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Turkey: An Ally No More

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  • Turkey: An Ally No More

    Greek American News Agency
    Nov 1 2009


    Turkey: An Ally No More
    Î`Ï?άÏ?ε ι ο/η Greek American News Agency
    01.11.09
    by Daniel Pipes, Front Page Magazine

    "There is no doubt he is our friend," Turkey's prime minister, Recep
    Tayyip ErdoÄ?an, says of Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even as
    he accuses Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman of threatening
    to use nuclear weapons against Gaza. These outrageous assertions point
    to the profound change of orientation by Turkey's government, for six
    decades the West's closest Muslim ally, since ErdoÄ?an's AK party came
    to power in 2002.



    Three events this past month reveal the extent of that change. The
    first came on October 11 with the news that the Turkish military - a
    long-time bastion of secularism and advocate of cooperation with
    Israel - abruptly asked Israeli forces not to participate in the
    annual "Anatolian Eagle" air force exercise.

    ErdoÄ?an cited "diplomatic sensitivities" for the cancelation and
    Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu spoke of "sensitivity on Gaza, East
    Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque." The Turks specifically rejected Israeli
    planes that may have attacked Hamas (an Islamist terrorist
    organization) during last winter's Gaza Strip operation. While
    Damascus applauded the disinvitation, it prompted the U.S. and Italian
    governments to withdraw their forces from Anatolian Eagle, which in
    turn meant canceling the international exercise.

    As for the Israelis, this "sudden and unexpected" shift shook to the
    core their military alignment with Turkey, in place since 1996. Former
    air force chief Eytan Ben-Eliyahu, for example, called the cancelation
    "a seriously worrying development." Jerusalem immediately responded by
    reviewing Israel's practice of supplying Turkey with advanced weapons,
    such as the recent $140 million sale to the Turkish Air Force of
    targeting pods. The idea also arose to stop helping the Turks defeat
    the Armenian genocide resolutions that regularly appear before the
    U.S. Congress.

    Barry Rubin of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya not only
    argues that "The Israel-Turkey alliance is over" but concludes that
    Turkey's armed forces no longer guard the secular republic and can no
    longer intervene when the government becomes too Islamist.

    The second event took place two days later, on October 13, when
    Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem announced that Turkish and
    Syrian forces had just "carried out maneuvers near Ankara." Moallem
    rightly called this an important development "because it refutes
    reports of poor relations between the military and political
    institutions in Turkey over strategic relations with Syria."
    Translation: Turkey's armed forces lost out to its politicians.

    Thirdly, ten Turkish ministers, led by DavutoÄ?lu, joined their Syrian
    counterparts on October 13 for talks under the auspices of the
    just-established "Turkey-Syria High Level Strategic Cooperation
    Council." The ministers announced having signed almost 40 agreements
    to be implemented within 10 days; that "a more comprehensive, a
    bigger" joint land military exercise would be held than the first one
    in April; and that the two countries' leaders would sign a strategic
    agreement in November.

    The council's concluding joint statement announced the formation of "a
    long-term strategic partnership" between the two sides "to bolster and
    expand their cooperation in a wide spectrum of issues of mutual
    benefit and interest and strengthen the cultural bonds and solidarity
    among their peoples." The council's spirit, DavutoÄ?lu explained, "is
    common destiny, history and future; we will build the future
    together," while Moallem called the get-together a "festival to
    celebrate" the two peoples.

    Bilateral relations have indeed been dramatically reversed from a
    decade earlier, when Ankara came perilously close to war with Syria.
    But improved ties with Damascus are only one part of a much larger
    effort by Ankara to enhance relations with regional and Muslim states,
    a strategy enunciated by DavutoÄ?lu in his influential 2000 book,
    Stratejik derinlik: Türkiye'nin uluslararası konumu ("Strategic Depth:
    Turkey's International Position").

    In brief, DavutoÄ?lu envisions reduced conflict with neighbors and
    Turkey emerging as a regional power, a sort-of modernized Ottoman
    Empire. Implicit in this strategy is a distancing of Turkey from the
    West in general and Israel in particular. Although not presented in
    Islamist terms, "strategic depth" closely fits the AK party's Islamist
    world view.

    As Barry Rubin notes, "the Turkish government is closer politically to
    Iran and Syria than to the United States and Israel." Caroline Glick,
    a Jerusalem Post columnist, goes further: Ankara already "left the
    Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis." But
    official circles in the West seem nearly oblivious to this momentous
    change in Turkey's allegiance or its implications. The cost of their
    error will soon become evident.

    http://www.greekamericannewsagency.com/g ana/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&amp ;id=6296&Itemid=83
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