Turkish Forum

Tag: Arab Spring

  • AMERICA’S WAR-HORSE HARLOTS : ALLAH’S BOYS

    AMERICA’S WAR-HORSE HARLOTS : ALLAH’S BOYS

    AUTHOR: James Ryan was born and raised in New York City. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he holds advanced degrees in economics (MBA) and English literature (MA), a Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA) in writing from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in literature. He writes and has published poetry, fiction, literary criticism, and political commentary. He taught creative writing at Columbia University in New York and literature at Kadır Has University in Istanbul, Turkey.
    JIM RYAN2

    Also see the following websites:
    James Ryan: The Official Website  http://jamesryanbooks.com/

    AMERICA’S WAR-HORSE HARLOTS

     

    Stoop, Romans, Stoop,
    And let us bathe our hands in Caesar’s blood
    Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords;
    Then walk we forth, even to the market-place,
    And waving our red weapons o’er our heads,
    Let’s all cry, “Peace, freedom, and liberty !”
                               Julius Caesar, Act III, i

    According to experts if you really, really want to get rid of a neighbor—“bump off” is the professional term—call the mafia. But if you’re a down-at-the-heels fast fading super power, broke and bewildered, and need to continue the Arab Spring fairy tale about having the Arabs choose America-friendly democracies that sprout like orange groves throughout the Middle East, these same experts unanimously suggest you call Turkey. Just dial 011-90-ALLAHSBOYS. Their pious covered women operators are standing by to answer your calls.ALLAH’S BOYS specialize in duplicity: double-talking, double-dealing, and double-facing. Once upon a time not so very long ago “peace at home, peace in the world” was a national motto in Turkey. Now, thanks to ALLAH’S BOYS, there is no peace anywhere. And even more recently, ALLAH’S BOYS declared a foreign policy aphorism: “zero problems with our neighbors.” Now Turkey has nothing but problems and zero genuine neighbors, despite the weak-knee scribbling of the government-controlled propaganda press.So since America needs to oust the leadership of Syria, Turkey is their international gangster of choice. Need to secure the oil pipeline forever? Want to protect Israel’s borders, even though expansionist Israel has never declared them? Call Turkey. This amnesiac country can forget the “van minit” fiasco at Davos in approximately one minute, if the price is right. It’s so terribly easy. All it takes is money.

    Yes, ALLAH’S BOYS will do the sneaky, dirty work, especially on their brother Muslims, very democratic, these boys. After all, ALLAH’S BOYS are CIA creatures. Remember the “our boys did it!” exclamation from the 1980 CIA-induced Turkish military coup? ALLAH’S BOYS are the bad seed Islamo-fascist children of that catastrophe. True masters of disaster who have raped their own country through privatization, just like the juntas did in South America. Inside Turkey environmental disaster prevails. Forests are destroyed, rivers contaminated by stupid self-serving plans. “No river shall run in vain,” says the head ALLAH’S BOY, meaning that all running waterways will somehow, somewhere generate electricity. Forget nature. Turkey’s once thriving agriculture is nearly barren, its seed imported from Israel. The uneducated voting base of ALLAH’S BOYS remains bedazzled and uneducated. With no economic plan for the future, ALLAH’S BOYS encourages them to have at least 3-5 children. It needs the votes. The once proud Turkish Army has been purged, its senior ranks now stuffed with government toadies. The recent military disasters related to America’s drone-fiascos attest to its incompetence; it has yet to explain or otherwise account for the grievous loss of Turkish lives. Hundreds, thousands—one loses count—of democratic dissenters are in jails throughout the land. Everyone is wire-tapped. Public-space cameras abound. Fascist style police control the streets. Every public assembly of citizens turns into a police riot. Democratic constitutional protections no longer exist. The judicial system is thoroughly politicized. Art, music, cinema, theater, writing, all is subject to censure or fine or destruction. And political thievery an institutional art form.

    All this and more is what America’s favorite adopted sons, ALLAH’S BOYS, have brought to their own country.  ALLAH’S BOYS knows how to do two things very well, destroy and make money. And America truly loves what this motley crew has done for now the US is paying them big war-bucks for a new, disastrous adventure in  the name so-called democracy. Now the Arab world is experiencing democracy a la Turka, as prepared in America, as delivered by ALLAH’S BOYS and their CIA handlers.

    It all happened so quickly, like love at first sight. Only two years ago the capo of ALLAH’S BOYS wondered out loud about “what business does NATO have in Libya?”  This was shortly after he had accepted the Muammar Gaddafi Human Rights Award. But then a breeze blew past his bristled upper lip bringing the smell of cordite, carrion, and chaos, followed by a little bird carrying a wad of large denomination American dollars. Twitter. Twitter. And ALLAH’S BOYS suddenly learned how to make money from war. And suddenly Muammar became a big-time loser and the Turks were bombing Libya along with the rest of NATO. And for the last 15 months ALLAH’S BOYS have been provoking Syria. In collusion with the CIA, automatic weapons, tanks, rockets, all the toys of war, have been given to the so-called Friends of Syria mercenaries. These unsavory characters bear a painful resemblance to the US-financed gangsters who toppled Saddam’s statue in Firdos Square in 2003 and, to Hillary Clinton’s great glee, sodomized and disemboweled Gaddafi last year. And now the murderers from the infamous Blackwater gang are in southern Turkey. Such is the way ALLAH’S BOYS (and the CIA) operate. Money. Money. Money.

    But now they have provoked Syria too much. A Turkish jet, violating Syrian air space, coming in low and fast, got dropped into the sea. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin fiasco? The concocted incident that “validated” America’s disastrous war in Viet Nam? This is the same lying subterfuge played on the world stage, courtesy of the CIA and America’s puppet show provided by ALLAH’S BOYS. And now ALLAH’S BOYS cry murder most foul their own self-provoked crisis. And of course their American handlers echo the outrage. Make no mistake about this: they, ALLAH’S BOYS and America, are the real murderers of the two downed Turkish pilots. Along with the incompetent military commanders who approved this mission of provocation. But indeed they all found out that, Yes, Syria does indeed have an air defense capability. How stupidly negligent can one be? Ah, but the money is good.

    As they used to say about Mexico and America, can be said about Syria: “Poor Syria. So far from God. So close to Turkey.” And to think Bashar Assad, a physician trained in England and president of Syria, and his stylish wife, Esma, British and college-educated, were feted in Ankara not too long ago. His wife dazzled in comparison to the fashion-retard covered wives of ALLAH’S BOYS. Then, Turkey and Syria were on great terms. The border was open. No visas or passports necessary. Trade was booming between Hatay in southern Turkey and Syria. But then that same little bird flew in the window at Ankara. And suddenly the room was full of money. And suddenly it became War! War! War! And American war bucks galore filled the Turkish air. And the ever capacious, ever open pockets of the Turkish government became happy pockets indeed.

    The Turkish media lackeys bang their pathetic war drums. ALLAH’S BOYS cry wah-wah-wah to NATO, the UN and any other agency who cares to listen. It’s known as the alibi-cover up scam, also known as “protesting too much.” But the BOYS have America’s melodramatic outrage to revel in, and “endless support” according to the hapless American ambassador. So now Turkey can add its bloody hand to the millions of its Muslim “brothers and sisters” killed and displaced in Iraq and Afghanistan. What a bloody bunch! What a collection of phonies! What a dishonorable gang!

    There is no honor in war. Just examine the photographs of the destroyed Iraqi children. Where are your children, ALLAH’S BOYS? There surely is no honor in America’s endless, hopeless, murderous wars. And there is nothing but treachery and greed among America’s War-Horse whores, these dogs of war who wave their red weapons over their heads crying “PEACE! FREEDOM! LIBERTY!” when they really mean MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! Killers all.

    And all this carnage under the aegis of the Nobel Peace Prize winning American president.

    The shame is boundless, the rape obscene.

    James Ryan
    29 June 2012

    PS: See the websites of West Point Graduates Against The War

     and Service Academy Graduates Against The War   for further details about America’s war crimes and its war criminals.

    Money makes the world go around…
    Joel Grey, CABARET    Money,  money, money, money
    Money, money, money, money
    Money, money, money, money, money

    THE CHILDREN OF IRAQ

    WAR IS A CRIME! STOP THE WAR CRIMINALS!

  • AMERICA’S WAR-HORSE HARLOTS (by Cem Ryan)

    AMERICA’S WAR-HORSE HARLOTS (by Cem Ryan)

    AMERICA’S WAR-HORSE HARLOTS

    Stoop, Romans, Stoop,
    And let us bathe our hands in Caesar’s blood
    Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords; Then walk we forth, even to the market-place,
    And waving our red weapons o’er our heads, Let’s all cry, “Peace, freedom, and liberty !”
    Julius Caesar, Act III, i

     

    According to experts if you really, really want to get rid of a neighbor—“bump off” is the professional term—call the mafia. But if you’re a down-at-the-heels fast fading super power, broke and bewildered, and need to continue the Arab Spring fairy tale about having the Arabs choose America-friendly democracies that sprout like orange groves throughout the Middle East, these same experts unanimously suggest you call Turkey. Just dial 011-90-ALLAHSBOYS. Oerators are standing by to answer your calls.

    ALLAH’S BOYS specialize in duplicity: double-talking, double-dealing, and double-facing. Once upon a time not so very long ago “peace at home, peace in the world” was a national motto in Turkey. Now, thanks to ALLAH’S BOYS, there is no peace anywhere. And even more recently, ALLAH’S BOYS declared a foreign policy aphorism: “zero problems with our neighbors.” Now Turkey has nothing but problems and zero genuine neighbors, despite the weak-knee scribbling of the government-controlled propaganda press.

    So since America needs to oust the leadership of Syria, Turkey is their international gangster of choice. Need to secure the oil pipeline forever? Want to protect Israel’s borders, even though expansionist Israel has never declared them? Call Turkey. This amnesiac country can forget the “van minit” fiasco at Davos in approximately one minute, if the price is right. It’s so terribly easy. All it takes is money.

    Yes, ALLAH’S BOYS will do the sneaky, dirty work, especially on their brother Muslims, very democratic, these boys. After all, ALLAH’S BOYS are CIA creatures. Remember the “our boys did it!” exclamation from the 1980 CIA-induced Turkish military coup? ALLAH’S BOYS are the bad seed Islamo-fascist children of that catastrophe. True masters of disaster who have raped their own country through privatization, just like the juntas did in South America. Inside Turkey environmental disaster prevails. Forests are destroyed, rivers contaminated by stupid self-serving plans. “No river shall run in vain,” says the head ALLAH’S BOY, meaning that all running waterways will somehow, somewhere generate electricity. Forget nature. Turkey’s once thriving agriculture is nearly barren, its seed imported from Israel. The uneducated voting base of ALLAH’S BOYS remains bedazzled and uneducated. With no economic plan for the future, ALLAH’S BOYS encourages them to have at least 3-5 children. It needs the votes. The once proud Turkish Army has been purged, its senior ranks now stuffed with government toadies. The recent military disasters related to America’s drone-fiascos attest to its incompetence; it has yet to explain or otherwise account for the grievous loss of Turkish lives. Hundreds, thousands—one loses count—of democratic dissenters are in jails throughout the land. Everyone is wire-tapped. Public-space cameras abound. Fascist style police control the streets. Every public assembly of citizens turns into a police riot. Democratic constitutional protections no longer exist. The judicial system is thoroughly politicized. Art, music, cinema, theater, writing, all is subject to censure or fine or destruction. And political thievery an institutional art form.

    All this and more is what America’s favorite adopted sons, ALLAH’S BOYS, have brought to their own country. ALLAH’S BOYS knows how to do two things very well, destroy and make money. And America truly loves what this motley crew has done for now the US is paying them big war-bucks for a new, disastrous adventure in the name so-called democracy. Now the Arab world is experiencing democracy a la Turka, as prepared in America, as delivered by ALLAH’S BOYS and their CIA handlers.

    It all happened so quickly, like love at first sight. Only two years ago the capo of ALLAH’S BOYS wondered out loud about “what business does NATO have in Libya?” This was shortly after he had accepted the Muammar Gaddafi Human Rights Award. But then a breeze blew past his bristled upper lip bringing the smell of cordite, carrion, and chaos, followed by a little bird carrying a wad of large denomination American dollars. Twitter. Twitter. And ALLAH’S BOYS suddenly learned how to make money from war. And suddenly Muammar became a big-time loser and the Turks were bombing Libya along with the rest of NATO. And for the last 15 months ALLAH’S BOYS have been provoking Syria. In collusion with the CIA, automatic weapons, tanks, rockets, all the toys of war, have been given to the so-called Friends of Syria mercenaries. These unsavory characters bear a painful resemblance to the US-financed gangsters who toppled Saddam’s statue in Firdos Square in 2003 and, to Hillary Clinton’s great glee, sodomized and disemboweled Gaddafi last year. And now the murderers from the infamous Blackwater gang are in southern Turkey. Such is the way ALLAH’S BOYS (and the CIA) operate. Money. Money. Money.

    But now they have provoked Syria too much. A Turkish jet, violating Syrian air space, coming in low and fast, got dropped into the sea. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin fiasco? The concocted incident that “validated” America’s disastrous war in Viet Nam? This is the same lying subterfuge played on the world stage, courtesy of the CIA and America’s puppet show provided by ALLAH’S BOYS. And now ALLAH’S BOYS cry murder most foul their own self-provoked crisis. And of course their American handlers echo the outrage. Make no mistake about this: they, ALLAH’S BOYS and America, are the real murderers of the two downed Turkish pilots. Along with the incompetent military commanders who approved this mission of provocation. But indeed they all found out that, Yes, Syria does indeed have an air defense capability. How stupidly negligent can one be? Ah, but the money is good.

    As they used to say about Mexico and America, can be said about Syria: “Poor Syria. So far from God. So close to Turkey.” And to think Bashar Assad, a physician trained in England and president of Syria, and his stylish wife, Esma, British and college-educated, were feted in Ankara not too long ago. His wife dazzled in comparison to the fashion-retard covered wives of ALLAH’S BOYS. Then, Turkey and Syria were on great terms. The border was open. No visas or passports necessary. Trade was booming between Hatay in southern Turkey and Syria. But then that same little bird flew in the window at Ankara. And suddenly the room was full of money. And suddenly it became War! War! War! And American war bucks galore filled the Turkish air. And the ever capacious, ever open pockets of the Turkish government became happy pockets indeed.

    The Turkish media lackeys bang their pathetic war drums. ALLAH’S BOYS cry wah-wah-wah to NATO, the UN and any other agency who cares to listen. It’s known as the alibi-cover up scam, also known as “protesting too much.” But the BOYS have America’s melodramatic outrage to revel in, and “endless support” according to the hapless American ambassador. So now Turkey can add its bloody hand to the millions of its Muslim “brothers and sisters” killed and displaced in Iraq and Afghanistan. What a bloody bunch! What a collection of phonies! What a dishonorable gang!

    There is no honor in war. Just examine the photographs of the destroyed Iraqi children. Where are your children, ALLAH’S BOYS? There surely is no honor in America’s endless, hopeless, murderous wars. And there is nothing but treachery and greed among America’s War-Horse whores, these dogs of war who wave their red weapons over their heads crying “PEACE! FREEDOM! LIBERTY!” when they really mean MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! Killers all.

    And all this carnage under the aegis of the Nobel Peace Prize winning American president.

    The shame is boundless, the rape obscene.

    Cem Ryan
    13 July 2012

    PS: See the websites of West Point Graduates Against The War and Service Academy Graduates Against The War for further details about America’s war crimes and its war criminals.

     http://www.brighteningglance.org/americarsquos-war-horse-harlots-29-june-2012.html

     

     

    Joel Grey

     Money makes the world go around…

    Joel Grey, CABARET

    Money,  money, money, money

    Money, money, money, money

    Money, money, money, money, money

    _____________________________________________________

    THE DESTROYED CHILDREN OF IRAQ

    WAR IS A CRIME!

    STOP THE WAR CRIMINALS!

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  • Turkey: A midwife for a Kurdish state?

    Turkey: A midwife for a Kurdish state?

    Ankara has willy-nilly helped the Kurdish genie escape from the bottle and it will be very difficult for Turkey to push it back inside.

    kurds

    Photo: REUTERS

    If there is one country that has helped build a Kurdish entity in Iraqi Kurdistan it is Turkey. This assertion seems paradoxical in view of Ankara’s traditional opposition to such an eventuality in Iraq and the well known pressures it applied on its allies, especially the United States, not to lend any support to the Kurds of Iraq because of the possible spillover effects on its own restive Kurds. Turkey’s new stance appears even more paradoxical against the backdrop of the latest upheavals in the region and their contagious effects both on its own Kurds and those of Syria.

    How is one to explain these paradoxes? First let us have a quick look at the facts on the ground. Since the 1991 Gulf War and much more so after the 2003 Gulf War Turkey has turned itself, slowly but surely, and against its better judgment, into the lifeline for Iraqi Kurdistan, which is led by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the euphemism for a Kurdish state in the making.

    The slow change in Ankara’s policy towards the KRG was not due to any altruistic considerations but for very pragmatic, down to earth ones. Immediately after the 1991 Gulf War and the crushing of the Kurdish uprising which ensued, Turkey was confronted with the problem of a million Kurdish refugees on its border. Unwilling to burden itself with another million Kurds, Turkey devised with the Allies the “Provide Comfort” project for the fleeing Kurds to enable them to go back to their homes.

    This plan, together with “the no-fly zone” where the Iraqi army could not act against the Kurds, as well as the ruptured relations between Ankara and Baghdad due to the war, set in motion the schizophrenic relations that would develop between Turkey and the KRG.

    On the one hand Turkey was extremely apprehensive of the possible contagious effects of the KRG on its own Kurds, hence Ankara’s attempts to thwart any political and diplomatic gains by the KRG. On the other hand Ankara did its best to reap the fruits of its relations with the emerging entity, one of the most important of which were economic gains. This approach turned the Kurdistan Region into a huge investment area for Turkish companies whose number reached around 900 by 2012 and amounted to half of the companies acting in the KRG.

    To this list one should add other large business, cultural and social ventures which turned the KRG into an undeclared Turkish sphere of influence. The net result was that no less than seven percent of Turkish exports went to the KRG.

    Ankara’s thirst for oil and gas and the pressure brought to bear on it to stop importing from Iran go a long way to explain the surprising pipeline deal it cut with the KRG on May 20, 2012, without the approval of the central government in Baghdad. If it materializes, the deal, which envisaged the building of two oil pipelines and one gas pipeline from the Kurdistan Region to Turkey, might give further boost to Kurdish aspirations for independence.

    Interestingly, the Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yildiz, declared on that occasion that “Turkey should also be considered as the Regional Kurdish Government’s gateway to the West.”

    A second important aim for developing these relations was the hope that the KRG would help in solving Turkey’s own acute Kurdish domestic problem, namely the ongoing attacks which the armed Turkish Kurdish PKK continued to launch against Turkish state targets.

    However, Ankara’s hope that the KRG would fight against, or at least contain the PKK, whose bases are found in Iraqi Kurdistan, was not fulfilled. The third and perhaps most important consideration was Ankara’s need to attune itself to the region’s changing geostrategic map, which pushed it to act according to the dictum “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.”

    The geostrategic considerations gathered momentum in the past two years due to several developments, all of which impacted negatively on Turkey’s environment and its foreign policy configurations.

    Before analyzing these changes it must be stressed that the stance of the AKP government toward the Kurdish domestic issue as well as towards the KRG underwent slow transformation, which distinguished the AKP from earlier Kemalist governments.

    The geostrategic changes were quite drastic, including the “Arab Spring,” which accelerated the collapse of the Turkish-Iranian-Syrian axis. Furthermore, the revolution in Syria not only turned Ankara and Damascus into sworn enemies once again but also raised the specter of the influx of Syrian refugees. Worse still, it opened the Pandora’s box of Syrian Kurds and their possible collaboration with their brethren in Turkey, not to speak of the PKK card which Damascus started to employ once again against Ankara.

    The withdrawal of the American forces from Iraq in November 2011 and the vacuum left thereby was another very worrying development for Turkey, as it enhanced its competition with Iran for filling this vacuum.

    Lastly, one should note the deteriorating relations between Ankara and Baghdad against the background of the Sunni-Shi’ite rivalry in the region, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s growing tilt toward Iran and his support for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, as well as the growing personal antipathy between Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Maliki.

    All this weakened Ankara’s “commitment” to the almost sacred notion of Iraqi unity and emboldened it in its bilateral ties with the KRG, the most challenging of which for Baghdad was the oil pipeline deal mentioned above.

    Turkey’s changing policy towards the KRG and its president Masu’d Barzani found its expression on the symbolic level as well.

    Barzani’s April visit to Turkey was a case in point. While in the past Ankara treated Barzani as a mere “head of tribe,” in this most recent visit it accorded him a welcome befitting a head of state, thus turning him into one of its important allies in the region. Moreover, in this visit Barzani reiterated publicly the Kurds’ right to self-determination but, interestingly enough, Turkish officials and the media chose to turn “a deaf ear” to this declaration.

    Turkey is facing now a Kurdish problem on all three fronts, which has multiplied its dilemmas but which has moved it, so it seems, to adopt a flexible and non-conventional policy: Embracing the KRG so as to contain its own Kurds and Syria’s as well. Should Turkey decide to give Barzani the green light, he would not hesitate to go the extra mile and declare independence. One thing is certain: Turkey has willy-nilly helped the Kurdish genie escape from the bottle and it will be very difficult for Ankara to push it back inside.

    Prof. Ofra Bengio is head of the Kurdish Studies Program at the Moshe Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University and author of The Kurds of Iraq: Building a State within a State.

  • Can Turkey balance Iran?

    Can Turkey balance Iran?

    Can Turkey balance Iran?

    If the Arabs expect Turkey to balance Iran, it is unlikely to happen under current Turkish leadership.
    2012523125416408734 20
    Prime Minister Erdogan must carefully balance Turkey’s foreign policy in order to appease his supporters [REUTERS]
    Doha, Qatar – In June 2011 and a few days before the national elections, I attended a workshop in one of Turkey’s top universities, the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. The topic was Iran’s nuclear programme and Turkey’s management of the crisis. Among the participants were a few bureaucrats from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and some prominent Turkish academics.All but an American academic spoke approvingly of Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s initiative of the Nuclear Fuel Swap Deal signed a year ago. The main speaker, an influential Turkish academic, even claimed that the deal was the best course of action ever taken to solve the crisis – but the world, he added, missed it. In reaction to the American academic’s doubts, the professor confidently asserted that without Turkey the crisis could not be solved.

    Unfriending

    We were in the midst of the Arab Spring and it was obvious that the Turkish leadership was entertaining the idea that Turkey could be a model for the Arab World.

     Egyptians celebrate Erdogan’s arrival

    I was puzzled. How could the Turkish leaders live with two contradictions the Arab Spring uncovered? First, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ahmet Davutoglu had long befriended unpopular Arab rulers, but at the same time managed to polish their images among the Arab masses.

    Once the protests broke out in Egypt, however, Erdogan and Davutoglu immediately distanced themselves from Hosni Mubarak. It was a smart move. But, with Bashar al-Assad, the duo were extremely patient. It took longer, but Erdogan and Davutoglu eventually did the same with Assad.

    After the Arab Spring Davutoglu changed his visionary guiding principle in foreign policymaking. Now “zero problems with the neighbours” would guide Turkish foreign policy. The Turkish leadership thus solved the first contradiction.

    A ‘friend’ indeed

    The other contradiction is more serious and yet to be solved. The Turkish leaders have also tried to befriend the Gulf Arabs and the Iranians at the same time. For example, Turkey and the Gulf States frequently exchanged high-level visits in the 2000s. After 40 years, for example, a Saudi King visited Turkey, in fact twice. Turkey increased its exports to the region and was declared to be a strategic partner of the GCC.

    Rapprochement with the GCC Arab States did not deter the Turkish leadership from developing closer ties with Iran. Turkey in fact did more than that. For Iran’s sake Turkey put at great risk its strategic interests with the United States, the European Union, Israel – and not to mention the Arab World – by engineering the Nuclear Fuel Swap Deal. One month after the deal, Turkey also voted against further UN sanctions on Iran as a non-permanent member of the Security Council.

    Is it pure self-interest? In large part, yes. For Turkey, Iran is simply more important than the GCC as a market. Since coming to power, Erdogan and his team have tried hard to open up the Iranian market to the Turkish companies and made decent progress. Trade volume between the two countries increased from $1.25 billion in 2003 to $16 billion in 2011. Erdogan set even a higher number, $30 billion, as a benchmark to be realised in the near future.

    On the other hand, the total trade between Turkey and the whole Gulf States is around $11 billion in 2011. Even though Turkey may hope to increase that number in the near future, I am sure, they are realistic about the full potential: Turkey faces tough competition from American, European, and Far East Asian companies and does not get favourable treatment.

    Iran is critical to Turkey for other reasons. First, in order to fight effectively the re-strengthening Kurdish terror organisation, the PKK, Turkey must closely work with Iran. Even Iran’s inaction is going to trouble the Turkish military. Second, Turkey aims to become a regional energy hub or at least an energy transit country. Iran figures in most, if not all scenarios, for the successful realisation of that aim.

    A balancing act

     Turkey: A model for the ME?

    There is also a domestic constraint. The policy of balancing Iran is going to be an extremely hard sell. Even though for quite different reasons all but few societal groups will object to such a balancing.

    First, the Kemalists will object to it because such a positioning will involve Turkey unnecessarily with the problems of the Middle East. This will constitute a radical departure from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s isolationist, independent and peaceful foreign policy.

    The ultra-Nationalists, the Leftists and the Socialists will join forces with the Kemalists, not because they are isolationists, but because they are anti-US and anti-Israel. In fact, these groups have long already accused Erdogan and Davutoglu of following too pro-American and pro-Israel policy. So far, their campaign did not seem to persuade the ordinary folks. But, any anti-Iran foreign policy orientation will give credit to their accusations and make these groups even more vocal in their criticisms.

    There are other societal groups, who will object to such an anti-Iran orientation. First, there are those Turkish Political Islamists, who get more inspiration from Iran than Saudi Arabia or any other Arab state. These groups constitute one part of the JDP constituency and may shift alliance if Erdogan and Davutoglu appear too anti-Iran. Some of them are already critical of Erdogan and Davutoglu for not cutting all ties with Israel despite Erdogan’s fiery rhetoric about Israel.

    Second, even anti-Iran religious groups will object to such a re-orientation of Turkish foreign policy. It is not because of their sympathy for Saudi Arabia. Most religious groups in Turkey have strong Sufi orientations and find Wahhabism or Salafism extremely disturbing. These groups, which in fact constitute the overwhelming majority of religious groups in Turkey, will raise strong objections to Turkey taking any side between Iran and the Arab states. In fact, the religious leader of the most influential religious group, Fethullah Gulen, repeatedly warned the JDP leadership of such an adventure.

    Finally, most Turks who do not belong to any of these groups are generally very apathetic about the developments in the Arab world. They have quite a simple understanding of the international politics of the Middle East, viewing most Arab regimes as simple puppets of the United States. On the other hand, Iran is, in their view, a proud country standing against the bullies, the United States and Israel. Erdogan and Davutoglu have so far successfully appealed to the ordinary folks’ nationalistic impulses, but a strong-anti Iran position might discredit the duo’s future appeals.

    In short, Turkey is not going to play any balancing role in the epic battle between Iran and the GCC countries. Simply, Iran is too important and most, if not all, Turks will object to such an adventurous foreign policy.

    Birol Baskan is Assistant Professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar.

    The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
  • Arab Spring’s model is Turkey

    Arab Spring’s model is Turkey

    Competing interests in nation’s balance

    By Rachelle G. Cohen

    arab springToday in a southern corner of Turkey eight refugee camps are home to some 25,000 Syrians who have fled the violence that has already killed more than 9,000 of their countrymen.

    Some 300 United Nations observers have not been able to stop the assaults ordered by Bashar Assad on his own people. And in the past month alone an estimated 4,000 Syrians have crossed into Turkey.

    “We have an open door policy for every Syrian who has escaped,” said Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan during a recent address at Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

    If geography is destiny then Turkey was indeed destined to play a critical role in the region, to become a bridge between East and West, between Europe and Asia and with a growing role in North Africa as well.

    “We fight against international terrorism,” Babacan emphasized. “We always act in accord with our ideals, our values, our principles.”

    And those values include a respect for human rights and the rule of law, he insists.

    There are those within Turkey who might dispute that — press freedoms can be, well, problematic. But then in the context of regional politics, Turkey may fall short of ideal, but well ahead of the local curve.

    “We do what we can to promote positive change in line with our common values, especially among our neighbors,” he added.

    It surely hasn’t been easy, even as Turkey tries to maintain its own precarious balance between Islam and secularism — determined to show the two can co-exist, trying to provide an example for the nascent democracies in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya.

    via Arab Spring’s model is Turkey – BostonHerald.com.

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  • In the Arab World, Turkey’s on Top

    In the Arab World, Turkey’s on Top

    Written by David Rosenberg

    WelcomeErdoganSizedThe Arab Spring has been tough on Turkey. Its good friend, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, disappointed it with a violent crackdown on protestors. Relations with Iran have grown chillier, Ankara was forced to do an embarrassing about-face on the Libyan no-fly zone and Egypt’s Islamic leaders warned it against promoting the Turkish brand of Islam and democracy.

    Back at home, economic growth is faltering and the country has been subject to withering criticism for allowing the courts to lock up so many journalists. The Kurds have grown restive.

    But Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan can take some solace from the fact that in the Arab world his country is as popular as ever. A newly released poll finds that Arabs see Turkey as a champion of regional peace and role model for religion and democracy living side by side.

     

    Conducted among 2,323 people in 16 Arab countries over the last three months of 2011 by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), the survey found that 78% approved of Turkey and its policies.

     

    “Clearly Turkey is very much admired and so it has a degree of regional leadership and the ability to pay that role’” Jonathan Levack, program officer for foreign policy program at TESEV, told The Media Line. “But it has to be careful because public opinion is volatile and the region is volatile. You can’t easily translate this popularity into political influence.”

     

    The survey comes as the Middle East and North Africa undergo their biggest upheaval in decades. Domestically, the countries that have thrown off autocratic rule are now undergoing a wrenching debate over the role of Islam and democracy while the long-standing dominance of the U.S. is perceived by many as being in retreat, with a host of powers looking to fill the vacuum.

     

    Turkey’s approval rating put it way head of other contender’s for regional leadership, most notably Saudi Arabia (64%) and Iran (45%), while China – a potentially emerging regional power – achieved a favorable rating among 65% of the respondents. The U.S. garnered only a 33% approval rating.

     

    Turkey scored highest in countries where the Arab Spring has ended the rule of dictators and politics is in flux. In Libya, Turkey had a 93% approval rating even though Ankara was late in joining the no-fly zone campaign that was instrumental in ousting Muamar Al-Qaddafi. Turkey had a 91% rating in Tunisia and 86% rating in Egypt.

     

    But in Syria, where Erdogan has been at the forefront of efforts to force Al-Assad to step down, Turkey’s approval rating plummeted. From 93% in TESEV’s 2010 survey, it fell to 44% last year.

     

    Moreover, 61% of the Arab world views Turkey as a model for their own countries, compared with 22% who said it was not, according to the poll. Among those who approve Turkey as a model, 32% cited its democracy, 25% its thriving economy and 23% its Muslim identity.

     

    But among those who say they do not admire the Turkish model, its biggest drawback was its insufficient Muslim identity and its ties to the West, which the disapprovers believed to be too close. Turkey is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, although its efforts to join the European Union have so far failed.

     

    In fact, the Turkish model has started to look a little tarnished. More than 100 journalists are now imprisoned for what human rights groups say are unfounded charge of terrorism. The latest arrests prompted a public tussle between Erdogan and the American author Paul Auster, who announced last month that he would not visit Turkey due to the clampdown on freedom of speech.

     

    Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund is forecasting just 0.4 % economic growth for Turkey this year, down from 8.3% in 2011.

     

    This was the third annual survey of Arab attitudes TESEV has conducted as Turkey has emerged from decades of regional non-involvement to become an increasingly important political and economic player.

     

    “Throughout the three surveys, we found Turkey was welcomed as an actor in the region by the people of the region…. that favorable option is consistent, or structural. It hasn’t been affected by the Arab Spring or by Turkey’s stance toward Libya,” said Levack.

     

    Turks who participated in a Doha Debates roundtable at Bogazici University in Istanbul last month were less convinced of their country’s model. By a margin of 59% to 41% they approved a resolution: “This House believes Turkey is a bad model for the new Arab states.”

     

    Ece Temelkuran, a Turkish journalist, told the audience that her country’s experience could not be duplicated in the Arab world. “Turkey has been under a state for modernism and secularism for about 80 years, which has not been experienced anywhere in the Arab world in the same manner,” she said.

     

    But she was also critical of Turkey’s democracy, saying it was responsible for jailing journalists and criticized the ruling Justice and development Party (AKP) for substituting military dominance over politics with a new kind of authoritarianism.

     

    Defending the model, Sinan Ulgen, director of Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies (Edam), said Turkey’s political development is a work in progress, which makes it relevant to the Arab world and a more useful mentor than Europe or America.

     

    “The Arab people in terms of their cultural affinity have an association with Turkey. They relate to what’s going on in Turkey,” he told the Doha Debates audience. “They relate to what’s going on in Turkish society. And I think the best way to prove this argument is just to tell you that the wild success of the Turkish soap operas across the Arab world.”

     

     

     

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