
which it mended relations with its neighbours and sought a role as
peacemaker in regional conflicts.

After pushing for co-operation in the Caucasus, holding a dialogue
with Iran on nuclear policy, mediating between Israel and Syria and
hosting meetings between Pakistani and Afghan leaders, Turkey finally
won a coveted two-year seat on the United Nations Security Council –
which it took as confirmation of its new-found influence.

But Gaza has proved one of the biggest tests yet of Ankara’s ambitions
– one that has allowed it to flex its newly developed regional
muscle but has also exposed the=2 0limits of its influence, strained
long-standing ties with Israel and shown how hard it is to maintain
statesmanlike detachment under pressure of public opinion. "It has been
an extremely difficult position for Turkey, which has a privileged
relationship with Israel but . . . cultural and historical ties with
countries in the Middle East, especially with Palestinians," says
Sinan Ulgen, an ex-diplomat who heads Edam, an Istanbul think-tank.

Ankara’s policy has long been to avoid taking sides in an area once
ruled by the Ottoman empire, sustaining both military co-operation
with Israel and diplomatic relations with the Palestinians over
several decades. But the outrage among Turks at the latest bloodshed
is overwhelming. Mass protests replaced new year street parties when
the attacks began. Banners draped around Istanbul declare: "We too are
Palestinians" and taxi drivers display pictures of mutilated children.

Answering the public mood, Mr Erdogan toured Middle Eastern countries,
called European leaders daily and received visits from Javier
Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, and Ban Ki-moon,
UN secretary-general. But in contrast with Turkey’s ambitions as
regional mediator, his efforts have been tilted to the Palestinian
side and his criticism of Israel has been unequivocal – calling for
its exclusion from the UN, accusing its politicians of electioneering
and describing the offensive as a "dark stain on humanity".

Turkish premiers have condemned Israeli actions in the past. But Mr
Erdogan’s criticism carries a sense of personal affront. He said Ehud
Olmert’s failure to warn Turkey of his plans – although the Israeli
prime minister visited Ankara only a few days before launching the
assault – was "an act of disrespect towards Turkey". Ankara’s mediation
between Israel and Syria, meant to prove its worth as a partner to
the EU and the US, is now "in smoke", as one western diplomat put it,
adding that Mr Erdogan’s "street sensibility", a feeling of slight
that Israel had not repaid his efforts, was behind his reaction.

But Mr Erdogan’s emotive response has damaged Turkey’s position as
a non-partisan interlocutor in the region, attracting comment in the
Israeli press, remonstrations with the Turkish ambassador in Tel Aviv
and anger among Jewish lobby groups in the US. The episode is unlikely
to cause a lasting breach with Israel. But some analysts warn there
are dangers for US relations if Turkey loses the support of Jewish
groups that have previously helped fend off the Armenian lobby’s calls
for massacres under the Ottoman empire to be recognised as genocide.

"The strength of Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East is that
it has a relation with all the major players," says Fadi Hakura at
Chatham House in London. "By appearing to take an anti-Israeli stance,
it undermined its ability to broker a peace deal."

=0 D A further complication is that the AKP’s foreign policy is
coloured, in the eyes of Turkish commentators, by its sense of Muslim
identity: some say it wants to recreate the Ottoman role of leadership
in the Muslim world.

But even if Turkey has not played the leading role in halting the
Gaza violence in Gaza, it may still be instrumental in creating
a lasting settlement – using its ties with Israel and political
relations developed with Hamas. Ali Babacan, foreign minister, has
made clear the country would contribute troops to a monitoring force,
although diplomats prefer to talk of technical assistance.

Mr Davutoglu dismisses claims that Turkey is shifting from its US
and European allegiances towards the Muslim world. "There is no
shift in Turkey’s foreign policy axis," he says. "Whatever happens
in this region affects us. We can’t be silent, we can’t be waiting;
we should be active."