ANALYSIS: THE WEST UNHAPPY WITH NEW TRANSFORMATIONS IN TURKEY’S FOREIGN POLICY
Naira Hayrumyan
ArmeniaNow
May 31, 2010
Politics
Dividing lines are emerging between Turkey and the West, marked by
Turkey’s nuclear energy deal with Iran and by its efforts this weekend
to use its ships to break Israel sea blockade of Gaza.
The process of Turkey’s disengagement from pro-Western forces was
clearly manifested when in January 2009 at the World Economic Forum
in Davos Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel
of occupying the Palestinian-administered Gaza Strip.
Then, just this weekend, Turkish vessels set off from Istanbul to break
the Israeli blockade of Gaza from the sea, ending in intervention by
the Israeli military that left at least 10 dead Monday morning.
But the main discontent of the West is connected with the initiative
of Turkey and Brazil on Iran when earlier this month Ankara announced
that it was ready to provide enrichment for Iranian uranium. U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded to that development
by saying that there are “very serious disagreements” over Iran’s
nuclear program and added that there are very serious differences
with the diplomacies of Brazil and Turkey towards Iran.
On Tuesday, June 1, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will
leave for Washington where he is expected to hold talks with the U.S.
secretary of state “to defuse the Turkish-American tensions.”
The West is not satisfied with the Turkish policy on Armenia either.
In fact, the process of the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish
protocols has come to a standstill, and Western countries have approved
of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s decision to suspend the process.
The Turkish premier also had to cancel his trip to Argentina as
part of his Latin America tour because of the Armenian factor. The
Turkish Foreign Ministry said that although the Buenos Aires Autonomous
Administration had been granted permission to erect a monument to the
founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, it was canceled due
to an “unfriendly initiative of the Armenian circles.”
Western experts think that “Turkey is becoming an immediate concern.”
In a much-talked about article in The American Thinker, Joel J.
Sprayregen writes:
“…The transformation of Turkish foreign policy increasingly presents
a clear danger to American interests. The ‘zero problems’ foreign
policy of AK Foreign Minister Davutoglu advertises friendliness with
proximate neighbors. In practice, this means allying with rogue states
Iran and Syria (whom even President Obama recently saw fit to designate
a state sponsor of terrorism). Worse, Turkey now embraces terrorist
murder squads like Hamas and Hezbollah and fetes their leaders as
honored guests. Turkey hosted Sudanese President Bashir, who is under
indictment for crimes against humanity by the International Court
of Criminal Justice. Turkey’s new alliances have left in tatters-but
not yet completely dismembered-its traditional military alliance with
Israel,” the article says. “A country with a worldview that demonizes
resistance against terrorism is a problematic member of NATO… Our
officials are hardly aware that — while Erdogan and Obama have
fulsomely flattered each other — Erdogan uses his controlled media
to incite populist hatred of the U.S.”
From: A. Papazian