TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT IN WAKE OF ‘GENOCIDE’ BILLS

Today’s Zaman
March 15 2010
Turkey

Turkey’s domestic agenda has been full of challenging issues such as a
series of discoveries of alleged coup plots to topple the government
and a yet-to-be-achieved compromise on a constitutional amendment
package, but now all the attention is focused outward.

Only a week after a US congressional committee labeled the killings
of Anatolian Armenians during World War I genocide at the cost of
damaging bilateral relations between Ankara and Washington, with
Ankara recalling its ambassador to the US, the Swedish parliament
branded the same killings as genocide last Thursday. On Friday,
Turkey’s ambassador to Sweden returned to Ä°stanbul. Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan also cancelled an upcoming summit between Turkey
and Sweden. Turkey’s recent moves have put Turkish foreign policy
and its long-praised main actors, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu,
the intellectual architect of the Justice and Development Party’s (AK
Party) foreign policy, and Prime Minister Erdogan under the spotlight.

Radikal’s Oral CalıÅ~_lar has concerns that these recent moves would
mean a step back for Turkish foreign policy. Stating that the AK
Party government has been trying to prove that they want to change the
course of Turkish foreign policy and that they "enjoy reiterating that
they follow a zero-problem policy with neighbors," he says, however,
recent developments imply that Turkey has returned to "traditional
foreign policy." "They [the government] recalled the ambassadors to the
countries where ‘genocide’ bills were approved, and it is still unclear
when they will return. It seems that in the following days ‘genocide’
bills could also be passed in some other European countries. If we show
similar reactions, it will be inevitable that we will have diplomatic
problems with many leading European countries [many of whom support
Turkey’s EU bid and are trying to improve relations with Turkey],"
he says. CalıÅ~_lar labels Turkey’s recent style of diplomacy
"furious." "One cannot help thinking that when looking at this new
furious approach, there was no need for Davutoglu.

This policy can best be implemented by [Republican People’s Party
(CHP) Deputy Chairman] Onur Oymen. Bring him to the post and put an
end to everything," he complains, referring to Oymen’s praising of
a tragic massacre in Dersim (now Tunceli) in 1937.

Taraf daily Editor-in-Chief Ahmet Altan also criticizes Erdogan and
Davutoglu for their recent stances, saying they have been recently
putting on an unsuccessful act, unlike their past performance. "If
we continue to act with Erdogan and Davutoglu’s narrow-mindedness,
our prime ministers will not be able to find a country to visit
in the future because they are narrowing their world more and more
with ordinary statements and gestures that lack creativity. Just as
they were getting ready to be included among the brightest stars of
diplomacy, they have plunged in with simplistic attitudes, he says.

Stating that Erdogan and Davutoglu are pushing themselves and Turkey
towards isolation, Altan says both they and Turkey will lose if they
carry on with these policies. "It would be very easy in a country that
has broken off its ties from the world to stage coups and cause trouble
for the civilian government by judicial and military means," he warns.