THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE TURKISH ‘BORDER-CROSSING OPERATION’

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Friday, 16 October 2009

The term ‘border-crossing operation’ immediately brings to mind
military aircraft, hers, helicopters, SWAT teams, missiles and
military hardware. Yet, the substance and scope of border-crossing
operations have drastically changed nowadays. The Turkish-Syrian
High Level Strategic Cooperation Council convened a few days ago
and its twin meeting between Turkey and Iraq yesterday (Oct. 15) can
be considered as the most comprehensive ‘border-crossing operation’
Turkey has ever conducted in Iraqi territories. It seems that the Prime
Minister Erdogan’s wish before his visit to Iraq that "peace in Iraq
and the region will be sustainable and stability will be permanent"
‘will be realized thanks to ‘border-crossing operations’ as such.

It is well known that Turks are proud of their military. However,
there will be politicians, businessman, artists, authors and suchlike
among the Turks in the 21st century to add to their ‘proud list.’ The
Azerbaijani singer singing a song by Tatyos Efendi, who is of Armenian
origin, makes a significant contribution to Turkish-Armenian peace
process. Likewise, Turkish truck drivers filling the Ottoman bazaar
in Damascus with Turkish goods also contribute to the regional
peace. Turkish artists and TV shows that resonate highly in the Arab
streets demonstrate the extent to which these non-state actors can
contribute to regional stability.

When Joseph Nye coined the concept of ‘soft power’ as a potent
instrument in international politics, he must not have had in mind
the Turkish ability to use his concept so efficiently in mind. A
country that recently passed a bill in its parliament allowing the
Turkish military to continue conducting cross-border operations to
signal its military deterrence, has conducted a different sort of
‘border-crossing operation’ in Iraqi territory with its soft power
this time. Ernst Haas’ idea of ‘realizing integratio ll parties and
eventually facilitate political integration’ underlies Turkish foreign
policy thinking for the last few years. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu’s statement that "we do not want our neighbors to be poor,
our neighbors should amass wealth too but without reneging on the
rights of another neighbor of ours" confirms that point.

We have been witnessing a paradigm change on the provision of security
beyond borders and combating terrorism. Using its soft power Turkey
has been trying to circumscribe the playing ground of all elements
of instability, including the PKK operating inside Iraq. But Turkey
does not rely solely on its armed forces for that goal. Rather, where
the Turkish armed forces are likely to fail on its own Turkey backs
them up with the elements of her soft power.

When viewed from that perspective, Turkey, unlike what some claim,
is not a country acting on the basis of a roadmap presented to
it by global powers. In contrast, Turkey has been acting as an
order-instituting country that determines its own priorities and
tries to persuade regional and global powers to fall in line with
those priorities. Turkish foreign policy towards Iraq is the clearest
manifestation of that trend. Turkey, left outside of the American
designs on Iraq in 2003, has returned to Iraq more forcefully in 2009,
and this time with its own ‘home-made’ ‘software.’

The ‘Oct 15 Iraqi operation’ carries the signs of the direction
the new Turkish problem-solving strategy is marching towards. This
strategy, it can be said, is based on establishing its defense fronts
far beyond the Turkish borders. And it is becoming ever harder for
the PKK to break what we can call ‘containment policy’. Those past
days when Turkish foreign policy was indexed only to the terrorist
threat the PKK posed is long gone. As it would be a mistake to regard
Turkey’s civilian Iraqi operation independently of the terror agenda,
it would be equally wrong to restrict it to the terror agenda.

*This piece penned by Ih BERTURK newspaper on October 16, 2009.