A stronger Turkey means more rivals in the region

zaman
Dec 13, 2009

Turkey’s expanding foreign policy following the appointment of Foreign
Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu on May 1 has already begun to bear fruit,
with a stronger Turkey emerging, one with less problems and more
cooperation with its neighbors.

Considering numerous interests intersecting in the region, both by
regional and international powers, Turkey’s rising ability and its say
in regional affairs have raised considerable concern among its rivals.
Seeking to build strong relations with countries in the region after
long ignoring its eastern neighbors, Turkey’s recent moves raised fear
among its rivals both in the region and the West.

`It has become more self-confident, stronger, and the EU and the US
have weakened. It is Turkey’s right to build good relations with its
neighbors,’ Hugh Pope, the director of the Turkey/Cyprus Project at
the International Crisis Group, told Sunday’s Zaman. Turkey has
developed strong relations with its neighbors in the past year,
raising some concerns in the West over its alignment. Most of these
concerns were drummed up by Israeli media outlets. `Turkey is aligned
on Ankara,’ DavutoÄ?lu said during a conference in Washington, D.C., on
Dec. 8.

Turkey has already removed visa requirements with Syria and Jordan and
will lift them with Sudan, Azerbaijan and Iran in the weeks to come.
It signed agreements of strategic cooperation with Gulf countries,
Iraq, Syria and others in the region to create an economic pool and to
bring neighboring countries closer to Turkey. Over the past year,
Turkey began to normalize relations with Armenia, strengthen ties with
Russia, build better relations with the US and seek a breakthrough on
both Cyprus and Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh problem. Turkey is doing
things the West is not used to seeing, and this is why the West is
irritated,’ Osman Gazi Ã-zgüdenli, a professor from Marmara University,
told Sunday’s Zaman.

Israel an architect of the spat

Always attempting to be a dominant power in the Middle East, Israel is
also uneasy with the growing Turkish power in the region. Turkey is
building close relations with Iran and Syria, two countries that
Israel cannot get along with as they strongly support the end of the
Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. As a result, Israel has
loudly criticized Turkey and claimed that Turkey’s growing relations
with countries in the Middle East have caused it to slowly drift away
from the West. The Israeli media have worked tooth and nail to issue
the West a `wake-up call’ and to lead it to question Turkey’s foreign
policy initiatives.

Turkey was mediating peace talks between Israel and Syria for more
than a year until Israel announced it will no longer accept Turkey as
honest broker subsequent to Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an’s remarks on
Israel’s Gaza offensive on various occasions. After all this, media
reports labeling Foreign Minister DavutoÄ?lu a neo-Ottoman and Turkey
an anti-Western country appeared in the Western and Israeli media.
`Israel does not want Turkey as a mediator because of the behavior of
ErdoÄ?an,’ Shlomo Brom, an expert at the Israeli Institute for National
Security Studies, told Sunday’s Zaman. Commenting on Israel’s
uncertain stance on Turkey, I think there is some disagreement inside
Israel as to whether or not Turkey should remain as a mediator — with
some arguing that it is not impartial (and widening the rift between
Turkey and Israel), and others seeing the need to continue working
with Turkey,’ Ellen Lust-Okar, a political science professor at Yale
University, told Sunday’s Zaman.

France, a country that has always tried to lead the peace processes in
the Middle East, pushed both Syria and Israel to accept it as a
mediator. `Today, Israel is saying that it can no longer accept Turkey
as a mediator, since the Turks have clearly taken sides in the
Arab-Israeli conflict. And basically what Syria is saying: No talks
without Turkey,’ Sami Moubayed, a Syrian historian, political analyst
and university professor based in Damascus, told Sunday’s Zaman.

Observers, however, also believe that Turkey is on the right track and
should only be careful with its rhetoric and make sure that its
relations with Israel are fine. `If Turkey wants to contribute towards
a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, she will have to be more
even-handed and improve her relations with Israel,’ David Phillips, an
American expert on Turkey at the Atlantic Council think tank, said to
Sunday’s Zaman.

Pope, however, believes that every country is `happy’ with Turkey’s
relations with its neighbors. `No country is trying to undermine
Turkey in the region,’ Pope claimed. `Justice and Development Party
[AK Party] leaders have spoken about the relations with its neighbors
and Israel. It is more a problem of the rhetoric. It may be a problem
of taking the words out of the context in far away capitals, too. The
AK Party can make it easier for themselves if they use more measured
terms,’ Pope told Sunday’s Zaman. `The problem is not the fact that he
[ErdoÄ?an] criticizes Israel. ¦ France and the US also criticize Israel
on different occasions. The problem is language and style,’ Brom
noted.

Iran also concerned on Turkey

Another rising power in the region is definitely Iran with its rich
oil and gas resources. Despite sanctions and embargos applied by the
US for almost 15 years, Iran’s economic development is indifferent to
these barriers. Turkey and Iran, traditional rivals in the region, are
now cooperating in many areas. Although observers believe that Iran
will be careful about Turkey’s expansion, it also understands that
`Turkey is the only window for Iran to the West,’ in Ã-zgüdenli’s
terms.

`Obama is trying to create a united front against Iran, to put
pressure on the country. Turkey appears to have chosen instead a more
neutral role as a country which can mediate because it maintains good
relations with all sides. In the end, this Turkish role may prove more
important to the Obama administration than the tougher position it
would prefer,’ Marina Ottaway, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, told Sunday’s Zaman.

However, Iran is closely monitoring the developments surrounding its
nuclear row and is also considering the possibility that Turkey could
store low-enriched uranium (LEU) in its territory. Following Prime
Minister ErdoÄ?an’s meeting with US President Barack Obama, Iran
announced that it will no longer cooperate with Turkey on LEU storage,
clear testimony of Iran’s fear of Turkey’s rise. Ã-zgüdenli, however,
claims there can be several powers in the region and that they may
choose cooperation rather than competition. `Iran and Turkey are doing
exactly the same thing,’ he added.

`Turkey is a model country in the Middle East because of its
prosperity, good measure of democracy and modernizing agenda, and
these all exist because of Turkey’s partnership with the EU,’ Pope
said. Noting that it will be a real loss for Turkey and impossible to
walk freely and surely in the Middle East if it ends its partnership
with the EU, Pope said Turkey will then also lose its attraction in
the Middle East, too.

MAHÄ°R ZEYNALOV Ä°STANBUL