Middle East Forum
By Burak Bekdil
The Gatestone Institute
December 3, 2021
U.S. President Joe Biden's increasingly hypocritical policy on NATO's
increasingly difficult ally, Turkey, is badly zig-zagging between the
U.S. leader's self-declared advocacy for universal democratic values
and criticism of Turkey's democratic deficit in public on the one hand
and his appeasement of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan behind
closed doors on the other.
In a December 2019 interview, then-presidential candidate Biden said
that Erdoğan should be ousted from power through a democratic process
and that support for the opposition was crucial. Turkey's human rights
record has gone downhill from there. The Council of Europe has said
that if Turkish courts keep ignoring rulings from the European Court
of Human Rights, it would start infringement proceedings against
Turkey at the end of November.
All the same, on October 31, Biden and Erdoğan apparently had a
70-minute meeting in a "very positive atmosphere" on the sidelines of
the G20 summit in Rome. They reportedly agreed to form a joint
mechanism to improve ties. "During the meeting," an Erdoğan aide told
this author, "Biden's lecture on human rights did not exceed two
minutes." It seems that a U.S. delegation will soon arrive in Ankara
to work on that joint mechanism.
Since the summer, everything on the Washington-Ankara axis seems to
have gone wrong. During a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
hearing in July, Republican and Democrat Senators criticized Turkish
government policies and demanded more action from the Biden
administration. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey and
other Senators expressed concern over the Turkish government's efforts
to ban the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). "That's like
if President Biden banned the Republican party from participating,"
Menendez said.
The Turkish Democracy Project (TDP) in September called on three U.S.
companies and one German one to cut ties with Baykar Makina, whose TB2
armed drones have become a weapon of choice for repressive regimes
worldwide. According to Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, CEO of TDP:
"In refusing to cut ties with Turkey in the face of direct evidence of
the crimes the Erdoğan regime is committing using their products,
these companies are demonstrating that they do not take seriously the
moral or legal implications of their actions. Lawmakers must take this
into account in determining how these companies ought to be dealt
with."
Before that, a coalition of 27 U.S. Congress members had signed a
letter saying that technology transfers such as the ones these
companies show that Turkey continues to clearly violate the terms of
the CAATSA (Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act)
sanctions.
In October, U.S. lawmakers proposed legislation that would require the
State Department to investigate whether a Turkish ultra-nationalist
group with links to the Turkish government, the Gray Wolves, should be
designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The Grey Wolves are
closely affiliated with the Nationalist Movement Party, Erdoğan's
staunchest political ally.
In late October, Erdoğan ordered 10 ambassadors in Ankara, including
those from the U.S., Germany and France, be declared personae non
gratae. The order followed a statement from the envoys calling for the
urgent release of activist Osman Kavala, who has been in prison for
more than four years while supposedly under investigation for
participating in protests and a coup attempt, although he has never
been convicted.
Erdoğan stepped back only after the U.S. Embassy in Ankara stated, "In
response to questions regarding the Statement of October 18, the
United States notes that it maintains compliance with Article 41 of
the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic relations." Article 41 stipulates
that the internal affairs of other states should not be interfered
with.
When bilateral ties seemed to be moving from one low point to another,
Erdoğan shocked the world by saying that the U.S. administration
proposed to sell Turkey a batch of 40 F-16 Block 70 fighter jets -- a
claim that quickly turned into a puzzle. On October 23, the day after
Erdoğan's claim, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price stated that
the U.S. had not made any financing offers on Turkey's request to
purchase F-16 warplanes. On November 15, however, a senior U.S.
diplomat told this author that all of the State Department, the
Pentagon and White House were "in agreement to encourage the F-16 sale
to Turkey, but could not guarantee Congress's approval."
Two days after that, on November 17, Turkey's Ministry of Defense said
in a statement that a high-level meeting between military delegations,
held in Washington, was "positive and constructive." Apparently, the
F-16 talks will continue on, with Biden ignoring the Congress.
Both Democratic and Republican U.S. lawmakers urged Biden's
administration not to sell F-16 fighter jets to Turkey and said they
were confident Congress would block any such exports. In an October 25
letter to Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 11 members of
the House of Representatives cited "a profound sense of concern" about
recent reports that Turkey might purchase 40 new Lockheed Martin F-16s
and 80 F-16 modernization kits.
Turkey's Ambassador to the U.S., Murat Mercan, an extremely skillful
diplomat, said in an October 27 speech: "Turkey's increased
contributions to the transatlantic community's efforts opens a window
of opportunity for a newly defined alliance relationship between
Turkey and the United States that can still operate under extreme
duress, no matter what the diverging opinions are."
There is something wrong about this Biden riddle. Is Biden the
champion of human rights and universal democratic values that he
claims he is? Or is he an unpleasant cheat with a disappointing fake
democratic agenda?
**
Burak Bekdil is an Ankara-based political analyst and a fellow at the
Middle East Forum.
