Tag: Arabs

  • Turkey and Iran carve up a ruptured Arab world – CSMonitor.com

    Turkey and Iran carve up a ruptured Arab world – CSMonitor.com

    Many analysts say the Middle East is the focus of a geopolitical power struggle between the United States and Iran. That misses the primary thread of events – namely, the ongoing soft partition of the Arab republics between Turkey and Iran, with Turkey the stronger power.

    By Jason Pack and Martin van Creveld / January 6, 2012

    maliki full 380

    Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki speaks to his supporters in Baghdad Dec. 31. The last two weeks’ events have removed any doubt that Mr. Maliki is “Iran’s man” in Baghdad.

    AP Photo/Karim Kadim

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    During the last decade many right-wing American and Israeli analysts have described the geostrategic struggles unfolding in the Middle East as a new “cold war” pitting the United States against Shiite Iran. They have warned of an Arab “Shiite crescent” – stretching from Lebanon to Iraq – connected to Iran via ties of religion, commerce, and geostrategy.

    Gallery: Monitor Political Cartoons

    The new year has started with an attempted Shiite power play by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to dominate the government, and an Iranian demonstration of missile and nuclear fuel rod capacity coupled with threats to close the Straits of Hormuz if Iranian oil exports are blocked.

    These events can be interpreted as ample evidence of Iranian expansionism, combined with fears that Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon, rendering its present regime and regional clients untouchable.

    RELATED OPINION: Six ways to improve US relations in the new Middle East

    What this view of the Middle East overlooks is the fact that both the US and Iran are mired in internal political and economic difficulties. Simultaneously, inside the region, both are being outmaneuvered by an ascendant Turkey.

    via Turkey and Iran carve up a ruptured Arab world – CSMonitor.com.

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  • Arabs are rewriting their own narrative

    Arabs are rewriting their own narrative

    By Rami G. Khouri

    The Daily Star

    I had the pleasure this week of speaking at the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Tufts University on a panel titled “Continuing Tensions in the Levant.”

    The panel made me realize two related things. First, all major players in the Middle East – the Arab states, Israel, Turkey, Iran, the European Union and the United States – are undergoing major changes in regional relationships. The Arab citizen revolts across the region continue to drive epic developments, making this a major moment of historic change that involves more than the mere replacement of authoritarian regimes by more democratic systems.

    Second, given the changes under way, it is time perhaps to put an end to the use of the term “Levant” or “Levantine,” because the historical lineage of this term is being invalidated by the Arab revolts. The “Levant” term recalls an era when Europeans were enchanted with our region, dealt with it in colonial and Orientalist fashions, and devised terminology that reflected the subordinate role that our region played in relation to the more powerful and advanced Europeans. The “Levant” refers to the region to the east where the sun rises, while the “Middle East” similarly gives our countries a label that reflects the view from Europe and the United States.

    I suggest we declare the death of the “Levant” label because the citizen revolts across much of the Arab world capture the fact that Arab citizens are now in the very early stages of rewriting their own history and crafting their own national narratives. The region where they are acting deserves to be called something reflecting this fact, namely the “Arab world.” If one is talking about the wider region that also includes non-Arab Iran, Turkey and Israel, the “Middle East” will probably stay in use for a long time. However, “Western Asia” is perhaps equally useful, balancing as it does the prevalent East Asia, Central Asia and South Asia designations that are merely geographic and not linguistically quasi-colonial.

    The fact that Arab men and women are fighting for their rights as citizens and human beings is the central drama of the moment across the Arab world, but this is likely to spill over and influence the roles and relationships of non-Arab states in the region. The most significant ones in my mind are the following:

    First, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council states have behaved in novel ways in the past year, shedding their traditional reticence and low-key foreign policy style in favor of more daring moves. Four of the GCC states (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar) have moved their troops or provided military aid around the region (in Bahrain and Libya), some have withdrawn their ambassadors from Damascus, and some have confronted Iran openly. All this is very unusual for GCC states, suggesting they are beginning to act on their own volition, rather than relying on foreign intervention while acting as as protectorates of foreign powers.

    Second, Turkey for several years has expanded its profile and adopted more robust policies across the Middle East. It has sought to enhance its national interests while expanding its sphere of influence in the Arab region, and this in different ways in its relations with Arabs, Iran and Israel.

    Third, Iran for its part is one of the big losers from the current Arab revolts, as its various attempts to develop more influence in the region fall victim to the other changes under way. Its export of the Islamic revolutionary spirit of 1979 has been deflated by the fact that Arabs have taken the lead in challenging their own regimes. Iran’s challenge of Israel has been taken over much more credibly by Turkey. Iranian allies Syria and Hezbollah face new problems in view of the unpredictable situation in Syria. And the Arab quest for democratic freedoms makes the Iranian theocratic and top-heavy governance system deeply alien to Arab populist aspirations.

    Fourth, Egypt is slowly reviving its traditional role as a leading Arab power, both as a trend-setter in domestic changes in the region and as a leader in speaking out against Israeli policies. The successful mediation of the Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange is only the latest sign of this, coming right after Israel formally – and unusually – apologized to Egypt for killing several Israeli soldiers in Sinai.

    Fifth, Israel is increasingly isolated and challenged in the region. Some three decades ago Israel counted Iran, Turkey and Egypt as strategic allies or close partners. Today, its relations with all three are much more difficult. Egypt’s evolution in recent months suggests that a more democratic Arab world will see foreign policies that are harder on Israel because they reflect Arab public opinion. Israel’s greater isolation is coupled with more frequent mentions of Israel, apartheid and sanctions in the same breath.

    The exact impact of these and other changes to come are hard to identify now, and in some cases they will include new forms of short-term sectarian or ideological strife within and between countries. This is the nature of momentous and historic change, but in due course the benefits of democratic governance will far outweigh the price to be paid in the transition period.

    Rami G. Khouri is published twice weekly by THE DAILY STAR.

    A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on October 15, 2011, on page 7.

    via THE DAILY STAR :: Opinion :: Columnist :: Arabs are rewriting their own narrative.

  • Arab Tourists Flock to Turkey for a Dash of History

    Arab Tourists Flock to Turkey for a Dash of History

    Lured by Turkey’s soap operas, shopping, and historical heritage, Arabs from all over the Gulf are flocking to Turkey.

    The boom in Arab tourism over the past several years has been a boon for the country’s tourism sector, but the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East has put the brakes on this trend.

    Between 2008 and 2010, entries from the Arab world increased 62%, driven by the signing of numerous visa-free treaties with Middle Eastern states. Turkey’s popular soap operas, Istanbul’s mega malls, the so-called suitcase trade, and Turkey’s cultural and historical heritage drew nearly two million tourists from the Arab world in 2010.

    Arab tourists tend to spend more money and stay longer than their European and American counterparts, making them a particularly attractive market.

    Yahya Terzi, director of sales at Alharran Tours, attributes this to the fact that Arabs in general travel with their large, extended families.

    “They like to relax with family. When you calculate how many people they have in their family, they end up spending more money. They also like first class hotels and restaurants. They don’t tend to stay in three star hotels,” he told SES Türkiye.

    Arab tourists are also drawn by the sights and sounds they see every week on popular Turkish soap operas.

    “They want to see where their favourite soap operas are shot and they want to meet the actors,” according to Shirin Schade, managing director of Travelstyle.

    Tour operators noticed a significant jump in Arab tourists after Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s shouting down of Israeli President Shimon Peres at Davos in 2009.

    “In the summer after Davos, they [Arab tourists] started to come here because more people learned about Turkey,” Abdulkadir Duger, general manager of Alharran Tourism and Travel Agency, told SES Türkiye. “They enjoyed their first visit and more and more started to come.”

    While the incident surely won sympathy from the Arab Street, more significant has been the signing of numerous visa-free travel agreements with its Middle Eastern neighbours, which made it much easier for tourists and businessmen to visit Turkey.

    In a recent article entitled “Turkey’s ‘Demonstrative Effect’ and the Transformation of the Middle East”, Bogazici University professor Kemal Kirisci points out that tourism and Istanbul as a venue for various NGO and activist gatherings can play a role in promoting Turkey as a democratic, liberal and secular model for the Middle East.

    “Turkey’s visa-free travel policy also allows the possibility of reinforcing the image of Turkey formed through media,” Kirisci writes, pointing out for example, that 71% of Saudi women watch Turkish TV series.

    Despite the growing enthusiasm for Turkey, Sueda Albaker, business development and office manager of Albaker Tours, said that her company has seen a drop in tourists since the start of the Arab uprisings and Turkey’s turbulent relationship with Israel.

    “Arab tourists visiting Turkey have decreased because some of them couldn’t travel because the borders were closed,” Alakbar explained.

    The largest drop in the number of tourists comes from Bahrain, Israel and Syria, according to the General Directorate of Investment and Enterprises Department of Research and Evaluation. However, the number of tourists from Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia increased by at least 39%.

    Albaker blames the drop in tourists from certain countries on fears that if an uprising were to start while they are vacationing abroad, they wouldn’t be able to return home.

    When the Middle East begins to stabilise, many in the Turkish travel industry are confident Turkey will continue to be an enticing destination for Arab travellers.

    Schade thinks that new legislation in Europe targeting Muslims could help draw even more people to Turkey.

    “Turkey is a Muslim country. They can cover up the way they want and no one says anything,” he explained.

    The fact that countries like France have started penalising people for wearing the chador could dissuade them from visiting places like Paris, according to Schade.

    Friday, 14 October 2011

    Setimes

  • Robert Fisk: Great War secrets of the Ottoman Arabs

    Robert Fisk: Great War secrets of the Ottoman Arabs

    Forgotten soldiers. We all know about Gallipoli; hopelessly conceived mess, dreamed up by Churchill to move the Great War from the glued trenches of France to a fast-moving invasion of Germany’s Ottoman allies in 1915.

    Thousands of Arabs joined the fight against Anzac troops in Gallipoli
    Thousands of Arabs joined the fight against Anzac troops in Gallipoli

    Embark a vast army of Australians, New Zealanders, Brits, French and others east of Istanbul in order to smash “Johnny Turk”. Problem: the Turks fought back ferociously as Mustafa Kemal (later Ataturk, titan of the 20th century, etc) used his Turkish 19th Army Division to confront the invaders’ first wave. Problem two: most of the division were not Turks at all.

    They were Arabs. Indeed, two-thirds of the first men to push back the Anzac forces were Syrian Arabs from what is today Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and “Palestine”. And of the 87,000 “Turkish” troops who died defending the Dardanelles, many were Arabs. As Palestinian Professor Salim Tamari now points out, the same applies to the Ottoman battles of Suez, Gaza and Kut al-Amara. In the hitherto unknown diary of Private Ihsan Turjman of the Ottoman Fourth Army – he would today be called a Palestinian Arab – there was nothing but scorn for those Arab delegations from Palestine and Syria who sent delegations “to salute the memory of our martyrs in this war and to visit the wounded”.

    What, he asked in his secretly kept diary, were these Arabs playing at? “Do they mean to strengthen the relationship between the Arab and Turkish nations… truth be told, the Palestinian and Syrian people are a cowardly and submissive lot. For if they were not so servile, they would have revolted against these Turkish barbarians,” he wrote. This is stunning stuff.

    Far more Arabs fought against the Allies on behalf of the Ottomans than ever joined Lawrence’s Arab revolt, but here is Private Turjman expressing fury at his masters.

    Year of the Locust is an odd little book, terribly short but darkly fascinating, concentrating on the Great War diaries of three Ottoman soldiers, one of them an actual Turk, the others Palestinian Arabs. We are used to British and German soldiers’ accounts of the Great War; scarcely ever do we read of the personal lives of our Ottoman opponents. The Turjman family home, by extraordinary chance, is the very same Jerusalem building, in ruins since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war but now transformed into an art gallery, which I visited in Jerusalem just three weeks ago today.

    In 1917, when Turjman was shot dead by an Ottoman officer, Palestinian Arabs were less concerned about the Balfour Declaration than whether the British would give them independence, annex them to Egypt or allow them a Syrian homeland. How wrong could they have been? Britain had no intention of adding to its Egyptian interests when it had already given its support to a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Later, as Tamari recounts, the lives of the other two diarists, one Turkish, the other Arab, would revolve around Palestinians who came to believe that it was Jewish immigration that would threaten their future. But it is the Great War that dominates their memoirs.

    In the anti-Ottoman literature that permeated the Arab world (and the West) after the war, it is important to remember these Ottomans, Turkish or Arab. There is a touch of Robert Graves here. Turjman’s diary records the plague of locusts that settled upon Jerusalem, the cholera and typhus and the 50 Jerusalem prostitutes sent to entertain Turkish officers, the Ottoman troops hanged outside the Jaffa Gate for desertion, the Turkish aircraft that crashes (“badly trained pilots or badly maintained engines”). Turjman even has a crush on a married woman.

    Long forgotten now are the Arab-Turkish Ottoman inmates of the Tsarist prison camp at Krasnoyarsk, in Russia, where Lieutenant Aref Shehadeh, born in Jerusalem in 1892, ended up. Islam united them; class divided them. But there were concerts, sports clubs, football teams, a camp library, a Great War version of all the stalags and oflags made famous in the Second World War. Come the Bolshevik revolution, Shehadeh high-tailed it back to the Middle East – via Manchuria, Japan, China, India and Egypt via the Red Sea.

    But the most impressive text in this tiny book is not a diary but a letter from Shehadeh’s wife, Saema, in Jerusalem when, 30 years later, he had set off for Gaza as a British mandate officer. “I woke up early this morning,” she writes. “I walked around in the garden for a while. I picked up some flowers and leaves. I picked up some beans to cook for myself. While I was milling around, you were always on my mind. It is your presence that makes this garden beautiful.

    “Nothing has a taste without you. May God not deprive me of your presence, for it is you who makes my (our) life beautiful. When you left us last time I noticed that you had a little cold. I am thinking about it. Let me know about your health. Your life’s partner, who loves you with all her heart. Saema.” Now that’s quite a love letter to get from your wife.

    via Robert Fisk: Great War secrets of the Ottoman Arabs – Robert Fisk, Commentators – The Independent.

  • Turkish policy adviser: Turkey is shaping the ‘Arab Spring’

    Turkish policy adviser: Turkey is shaping the ‘Arab Spring’

    A top aide to Turkey’s prime minister said Thursday that his country’s policy of engaging Islamist groups and rogue regimes in the Arab world had given Turkey unique leverage in shaping the outcome of the “Arab Spring.”

    “We’ve been criticized for engaging many of these groups, whether it’s Hezbollah or Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood – the so-called difficult actors in the Middle East … but now most of these groups with which we’ve developed some sort of engagement … are going to play an important role in their respective countries,” said Ibrahim Kalin, chief foreign policy adviser for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    Mr. Kalin spoke Thursday at a Middle East Institute forum in Washington.

    Hamas recently signed a unity deal with the Palestinian Authority, and Hezbollah and its legislative allies succeeded last week in forming a Lebanese government.

    The Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile, is poised to perform well in Egypt’s upcoming parliamentary elections.

    “Some critics claim that, in fact, this is a test for Turkish foreign policy and that this puts Turkey in a difficult position because Turkey so far has worked with the establishment, with the regimes, with most of the dictators in the Arab world. Now you will have to change your allies in the region,” Mr. Kalin said. “Our response is that, in fact, Turkey will be strengthened, not weakened, by a more democratic and prosperous Arab world.”

    Mr. Kalin also said his country’s ties with rogue regimes had enabled it play a quiet, behind-the-scenes role in encouraging reform.

    “When you engage a country like Iran or like Syria, what you want to do is to get results – not sensational rhetoric, not public battles, but results.”

    While Turkish officials were reluctant to publicly criticize Iran during its 2009 crackdown on anti-government protesters, they have taken an active role in the Syrian crisis, hosting opposition leaders and thousands of refugees who have streamed across the Syria-Turkey border.

    Mr. Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) won an overwhelming victory in the country’s June 12 elections – its third landslide since its 2002 rise to power.

    Mr. Kalin noted that while AKP won only half of the country’s votes, polls showed the 65 percent to 70 percent of the population approved of its foreign policy, which has included a warming with governments across the Middle East and North Africa and a cooling of its longstanding alliance with Israel.

    © Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

    via Turkish policy adviser: Turkey is shaping the ‘Arab Spring’ – Washington Times.

  • Minister says no EU “blank cheque” for Arab Spring nations

    Minister says no EU “blank cheque” for Arab Spring nations

    By Keith Weir<br />(Reuters) – The European Union should cut off aid payments to Arab Spring countries that fail to deliver on economic and political reform, Britain’s Europe Minister David Lidington said on Friday.

    Minister says no EU “blank cheque” for Arab Spring nations

    Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (R), Britain's Minister for Europe David Lidington (L) and Ukraine's Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko attend a family photo session of the Council of Europe during the 121st session of the Committee of Ministers meeting in Istanbul May 11, 2011. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

    In an interview with Reuters, Lidington also said Britain did not want the gate to be “slammed shut” on EU enlargement once Croatia had joined the 27-nation bloc. He signalled Britain’s determination to impose a freeze on EU spending.

    Lidington, a Conservative, noted that the EU had been spending 1.2-1.5 billion euros annually on aid to Arab and North African countries.

    Popular anger has prompted a series of uprisings across the Arab world, leaving European nations to ponder how to back political reform, curb the flow of refugees from its southern neighbours and halt the spread of Islamic militancy.

    “Our view is that Europe needs to be ambitious and generous in its response to the Arab Spring but that this is our taxpayers’ money, therefore it’s right that we say the money must be linked to results,” Lidington said.

    “The money should be targeted upon those countries which are committed seriously to both economic and political reform. If there is evidence of backsliding, the money should be stopped,” he added. “I think taxpayers throughout Europe would not understand blank cheques.”

    Lidington said EU proposals to link aid to democratic reform presented last month were a big step in the right direction, but Britain wanted to see more offered in terms of market access as an incentive.

    He suggested the European single market could eventually be opened up to North African countries.

    “We’re perhaps looking at something similar to the European Economic Area under which Norway is part of the European single market, applies all the EU regulations but is not actually a member of the EU,” he said, noting that such a scenario was a long way off.

    NO PAUSE AFTER CROATIA

    Lidington said he hoped that the carrot of EU membership would remain on offer for countries in the Balkans once Croatia joins the bloc. The target date for Croatian membership is July 2013.

    “They should be, I hope, a beacon for other Balkan countries, not the last country through the gate that is then slammed shut,” he said, seeing the goal of eventual EU membership as a real driver of reform.

    Lidington said it should eventually be possible for former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova to join the EU — a move that would raise hackles in Moscow.

    “In principle, we see no reason why the Republic of Moldova or Ukraine or Georgia should not become members of the European Union. It is not going to happen any time soon,” he added.

    But Britain, where the EU is viewed with deep scepticism, is not prepared to countenance an expansion of the EU’s budget.

    The European Commission is due to set out proposals for the bloc’s next long-term budget in the next few weeks and EU lawmakers are pressing for an increase of at least five percent.

    “We think there should be at most a real-terms freeze in the new multi-annual financial framework,” Lidington said.

    “I think it is impossible to justify to taxpayers in Britain, or in other European countries, why an increase in the EU’s budget is justified at a time when domestic spending is being cut back, sometimes very painfully.”

    (Writing by Keith Weir; editing by Andrew Roche)

    (c) Reuters 2011. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

    via Minister says no EU “blank cheque” for Arab Spring nations | UK | STV News.