Bitter Turkey finally lifts veto on Danish PM as Nato chief
* Ian Traynor in Strasbourg
* The Observer,
Sunday 5 April 2009
Denmark’s prime minister was appointed the new Nato chief yesterday
following 24 hours of brinkmanship and bitter dispute over religion
and liberty that risked turning the western military alliance into the
hostage of a clash with Islam.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen was named Nato secretary-general after President
Barack Obama intervened in a row between the Dane and President
Abdullah Gul of Turkey, which had earlier vetoed the appointment.
As the single big Muslim country within Nato, Turkey had refused to
yield on the appointment of Rasmussen because of his defence of free
speech during the Danish cartoons crisis three years ago and because
Denmark is host to a Kurdish rebel TV station broadcasting to Turkey.
Rasmussen was supported by most leading European states, with the
German chancellor, Angela Merkel, his keenest advocate.
The row with Turkey threatened to mar what was planned to be a
celebration of Nato’s 60th birthday at a summit staged jointly by
France and Germany on both sides of the Rhine.
Turkey yielded at the very end after the summit was extended by two
hours and heads of state and government met alone to try to strike a
deal. A European foreign minister told the Observer that Turkey backed
down when it was promised membership of the European Defence Agency,
increasing Ankara’s clout in the EU’s defence affairs.
Despite the final agreement, the dispute meant that the toxic
arguments over religious values, blasphemy and liberties that have
raged between the western and Islamic worlds since 9/11 have
penetrated the inner sanctum of Nato for the first time. Obama and the
other 27 national leaders of Nato sought to forge a consensus on the
Danish candidate at a dinner in the German spa town of Baden-Baden on
Friday night. But Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister,
refused to budge. Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, then
spent hours on the pho London on Friday, Erdogan accused Rasmussen –
who had just announced that he was quitting Danish politics – of
playing host to "terrorists" linked to the PKK Kurdish guerrillas
fighting the Turkish state. "The mouthpiece of the terrorist
organisation in my country is broadcasting from Denmark. How can
someone who did not stop this safeguard peace?", Erdogan
declared. "Nato is an organisation whose duties are to ensure peace."
The Turkish leader also complained that Rasmussen had spurned his
pleas during the 2006 cartoon crisis to make a gesture to defuse the
tensions with the Islamic world. "How can those who made no
contribution to peace at that time contribute to peace now?"
Olli Rehn, the top EU official in charge of negotiating Turkey’s
accession to the union, said Erdogan had blundered and that Ankara’s
threatened veto threw into greater doubt Turkey’s commitment to
freedom of expression.