Turkish Forum

Category: Regions

  • President’s dilemma

    President’s dilemma

    Oct 23rd 2008
    From Economist.com

    Deciding between Nabucco and South Stream

    WHICH will it be? The next American president will have to decide.
    Either Europe gets natural gas from Iran, or Russia stitches up the
    continent’s energy supplies for a generation.

    In one sense, it is hard to compare the two problems. Iranian nuclear
    missiles would be an existential threat to Israel. If Russia sells it
    rocket systems and warhead technology, or advanced air-defence systems
    (or vetoes sanctions) it matters. By contrast, Russia’s threat to
    European security is a slow, boring business. At worst, Europe ends up
    a bit more beholden to Russian pipeline monopolists than is healthy
    politically. But life will go on.

    Europe’s energy hopes lie in a much discussed but so far unrealised
    independent pipeline. Nabucco, as it is optimistically titled (as in
    Verdi, and freeing the slaves) would take gas from Central Asia and
    the Caspian region via Turkey to the Balkans and Central Europe. That
    would replicate the success of two existing oil pipelines across
    Georgia, which have helped dent Russia’s grip on east-west export routes.

    Russia is trying hard to block this. It is reviving the idea of an
    international gas cartel with Qatar and Iran. It also wants to kybosh
    Nabucco through its own rival project, the hugely expensive ($12.8
    billion) South Stream. Backed by Gazprom (the gas division of Kremlin,
    Inc) and Italy’s ENI, it has already got support from Austria,
    Bulgaria and Serbia. The project has now been delayed two years to 2015.

    But politicking around it is lively. This week the Kremlin managed to
    get Romania—until now a determined holdout on the Nabucco side—to
    start talks on joining South Stream. As Vladimir Socor, a veteran
    analyst at the Jamestown Foundation, notes, that creates just the kind
    of contest that the Kremlin likes, in which European countries jostle
    each other to get the best deal from Russia. Previously, that played
    out in a central European battle between Austria and Hungary to be
    Russia’s most-favoured energy partner in the region. Now the Kremlin
    has brought in Slovenia to further increase its leverage.

    All this works only because the European Union (EU) is asleep on the
    job. Bizarrely, Europe’s leaders publicly maintain that the two
    pipelines are not competitors. They have given the task of promoting
    Nabucco to a retired Dutch politician who has not visited the most
    important countries in the project recently (or in some cases even at
    all).

    The main reason for the lack of private-sector interest is lack of
    gas. The big reserves are in Turkmenistan, but Russia wants them too.
    Securing them for Nabucco would mean a huge, concerted diplomatic push
    from the EU and from America. It would also require the building of a
    Transcaspian gas pipeline.

    That is not technically difficult (unlike, incidentally, South Stream,
    which goes through the deep, toxic and rocky depths of the Black Sea).
    But it faces legal obstacles, and could be vetoed by both Russia and
    Iran. As Zeyno Baran of the Hudson Institute argues in a new paper,
    “the fortunes of the two pipelines are inversely related”.

    That is America’s dilemma. Befriending Iran would create huge problems
    for Russia. An Iranian bypass round the Caspian allows Turkmen gas
    (and Iran’s own plentiful reserves) to flow to Turkey and then on to
    Europe. But the same American officials, politicians and analysts who
    are most hawkish about Russia tend also to be arch-sceptics about
    starting talks with the mullahs (or even turning a blind eye to
    Iranian gas flowing through an American-backed pipeline).

    If Iran can make it clear that does not want to destroy Israel and
    promote terrorism (and stops issuing rhetorical flourishes on the
    subject) it stands to benefit hugely. The “grand bargain” has never
    looked more tempting—or more urgent.

  • Aliev Again Rules Out Independence For Karabakh

    Aliev Again Rules Out Independence For Karabakh

     

     

     

     

     

    By Emil Danielyan

    Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev reiterated that his country will never come to terms with the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh but stopped short of threatening to win back the region by force as he was sworn in for a second term in office on Friday.

    “Karabakh will never be independent,” news agencies quoted him as saying during his inauguration ceremony in Baku. “Azerbaijan will never recognize it. Neither in five, nor in ten, twenty years. Never.”

    Aliev said Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is not the subject of long-running Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks which have made considerable progress in recent years. But he did not mention details of the U.S., Russian and French mediators’ existing peace proposals that seem to uphold the Karabakh Armenians’ right to legitimize the dispute territory’s de facto secession from Azerbaijan in a future referendum.

    The three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group hope that Aliev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian will meet soon and finally accept those proposals. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly offered to host the meeting as he visited Yerevan earlier this week. Medvedev reportedly discussed the matter with Aliev by phone on his return to Moscow. No dates have been set yet for the potentially decisive Armenian-Azerbaijani summit, though.

    “We are still interested in the continuation of negotiations and our hopes have not faded yet,” said Aliev. “We still believe that the negotiations may lead to a just settlement.

    “The opposite side must come to terms with reality. And the reality is that today it is difficult and, I would say, impossible to compete with Azerbaijan.”

    But while pledging to further boost military spending and the strengthen the Azerbaijani army, Aliev voiced no direct threats to resolve the Karabakh dispute by force if the Minsk Group process fails. He said instead that Azerbaijan will regain control over Karabakh by capitalizing on its “economic might” and international law.

    Aliev regularly threatened the Armenians with war before the recent military conflict between Georgia and Russia. Armenian leaders claim that Georgia’s disastrous attempt to retake South Ossetia will discourage Baku from trying the military option in the foreseeable future. A senior U.S. official likewise said last week that the likelihood of renewed fighting around Karabakh has decreased since the Russian-Georgian war.

  • Russia Proposes Hosting Karabakh Summit

    Russia Proposes Hosting Karabakh Summit

    Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will host a summit on Nagorno-Karabakh next month

    October 22, 2008
    By Liz Fuller

     

    The brief August war between Georgia and Russia served to highlight the destabilizing potential of unresolved conflicts in the Caucasus and thus lent a new urgency to ongoing efforts to find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

    Speaking on October 21 during a visit to Yerevan, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev argued that one of the lessons to be drawn from the fighting over South Ossetia is that such conflicts can and must be resolved peacefully, through negotiations.

    To that end, Medvedev offered to host a summit in Moscow early next month between Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and his newly reelected Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev in order to seek a solution to the Karabakh conflict “based on international principles.”

    Basic Principles

    The September visit to Yerevan by Turkish President Abdullah Gul fuelled hopes for a normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia that could in turn facilitate an accord on Karabakh. At the same time, some analysts construed Gul’s statement that Ankara is ready to help mediate such a solution as a bid, possibly supported by Russia, to sideline the OSCE’s Minsk Group. And some political figures in Yerevan fear that under pressure from both Russia and the West, Sarkisian might agree to compromises they consider unacceptable and detrimental to Armenia’s long-term interests.

    A framework agreement for resolving the Karabakh conflict already exists, in the form of the so-called Madrid Principles presented by the French, U.S., and Russian Minsk Group co-chairmen to the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Madrid in November 2007. That blueprint in turn was based on the so-called Basic Principles for the Peaceful Solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, which were made public in June 2006.

    The Basic Principles envisage the phased withdrawal of Armenian forces from Azerbaijani territories contiguous to Nagorno-Karabakh, including the district of Kelbacar and the strategic Lachin corridor that links Armenia and the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR); the demilitarization of those previously occupied territories; the deployment of an international peacekeeping force; demining, reconstruction, and other measures to address the impact of the conflict and expedite the return to their homes of displaced persons; and, finally, a referendum among the NKR population to determine the region’s future status vis-a-vis the central Azerbaijani government in Baku.

    Meeting for the first time on the sidelines of a CIS summit in St. Petersburg in June, Sarkisian and Aliyev gave the green light for their respective foreign ministers to continue talks on ways to resolve the conflict on the basis of the Madrid Principles. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who traveled to Yerevan in early October for talks with Sarkisian and Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian, was quoted by “Rossiiskaya gazeta” on October 7 as saying that all three co-chairs see “a very real chance” of resolving the conflict, assuming that agreement can be reached on the “two or three” still unresolved issues.

    Lavrov added that the main obstacle is lack of consensus on the future of the Lachin corridor. The Azerbaijani website day.az back on April 1 quoted Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov as saying Azerbaijan has no objections to both Armenia and Azerbaijan using the corridor, provided it remains territorially a part of Azerbaijan.

    Resolution Hopes

    Visiting Yerevan on October 17, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried was even more upbeat than Lavrov. He told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that a breakthrough in the conflict-resolution process in the coming weeks is “possible,” given that “the war in Georgia reminded everyone in this region how terrible war is” and thus made a resumption of hostilities less likely. But, Fried went on, “possible does not mean inevitable, and there are hard decisions that have to be made on both sides. If this conflict were easy to resolve, it would have been resolved already.”

    Fried did not mention any heightened role for Turkey in the peace process. But meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian (no relation to Serzh) in Washington on October 14, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discounted speculation that the Minsk Group would be superseded as the mediating body.

    Speaking to journalists in Yerevan on September 17, French Minsk Group co-Chairman Bernard Fassier similarly sought to dispel the perception that Turkey was seeking to torpedo the work of the Minsk Group. Fassier explained that since Turkey is one of the 12 members of the OSCE Minsk Group, “its efforts directed at providing assistance to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict do not imply a change in the format of negotiations.” He said that Turkey “has always shown a constructive approach, supporting the activities of the three co-chairmen,” and that “any proposal made to support the negotiations, in particular from Turkey, is desirable and welcome,” RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported.

    (Click map to enlarge)

    Former Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrossian nonetheless argued at a rally of his supporters in Yerevan on October 17 that the West is trying to squeeze Russia out of the Karabakh peace process as part of a broader effort to minimize Russian influence in the South Caucasus, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported.

    Ter-Petrossian accused President Sarkisian (after whom, according to official returns, he polled second in the February 19 presidential ballot) of being ready to “put Karabakh up for sale” and renounce Armenia’s long-standing political and military alliance with Russia in an effort to legitimize his rule in the eyes of the international community. By doing so, Ter-Petrossian continued, Sarkisian is in effect entrusting the West in general, and Turkey in particular, with achieving a “unilateral settlement” of the Karabakh conflict.

    Even the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun (HHD), a member of the four-party coalition government, is uneasy at the prospect that, under pressure from the international community, President Sarkisian might make unacceptable concessions over Karabakh. HHD parliament faction secretary Artashes Shahbazian told journalists in Yerevan on October 13 that his party, and Armenian society as a whole, opposes the return to Azerbaijan of the districts currently under the control of Armenian forces, Noyan Tapan reported.

    Asked on October 20 why the HHD remains in government if it rejects President Sarkisian’s Karabakh policy, senior HHD member Kiro Manoyan explained that “it is the chance to convince our partners and influence them that keeps us in the coalition,” Noyan Tapan reported. Manoyan added that if the HHD concludes that it no longer wields any influence, it will quit the coalition.

  • Rothschild and the daughter of one of the world’s most brutal dictators

    Rothschild and the daughter of one of the world’s most brutal dictators

    By Daily Mail Reporter

    Last updated at 12:26 AM on 25th October 2008

    He is used to having glamorous women on his arm, but this picture of controversial financier Nathaniel Rothschild will raise some eyebrows.

    His companion is Gulnara Karimova, billionaire daughter of one of the world’s most brutal and bloodthirsty dictators, President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan.

    Like his friend, Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, she has had problems with the American authorities.

    Controversial: Nat Rothschild pictured with Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov

    Deripaska is refused a U.S. visa for reasons the FBI has not fully explained.

    Gulnara, a 36-year-old Harvard graduate, was made the subject of an arrest warrant after she defied a court and took her two children by a U.S. man of Uzbek origin back to her homeland.

    The picture was taken in March 2007 at an Uzbek fashion show in Paris, intended to improve the country’s reputation after a massacre two years earlier ordered by Karimov in which hundreds or even thousands perished.

    Gulnara is a martial-arts black belt, fashion designer, poet and performer of a number one hit single in her homeland.

    Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, said: ‘This woman is not just the daughter of one of the most violent tyrants on Earth, she is also directly implicated in atrocities and the major beneficiary of the looting of the Uzbek state.

    ‘I am stunned that Rothschild would want to pose with her.’

    Source: www.dailymail.co.uk, 25th October 2008

  • THE DEPKA REVIEW

    THE DEPKA REVIEW

     

    Summary of DEBKAfile’s Exclusives in the Week Ending Oct. 23, 2008
    No high priority for Palestinian issue if Obama elected US president 17 Oct.: The Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has decided not to list the Palestinian issue as a top priority if he wins the Nov. 4 election, DEBKAfile’s Washington exclusive sources reveal. The Middle East experts on his transition team advised him there was no hurry to address the issue in the early stages of his presidency because the Palestinian side cannot field any leaders authoritative enough to sign a peace accord. Their internal divisions are too profound for such a leader to emerge in the foreseeable future, said those advisers. 

    Their chief recommendation was to address with high urgency the issues of a nuclear Iran and relations with Syria, according to our sources.

    While nothing is being said publicly, DEBKAfile’s sources report that some of Senator Obama’s advisers have remarked that Presidents Clinton and Bush discovered too late that over-involvement in the Palestinian-Israel dispute led nowhere and in fact caused them to neglect more consequential Middle East business. This misplaced concern hurt their reputation for effectiveness as international statesmen.

    By setting the Palestinian question aside, the Democratic candidate if elected will terminate Bush’s 2007 Annapolis initiative and the subsequent on-and-off negotiations with Palestinian leaders conducted by outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert and his would-be successor foreign minister Tzipi Livni. Those talks anyway achieved very little.

    Russian missiles for Syria may be riposte for US FBX-T radar in Israel
    DEBKAfile Exclusive Report     18 Oct.: DEBKAfile’s military sources report that a large-scale arms deal for Syria, paid for by Iran, is in advanced negotiation in Moscow and Damascus. It includes fighter-bombers and an assortment of anti-air, anti-missile and anti-tank missiles, as well as substantial upgrades of Syria’s antiquated Russian tanks. Our sources disclose that the S-300PMU-2 and Iskander-E are still on the list under discussions. 

    In the broader context of its contest with Washington, the Kremlin regards the US radar system installed in the Negev to be an integral part of the US missile shield deployed in the face of Russian protests in Poland and the Czech Republic.

    Positioning missile systems at Syrian ports would be part of Russia’s overall military payback for the array of US missile and radar installations in Europe and the Middle East. Therefore, DEBKAfile’s military sources report, the Kremlin may decide against handing the missiles to the Syrian army but prefer to install them to guard the Mediterranean naval bases Russians are building at the Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia.

    Barak urges kiss of life for moribund Saudi 2002 peace plan 

    19 Oct.: Defense minister Ehud Barak proposed in coalition talks with Kadima leader, foreign minister Tzipi Livni serious consideration for the 2002 Saudi plan which offered pan-Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for full Israeli withdrawal from all lands captured during the 1967 war: the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem and the Golan.

    “There is definitely room to introduce a comprehensive Israeli plan to counter the Saudi plan,” he said. “Moderate Arab leaders” share an interest in containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, limiting Hizballah’s influence in Lebanon and bringing the Palestinian Hamas under control in the Gaza Strip.

    DEBKAfile’s sources note that much water has run under Middle East bridges since 2000 when Barak as prime minister engineered Israel’s pullout from its south Lebanese security zone, and 2005, when his successor Ariel Sharon ordered Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip, making way for Hamas to move in. “Moderates” no longer dominate regional affairs but a radical coalition of Iran, Syria, Hizballah and the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami, making Barak’s kiss of death for the Saudi peace plan pointless.

    Outbreaks by Arab citizens spread as Israeli police stand aside 19 Oct.: Saturday morning, Oct. 18, two Israeli Arabs broke into a military base, beat up the sentry and stole his gun. Police called it a “criminal” incident. 

    DEBKAfile’s security sources report: Mixed and “seam” communities are beset by a rising level of violence involving Israeli Arab citizens. But local police forces tend to react by brushing aside Jewish complaints and even failing to respond to appeals for help against Arab threats, in the interests “communal co-existence.” For lack of a controlling hand, coexistence is crumbling, inter-communal clashes spreading and an Arab uprising emerging.

    McCain pledges Jerusalem will remain undivided capital of Israel 20 Oct.: The Republican candidate John McCain promised never to press Israel into concessions that endangered its security. 

    Lieberman later in the call noted the trip he and McCain had taken to the Jewish state in March, and stressed that McCain knows the “historic Jewish claim” to the city and “it’s clear he will not be included in efforts to divide Jerusalem.” Lieberman later emphasized McCain’s promise to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem “as soon as he becomes president.

    The Jewish vote in battleground states, including Florida and Pennsylvania, is being courted aggressively by both presidential campaigns.

    US, Russian military chiefs hold unannounced fence-mending talks 21 Oct.: The top-secret meeting aimed at putting US-Russian bilateral relations back to their pre-Georgian crisis track. US sources said the meeting which took place at Helsinki on Oct., 21 was requested by Moscow. 

    While US officials expected the Russian side to raise the issues of Georgia and America’s anti-missile interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic, DEBKAfile’s sources anticipated that the American side would broach stepped up Russian nuclear assistance to Iran, especially its commitment to finish the Bushehr reactor by the end of the year, and refusal to go along with sanctions.

    Also at issue are Moscow’s massive arms deals with Iran and Syria and the new naval bases the Russians are building at Syrian ports.

     

    Arab Websites report Mossad chief assassinated in Amman. Israel sources deny 21 Oct.: DEBKAfile reports that Arab Internet sites claim that, 10 days ago, Meir Dagan, the head of Israel’s Mossad, was targeted by assassins while visiting Amman. Some say an explosion against his convoy left him hurt or even dead and his guards injured. DEBKAfile’s sources have no knowledge of any visit by Meir Dagan to the Jordanian capital.  

    Cont. next column

    		 One rumor claimed a hit-man or team linked to Hizballah or Iran attacked Dagan to avenge the death of Hizballah military chief Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus last February. The Arab world sees Dagan as master of the hidden Israeli hand which reached into Syria to target Mugniyeh and destroyed Syria’s plutonium reactor in September 2007.  

    US intelligence: Iran will be able to build first nuclear bomb by February
    DEBKAfile Exclusive Report     21 Oct.: US intelligence’s amended estimate, that Iran will be ready to build a bomb just one month after the next US president is sworn in, was relayed to the Middle East teams of both presidential candidates, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. It prompted the Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden’s remark in Seattle Sunday, Oct. 19: “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.” (McCain rebutted that statement Tuesday, Oct. 21 by saying: “America does not need a president that needs to be tested. I’ve been tested. I was aboard the Enterprise off the coast of Cuba. I’ve been there.”) 

    According to the new US timeline, by late January, 2009, Iran will have accumulated enough low-grade enriched uranium (up to 5%) for its “break-out” to weapons grade (90%) material within a short time. In February, they can move on to start building their first nuclear bomb, for which US intelligence believes Tehran has the personnel, plans and diagrams. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna last week asked Tehran to clarify recent complex experiments they conducted in detonating nuclear materials for a weapon, but received no answer.

    Israel’s political and military leaders can no longer put off deciding whether to strike Iran’s nuclear installations in the next three months, or take a chance on coordination with the next president.

    NATO general warns Afghan war effort is wavering 21 Oct.: US Army General John Craddock, supreme allied commander in Europe, warned that NATO’s operations in Afghanistan are affected by a shortfall of troops and more than 70 caveats on soldiers’ deployment. In a speech in London, Monday, Oct. 20, Craddock said: “The conflict in Afghanistan cannot be won by military means alone.” Good governance, reconstruction and development are essential. For now, NATO members are “wavering” in their political commitment to defeat the Taliban. 

    DEBKAfile adds: This confirms former statements by British and French commanders that the 8-year Afghan war is unwinnable under present circumstances and that Taliban is gaining ground all the time. More and more tribal leaders in the Kabul region are bidding for Taliban protection for lack of government funding, stability and law and order – even against marauding robbers.

    Barak orders all Gaza crossings closed from Wednesday 21 Oct.: A Qassam missile from Gaza exploded in southern Ashkelon Tuesday night, causing no casualties on damage.- 

    Some 50 missiles and mortars have been fired from Gaza since June ceasefire which expires in December. A comprehensive Palestinian national dialogue organized by Egypt opens in Cairo on Nov. 9.

    An Israeli Air Force instructor and cadet killed in training plane crash in Negev 22 Oct.: Reserve Major Mattan Assa, 24, from Yavne, and Private Ilan Carmi, 19, Herzliya, were killed Wednesday, Oct. 22, when their training plane crashed 30 minutes after takeoff from the IAF’s Hatzerim base near Beersheba. The plane, a French-made Fouga Magister, remodeled and renamed Zukit, was on a low-flying exercise. No emergency signal was received by the control tower before the crash. 

    IAF commander Maj.-Gen Ido Nehushtan has set up a team of inquiry.

    Israeli motorist injured by Palestinian firebomb near Yakir, West Bank- 

    22 Oct.: The firebomb cache found on the spot of the incident included a pipe bomb. This marks an escalation of the violence of routine firebomb ambushes.

    A Palestinian stopped at Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus carried a pipe bomb and several firebombs.

    In Gaza, a Jihad Islami terrorist was killed during mock attack exercise on an IDF position.

    Early election likely after Tzipi Livni fails in coalition negotiations 23 Oct.: Foreign minister Tzipi Livni calls on President Shimon Peres next Sunday to inform him that she has not been able to form a viable coalition government. The most probable outcome is an early election. 

    Only Labor initialed a deal with her Kadima, but its leader, defense minister Ehud Barak, said it is not final. Labor and other potential partners, the ultra-religious Shas and Pensioners, are holding out for substantial extra allocations for large families, senior citizens and healthcare, before signing on. Finance minister Ronnie Bar-On, Livni’s mainstay in their Kadima party, is standing firm against reopening the budget for this purpose.

    On the horns of this dilemma, Livni is beset with a revolt in her own party to a minority government, which is all she may be able to scrape together in the time left her. The Olmert government stays on as caretaker until a new government is formed.

    Palestinian murders Israeli octogenarian, injures border guard in Jerusalem suburb of Gilo 23 Oct.: The assailant stabbed a Police Border Guardsman who found him loitering around schools on Vardinon Street at the center of the southern Jerusalem suburb of Gilo. He then set upon 86-year old Avraham Ozri, a local resident, who died of his injuries later in hospital. A bystander wrestled the assailant to the ground after the injured policeman shot him. He was taken into custody. 

    Riots greeted police and Shin Bet officers who arrived later at the terrorist’s village near the West Bank town of Bethlehem to search for accomplices. Eight Palestinians were injured in clashes and several arrested.
  • Visiting founder of EU think tank lauds Turkey’s strides toward democracy

    Visiting founder of EU think tank lauds Turkey’s strides toward democracy

    By Andrew Wander
    Daily Star staff
    Friday, October 24, 2008

    BEIRUT: Despite the two-year power struggle between Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the secular elite, basic democratic freedoms in the country are developing, the founder of a European think tank said during a visit to Beirut on Wednesday.

    Gerald Knaus, who heads the European Stability Initiative, told delegates at a seminar hosted by the Carnegie Center that although the opposition’s fears about the party’s Islamic identity often grabs the headlines, the AKP has in fact ushered in a period of increasing freedom in the country.

    “Everything in Russia that has gone backward over the past five years has gone forward in Turkey,” Knaus said.

    Under the AKP, newspapers have become more comfortable in criticizing the government and despite more people considering themselves “quite religious” or “very religious” in Turkey, support for the implementation of Sharia law – which the secular opposition claims is the AKP’s hidden agenda – has dropped by more than half.

    Knaus compared the Muslim democrats who support the AKP to the Christian Calvinist movement in the way they embrace both faith and business, pointing out that the AKP is supported by many successful provincial businessmen whose religion remains central to their lives.

    But he warned that while the benefits of rapid industrialization in Turkey have reached many of the population, others are missing out.

    “Changes reach the heartland, but bypass the southeast,” he said.

    Source : Daily Star