Ankara’s diplomacy in Muslim world pays US dividends
By Delphine Strauss
FT
April 9 2009 03:00
Ankara’s efforts to cultivate good relations with its neighbours and
play a more active role in regional diplomacy paid off handsomely this
week when Turkey became the first country to host a formal state visit
from Barack Obama.
In a two-day charm offensive, the US president praised Turkey’s "strong
and secular democracy" to parliamentarians, took questions from
wide-eyed students, admired Istanbul’s Blue Mosque and left a
handwritten tribute at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the
republic’s founder.
"This is the first overseas visit – the first bilateral visit – of the
new US president. The fact that he has chosen Turkey and has chosen to
address the Islamic world from the Turkish parliament made us very
happy," Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s president, told the Financial Times in
an interview.
The display of friendship will help Turkey’s government, which has
roots in political Islam, counter claims that it has been promoting
ties with Muslim states at the expense of its traditional western
alignment.
Mr Obama said Turkey’s new popularity in the Muslim world made it the
ally he needed in a region suspicious of US intentions.
Mr Gul is proud of the fact that he and Turkish ministers have been
able to travel relatively freely in Iraq and Afghanistan recently, in
contrast with western leaders’ high-security dashes.
He passed on to Mr Obama the views expressed by Afghan and Pakistani
presidents and military chiefs in recent trilateral meetings.
"We are not leaders who go to Afghanistan to visit our troops there in
an isolated manner and then come back. So Turkey’s ability to
contribute in these matters is very large," said Mr Gul.
Turkey put more emphasis on civilian activities in Afghanistan, Mr Gul
said, reeling off lists of girls’ schools opened and roads surfaced,
but he said Ankara would also send more non-combat troops when it took
command of Nato forces in Kabul later this year.
Mr Gul is far more guarded when questioned about Armenia, the neighbour
with which Turkey has no formal diplomatic relations. Mr Obama used his
visit to convene Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers in Istanbul and
urge rapid progress in talks to open their border, which was closed by
Turkey in 1993 to support Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan shunned the talks, alarmed that Turkey might reach a deal it
had previously linked to resolving the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
"The major problem in the Caucasus is the Karabakh question between
Armenia and Azerbaijan," said Mr Gul. "I believe that 2009 is a year of
opportunity in that respect."
But he did not rule out the possibility of Turkey normalising relations
with Armenia before any progress is made over the disputed territory.
Turkey’s new profile in regional politics appears, if anything, to have
helped to revive its partnership with the US. Both sides will hope that
Mr Obama’s visit helps stem a rising tide of anti-US sentiment in
Turkey.
But Ankara’s growing assertiveness – whether berating Israel’s policies
in Gaza, holding out for better terms over the planned Nabucco gas
pipelineacross Turkey, or voicing loud objections to Europe’s favoured
candidate for Nato’s leadership – is doing nothing to further its
flagging efforts to join the European Union.
Bernard Kouchner, one of the few French politicians to have backed
Turkey’s EU ambitions, expressed shock at Turkey’s objection – later
withdrawn – to the Danish premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s nomination as
Nato secretary-general.
Mr Gul, who as foreign minister led Turkey’s drive to begin EU
membership talks, does not hide his frustration at obstacles placed in
Turkey’s EU path – by Greek Cypriots and others – blaming them for
sapping public support for reform.
Certain countries "are in conflict with their own signatures; their own
commitments", he said, maintaining that Turkey, in contrast, remained
intensely serious about supporting talks to end divisions on Cyprus.
As foreign minister, he said, he had told Nato and EU colleagues "time
and again that we have to solve this problem on time, as soon as
possible, because in the future it is likely to poison some more
important and strategic issues.
"In the meantime, the negotiation process is going on and Turkey is
amending its laws and constitution to harmonise with the community
acquis [accumulated EU law]. . . In any case, we are going to continue
our reform process, because these are our reforms and we want to do
them ourselves."
Keeping distance from party politics
Multilingual and diplomatic, 58-year-old Abdullah Gul was often seen as
a foil to his blunter and more confrontational colleague in the Justice
and Development party – Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister.
The two men split from more overtly Islamist politics to found the AKP,
and Mr Gul’s nomination to the presidency in 2007 led to a storm of
secular protest, a clumsy attempt by the military to intervene and snap
elections.
Since his elevation to the presidency, Mr Gul has carefully kept his
distance from party politics, and has limited ability to press for
domestic economic and political reforms.
However, an earlier career in the Islamic Development Bank has left him
well placed to front Turkey’s diplomatic and economic overtures in the
region.