Turkish Forum English

Category: Middle East

  • Sectarianism Brings Turkey, Iran Closer

    Dorian Jones

    Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) shakes hands with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu after a news conference in Ankara November 1, 2013.

    ISTANBUL — Turkey’s foreign minister is due to visit Tehran on November 26, the latest step in rapprochement efforts between the former close allies. Relations soured over the Syrian civil war, but with rising sectarian tensions across the region, the two countries have committed to rebuild their relationship.

    Turkey and Iran, on opposing sides of war in Syria, have been signaling a thaw in relations, saying they share concerns about the rising sectarianism in the conflict and could collaborate to bring peace to their neighbor.

     

    Sinan Ulgen is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels. He says the election of Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s president has also opened the door to warming relations.

     

    “There was a rift. Now with the new presidency in Iran, Ankara sees the opportunity and tries to engage the new leadership. We can talk about a new period in terms of the Iranian-Turkish relationship, which, despite disagreements on a number of regional issues including Syria, seems to be going in the right direction,” says Ulgen.

     

    During a meeting earlier this month in Istanbul, the Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers pledged to work together to ease regional sectarian tensions. Until recently, the two countries had accused one another of stoking tensions between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims.

     

    As a Sunni power, Turkey and its government, led by the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, have been accused of pushing a foreign policy that favors Sunni interests. Iran and its Shi’ite clerical hierarchy have been guardians of Shi’a Islam in the Middle East, supporting Iraq’s Shi’ite-dominated government and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite militant group.

    Murat Bilhan is a former Turkish ambassador and works for the Tasam think tank. He says despite the new dialogue, suspicions will linger.

     

    “They still had a frank talk and these discussions have toned down the rhetoric between the two countries. They have difficulties to trust Turkey because they look from an angle of sectarianism to Turkey. That is how they perceive the Turkish foreign policy,” says Bilhan.

     

    Despite bilateral tensions, trade between the countries has continued to flourish. Turkey is Iran’s biggest customer for natural gas and Ankara has indicated it may increase its consumption.  Turkey has few natural energy reserves of its own.

     

    The increase in trade comes despite international sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear energy program. Western countries claim the program is being used to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.

     

    This week, world powers are meeting again in Geneva for talks on Iran’s nuclear program. The renewed diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute is also another factor behind Ankara’s rapprochement efforts, says analyst Ulgen.

     

    “The nuclear negotiations have gathered momentum and there seems to be some quite substantial developments. And Turkey does not want to be totally alienated from this process. That’s also another reason why there has been a decision to reach out to Iran,” says Ulgen.

     

    Those efforts are expected to accelerate in the coming months, with visits by the Iranian president to Turkey and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Iran. But observers say any efforts to expand ties between the two countries will be constrained by the Syrian conflict and the fact that Turkey and Iran have been – and will remain – regional rivals.

  • Turkey’s “promising” landmark meeting with Kurds’ Barzani receives mixed responses

    Turkey’s “promising” landmark meeting with Kurds’ Barzani receives mixed responses

    Kurds’ Barzani and Turks’ Erdogan have previously met, but Saturday’s meeting represents the first time that the two leaders have met in the Kurdish region of Turkey (Courtesy of the Kurdistan Regional Government)

    kurdturk

    Turkey’s meeting with Kurdish leadership this weekend posed as a promising start to tentative peace talks between the two clashing groups, according to an Agence-France Press report.

    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani for the first time in Turkey’s Kurdish city center of Diyarbakir in the southeast part of the country Saturday.

    The landmark meeting was designed to “kickstart” a peace process to end a decades-old conflict between the two groups, particularly in reference to Turkey’s tense relationship with the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Erdogan described his meeting with Barzani as a “historic” and “crowning moment” in overcoming the conflict.

    Erdogan’s positive perspective of the meeting and Barzani’s role in encouraging peace talks between the two groups and bringing Turkish Kurds to the negotiating table as well was echoed by other leaders in Ankara, including Energy Minister Taner Yildiz who described Barzani’s “importance in the eyes of our citizens” as “making it contribution [to the potential peace talks].”

    However, responses from the Kurdish community were mixed, with some prominent members of the community citing Barzani’s visit as “an opportunistic gesture” ahead of the March 2014 municipal elections, while others saying that his visit was motivated by “hope [for a different future].”

    Reports indicate that the historical meeting was also set in order for Erdogan to discuss a tentative energy partnership with Barzani, considered by many to be a springboard for “aggravating tensions” in the region, particularly in reference to Ankara’s relationship with Baghdad.

    Previous attempts at peacemaking between the two groups were stalled after jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan did not withdraw his fighters from Turkish soil as promised in September, accusing Ankara of “failing to keep to the terms [of the original] bargain in giving greater rights [to the Kurds].”

    Ocalan’s accussation was largely in reference to Erdogan and his Law and Justice Party (AKP)’s recent reforms that supposedly give Kurds and other groups “extra rights.” However, as indicated by Ocalan’s comments, the reforms are largely seen as inadequate and failing to give the Kurds “any constitutional recognition.”

    Kurds in Turkey have been calling for reforms from Ankara since the establishment of the country in 1923 due to the fact that the country’s constitution fails to recognize the Kurds as a distinct minority.

    While the two leaders met in an unprecedented meeting in the country’s southeast region, Turkish army officials reported that one of its convoys was attacked, allegedly by PKK rebels near the Syrian border. PKK rebels have previously used northern Iraq, the region under Barzani’s control, to attack Turks as part of their “campaign for self-rule” in southeast Turkey, but also in the world order more generally.

    Kurds have been struggling to secure their own homeland for decades with communities scattered throughout Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. As Barzani told AFP, “Having our own state is the natural right of the Kurdish people.”

    Barzani’s historical visit also follows last week’s declaration of autonomy in Syria by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). Kurdish regions in Syria have been administered by local Kurdish councils since regime forces withdrew from the region in mid-2012.

    via Turkey’s “promising” landmark meeting with Kurds’ Barzani receives mixed responses | Al Bawaba.

  • Wedding murder exposes Kurdish divisions in Turkey

    Wedding murder exposes Kurdish divisions in Turkey

    Daren Butler

    A Free Syrian Army member is seen behind sandbags at a checkpoint during a siege on the Kurdish city of Afrin, which is under the control of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in the Aleppo countryside

    A Free Syrian Army member is seen behind sandbags at a checkpoint during a siege on the Kurdish city of Afrin, which is under the control of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in the Aleppo countryside (Hamid Khatib Reuters, / June 30, 2013)

    DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – When gunmen stormed a wedding and shot dead a guest in southeastern Turkey, they stirred fears of a new outbreak of bloodshed in a region increasingly destabilized by Syria’s civil war.

    The killing in the city of Batman highlighted divisions between Kurds which echo the faultlines of the conflict in Syria, complicating Ankara’s efforts to draw a line under a three-decade Kurdish insurgency on its own soil.

    Turkey’s peace process with the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), aimed at ending a conflict that has cost more than 40,000 lives, was already fragile.

    But the emergence of a Kurdish Sunni Islamist party, Huda-Par, has reopened old wounds in the southeast, poorer than the rest of Turkey and scarred by the wider Kurdish-Turkish fight.

    The party, established in December and now campaigning for local elections in March, draws support from sympathizers of Turkey’s Hizbullah militant group which fought the PKK in the 1990s.

    “That bloodshed is the source of animosity between the two sides and is not easy for people to forget,” said Ayla Akat, member of parliament for Batman from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which shares the same grassroots support as the PKK.

    The historical animosity has been given a new twist with the war that has fragmented Syria, where radical Sunni Islamists are now fighting fierce battles with local Kurdish forces in the north, near the border with Turkey.

    via Wedding murder exposes Kurdish divisions in Turkey – chicagotribune.com.

  • Regional War Scenario. NATO-US-Turkey War Games Off the Syrian Coastline

    Regional War Scenario. NATO-US-Turkey War Games Off the Syrian Coastline

    According to Turkish press reports, Turkey’s High Command will be hosting NATO’S Invitex military exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean in a clear act of provocation directed against Syria.

    The Invitex-Eastern Mediterranean war games are scheduled from November 4 to 14.

    Deafening silence. Not a single Western media has reported on these war games.

    The official release by the TKS High Command suggests a war games scenario involving a regional war, under the assumption that the ongoing US-NATO-Israeli covert war on Syria could lead to military escalation. The countries considered to be a threat to Turkey and NATO are not mentioned.

    According to the press dispatch of the Turkish Armed forces, various types of naval operations are envisaged. While the word “war” is not mentioned, the  stated objective consists in the “handling of a regional crisis”, presumably through military rather than diplomatic means.

    Turkish frigate F-245 TCG Oruç Reis

    The focus is intended “to enhance co-operation and mutual training between participant countries.” Reading between the lines this suggests enhanced military coordination directed against potential enemy countries in the Middle East including Syria and Iran.

    “NATO, the U.S. Navy and the Turkish Navy-Air Force-Coast Guard platforms will participate in the exercise, a statement from Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) said Nov. 4.”(Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey)

    A significant deployment of both naval and air power is envisaged. According to the TKS communique, the participant units are:

    NATO SNMG-2 (three frigates), U.S. Navy (one frigate), Turkish Navy (three frigates, two corvettes, four fast attack boats, three submarines, two oilers, two patrol boats, one landing ship, one tug boat, one maritime patrol aircraft, five helicopters, one amphibious team, one Naval WMD Destroy Team, (Multi National Maritime Security Center of Excellence), Turkish Coast Guard (three Coast Guard Boats) and Turkish Air Force aircrafts. (Ibid)

    Frigates are used for amphibious operations and the landing of ground forces. To be noted, the war games include seven frigates, not to mention one landing ship, and an amphibious team.

    SNMG 2 refers to Standing NATO Maritime Group 2, NATO standing maritime Immediate Reaction Forces. SNMG 2 is “a multinational, integrated maritime force – made up of vessels from various allied nations, training and operating together as a single team”.The NATO member states involved in the war games was not disclosed.

    Of significance, these war games overlap with bilateral military exercises between Turkey and Jordan which include the participation of special forces from both countries.

    De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate (Netherlands) (right)

    These bilateral Turkey-Jordan war games have not been reported upon. They are scheduled to end on November 9. These bilateral military exercises are intent upon enhancing military cooperation between the two countries, both of which are using special forces in the training and hosting of rebel mercenaries.

    The objective of the war games is to threaten Syria.

    The two sets of war games will be coordinated.  What seems to be envisaged, in this regard, is a scenario of invasion of an unnamed enemy country from war ships stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean, supported by air power. This would be carried out in coordination with US-NATO and allied special forces on the ground operating out of Turkey and Jordan in support of Al Qaeda affiliated rebel forces.

    Amply documented,  Turkey and Jordan are supporting the influx of both mercenary and covert special forces including death squads into Syria, respectively on Syria’s Northern and Southern border.

    Is Russia threatened by these war game? Russia is an ally of Syria. It has a naval base in the Eastern Mediterranean operating out of the port of Tartus in Southern Syria.

    In a bitter irony, coinciding with the NATO Invitex military exercises, NATO is conducting large-scale war games in proximity of the Russian border. The Ukraine, which is not a NATO country is participating in these war games directed against Russia.

    “The military exercise, called Steadfast Jazz, will see the Western alliance put 6,000 of its soldiers, mariners and airmen through their paces in Poland and in the Baltic Sea region from 2 to 9 November. … ”

    Meanwhile,  the US threatens China as part of Obama’s Asian pivot: October 25-28, U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group Five (America’s largest Strike Group) led by the The USS George Washington staged joint military exercises in the South China Sea.

    via Regional War Scenario. NATO-US-Turkey War Games Off the Syrian Coastline | Global Research.

  • TURKEY: A POTENTIAL MIDDLE EAST WRECKING BALL?

    TURKEY: A POTENTIAL MIDDLE EAST WRECKING BALL?

    By Joe Rothstein

    Editor, EINnews.com

    Think politics is complicated and governing is difficult in the U.S.? Take a look at Turkey. And we SHOULD be looking at Turkey, because it’s key to what happens in the entire Middle East.

    I’ve recently returned from two weeks in Turkey, weeks when protesters continued to flood Istanbul’s most prominent commercial area and police in riot gear joined other sightseeing spectacles in that most picturesque and exotic of cities.

    Officially, 98 percent of the country’s 77 million citizens are Muslim. The call to prayer is a constant reminder of that. But constitutionally, and by fierce tradition, Turkey is a secular country. Turkey’s neighbors are a Rogue’s Gallery of international bad boys: Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya. Nearly 20 percent of Turkey’s population is Kurdish, an ethnic group whose most radical members have been fighting an interminable war on Turkey’s eastern border to gain independence. And while Turkish ethnicity is different from Arabs, Turkish sultans ruled most of the Arab world from Istanbul for more than 600 years, right into the early 20th century.

    How’s that for a complex religious, ethnic and political brew to govern?

    Turkey’s most revered political figure, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, took over from the last sultan after World War I and governed with an iron hand—achieving results rarely matched by any leader of any country in modern history. In fewer than 10 years with Ataturk at the helm, Turkey:

    –aligned with the West rather than the East
    –removed Islam as the state religion and substituted civil law for Islamic law
    –adopted the Western calendar
    –decreed that Turks should have surnames, similar to Western custom
    –changed the alphabet from Arabic script to Roman letters
    –abolished polygamy
    –emancipated women
    –established universal education
    –established constitutional democracy

    Each year at precisely 9:05 a.m. on November 10, all of Turkey still observes a moment of silence in his name, so enduring and popular has been Ataturk’s stamp on the nation’s life.

    Ten years ago, Ataturk’s democratic nation gave its vote to a recently-formed Islamist political party, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan became its prime minister. The vote was widely seen as one in which Turks were fed up with the corruption of the existing regime. Erdogan has ruled since then, a period in which the nation has thrived economically.

    Increasingly, however, resistance to Erdogan has grown, largely over fears that he is steering Turkey away from its secular course into more Islamic channels. He and his party are pushing hard for constitutional changes that would make him president, with vastly increased executive powers.

    Earlier this year, in what’s seen as one of those Freudian slip-type moments surfacing his real intentions, Erdogan snapped back at opponents of his proposed restrictions on liquor sales saying, “If legislation introduced by two drunks is respectable, why do you feel a law dictated by religion should be rejected?”

    This was a breathtaking slap at the untouchable memory of Ataturk, whose alcoholism was well-known and likely killed him with cirrhosis of the liver. Despite the outcry, Erdogan forged ahead and implemented draconian controls on the use and advertisement of liquor sales, claiming he was doing it to protect young people.

    It was essentially those same young people and leaders of the political opposition who turned Istanbul’s Taksim Square and other locations in Turkey into war zones last summer, confronting Erdogan for what they see as a growing dictatorial threat. In response, Erdogan developed what he called a “Democracy Package,” aimed at tamping down concerns.

    But the package granted police more power to detain anyone they think may be organizing a protest, and on October 30, crowds, pepper spray and riot police were once again in the streets of Istanbul’s main shopping and tourist district.

    Why is all this important to the U.S.? Because Turkey is the economic lynchpin of the Middle East, a role it’s played for a thousand years. Istanbul exists in both Europe and Asia. Just the other day a new mile-long tunnel under the Bosporus Strait opened for traffic, connecting the two continents. The city’s 14 million people represent the second largest urban area in the world (Shanghai is number one), and its economy is booming. The number of high rises built and being constructed is staggering to see. Many retail malls hold their own and then some with the finest in the U.S.

    Since early Cold War days, Turkey has been a valued NATO partner. Its cooperation has been essential in both Iraq wars, the fight against Islamic extremism, and currently with the delicate and dangerous nuclear negotiations with Iran.

    For Turkey to fracture on a fault line between Ataturk secularists and those who favor restoration of an Islamist and expansionist state would be more destabilizing to the region’s military and economic order than anything that has yet occurred during this era of post-Arab spring.

    Could it happen? In Taksim Square protesters are chanting “We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal” and “Shoulder to shoulder against fascism.” Erdogan is not a leader who tolerates such things lightly.

    This happens to be the year of the Istanbul’s Biennial exhibition of art. Standing in front of Istanbul’s shiny new Museum of Modern Art I saw a display that perfectly sums up the moment: Turkish artist Ayse Erkmen’s replica of a wrecking ball swinging from a crane into the museum wall itself. The “ball” is soft and the “bang” is electronically created. The question for Turkey is, will it remain that way.

    (Joe Rothstein can be contacted at joe@einnews.com)

  • Davutoglu: Turkey will never cooperate with Israel against a Muslim country

    Turkish FM denies involvement in strike on Syrian airbase attributed to Jerusalem, says Ankara’s ‘issues’ with Damascus are ‘based on principle’BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF November 2, 2013, 12:21

    Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (right) with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. (photo credit: AP Photo)NEWSROOM

    Israel ‘furious’ with White House for leak on Syria strikeADL chief: US seen as ‘weak and retreating’ on world stage‘Israel doesn’t expect Assad to respond to attack’‘Turkey behind strike on Latakia airbase in Syria’US official: Israel hit Hezbollah-bound missiles in SyriaSyria completes destruction of chemical arms equipment Claire Danes to host Nobel Peace Prize concertSaudi resolution slams Syria’s human rights recordHuge explosion reported at Syrian air defense baseSyrian base targeted in blast may have housed advanced missiles

    Turkey on Saturday denied reports of its involvement in an alleged Israeli air strike on a military base in Latakia, Syria on Wednesday, which allegedly targeted “missiles and related equipment” meant for Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

    Turkish Foreign Minister Agmet Davutoglu said Saturday: “There is an attempt to give the impression that Turkey has coordinated with Israel. We have issues with Syria, an issue based on a principle. But let me say it clearly: The Turkish government has never cooperated with Israel against any Muslim country, and it never will.”

    Davutoglu was speaking at a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif Saturday in Istanbul.

    The Turkish FM slammed the reports, describing them as “black propaganda.” “Those [reports] are attempts to cast a shadow on the Syrian people’s rightful struggle and Turkey’s attitude with principles. It is out of the question for us to participate in any common operation,” he was quoted by Turkish daily Hurriyet as saying.

    On Thursday, a report by Lebanon’s MTV Thursday cited Turkey as being behind the Wednesday attack in Syria, but subsequent reports claimed Turkey merely supplied intelligence to Israel. The Lebanese report cited Israeli officials who allegedly claimed Turkish involvement came in response to the June 2012 interception of a Turkish jet, which Syrian forces shot down. The pilots were subsequently killed.

    On Thursday, an Obama administration official told CNN it was Israeli warplanes that attacked the airbase in Latakia. An American security official told AP that the attack occurred in the Syrian port city of Latakia and that the target was Russian-made SA-125 missiles.

    The Israeli government and military establishment have declined to comment, and on Friday it was reported that the government reacted with fury at the leak by the Americans.

    On Thursday, one Israeli official told Reuters he thought Israel had carried out the strike, but wasn’t certain. Israel has repeatedly warned that any attempt to transfer to Hezbollah chemical or other game-changing weapons would constitute a “red line” and precipitate military action.

    Earlier Thursday, on the heels of reports that the airbase had contained advanced, Russian-made, anti-aircraft missiles, al-Arabiya reported that Israel had attacked not one, but two targets in the civil war-torn country.

    Al-Arabiya’s report said two targets had been hit in Syria on Wednesday night — not just the Latakia air defense base, but a target in Damascus as well. Both targets were said to have contained shipments of Russian SA-8 anti-aircraft missiles meant for Hezbollah, which were reportedly completely destroyed.

    A map of the Latakia airbase posted online shows three batteries of the Russian-made surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile at the base, outside Snobar Jableh in the country’s coastal Latakia region.

    Al-Arabiya quoted opposition forces as saying the base held S-125 missiles.

    The S-125 is especially effective against maneuverable low- to medium-altitude targets, including aircraft. The Egyptians used such missiles with some success during the War of Attrition and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and batteries used by Iraq may have knocked down coalition aircraft in the First Gulf War.

    The system has undergone improvements since then, but countermeasures have also progressed significantly.

    A massive explosion was reported at the base late Wednesday night, with some reports that it was targeted by missiles fired from the sea. The Syrian news outlet Dam Press, considered loyal to the regime of Bashar Assad, reported that the site was damaged but that there had been no injuries.

    Earlier on Wednesday, the Lebanese government news agency reported six Israeli aircraft flying through Lebanese airspace along the coast north of Beirut.

    The coastal strip of Syria, encompassing the cities of Tartous, Latakia and Baniyas, is part of a predominantly Alawite portion of the country, which remains loyal to the Assad regime in its lengthy campaign against rebels.

    Israel has been accused of striking Syrian sites in the past, including in January and May this year. Israel refused to confirm the reports that it targeted weapons transfers, possibly to Hezbollah, which has remained loyal to Assad during the country’s bloody civil war.

    Syria is reportedly in the midst of upgrading its missile-defense system to the Russian-made S-300, a move Israel has lobbied against.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    via Davutoglu: Turkey will never cooperate with Israel against a Muslim country | The Times of Israel.