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ANKARA: The Obama Vision Makes Turkey Essential

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  • ANKARA: The Obama Vision Makes Turkey Essential

    THE OBAMA VISION MAKES TURKEY ESSENTIAL

    Hurriyet
    April 30 2010
    Turkey

    U.S. President Barack Obama gathered yet another unprecedented summit
    in Washington, D.C., this past week, following the International
    Nuclear Security Summit held a couple of weeks ago. More than 300
    delegates from 56 Muslim countries participated in the Presidential
    Summit on Entrepreneurship.

    Turkey sent several exciting delegates, most of whom I was able to
    have long conversations with on the sidelines of the summit.

    Obama convened this summit, in which the participants were mostly
    small-business owners, innovators and businessmen, to further forge
    ties with Muslim countries. He made sure his intentions would be well
    understood by sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his treasury
    and education secretaries and many other high-level officials to the
    summit to give talks and mingle with the guests. Some other White
    House officials also made themselves ready for open-ended interviews
    to talk about the importance of the summit, which is a rare occurrence
    at any rate.

    The biggest surprise of the summit for us was that Turkey was selected
    to organize the second summit in 2011.

    Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council,
    said in an e-mail message that as "President [Obama] outlined in
    his Cairo speech nearly a year ago, the United States is keen to
    deepen our engagement with Muslim communities around the world and
    also develop new partnerships based on mutual respect and mutual
    interests... entrepreneurship can unlock tremendous potential, promote
    education, foster innovation and create jobs. We deeply appreciate
    Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan's leadership on this issue;
    it is yet another tangible example of the depth and breadth of the
    U.S.-Turkey strategic partnership."

    Another White House official told me last week during the summit that
    it was confirmed only one day before the event started that Turkey
    would host the second one. It is noteworthy that this confirmation
    came right after April 24, when Obama released his statement on the
    Armenian day of remembrance.

    Though Muslim countries sent delegations to Washington, the gap
    between the two has not shrunk. There are a number of obstacles that
    keep stirring up anti-American sentiment in Muslim countries. For
    example, the never-ending attacks by Afghanistan-based U.S. forces,
    which have repeatedly caused the killing of innocent people, are one of
    the biggest factors injecting more strain. Raising tension with Iran
    also sends mixed signals to the Muslim world as the situation appears
    to be that the U.S. wants to take on another Muslim country, after
    Iraq and Afghanistan, whatever the reason. And finally, in addition
    to many other issues, the lack of progress on the Palestine-Israel
    peace process continues to weaken Obama's standing in the Muslim world.

    There are Middle East experts in Washington who have already announced
    the death of the two-state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict,
    a big source of anti-American sentiments in the region. One of those
    experts is Dr. Reza Aslan, the author of "Beyond Fundamentalism,"
    who visited the region very recently and gave a talk at the Rumi Forum
    last week. According to Aslan, the two-state solution is already dead
    and buried because neither party is ready and willing to reach that
    solution. The Palestinian leadership, Aslan argued, lost the trust
    of Palestinian people with its ineptitude and corruption.

    The ideological settlers group has a bigger sway in the current Israeli
    government; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself considers
    Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish state and does not shrink from
    building in any part of the city, which fuels Palestinians' anger.

    Therefore, even though inviting representatives from more than 50
    Muslim countries to Washington seemed like a wonderful idea to show
    Obama is committed and has taken another step toward the Muslim world,
    it falls flat in comparison to the colossal issues just discussed.

    Turkey-Iran-US

    Dozens of analyses and opinion pieces on the Iranian conundrum appear
    every day; for the approximately half-dozen experts I talked to this
    week, the confusion and speculation over the issue is visible.

    Svante Cornell, the research director at the Central Asia-Caucasus
    Institute Silk Road Studies Program, said Turkey has had a two-fold
    foreign-affairs policy outlook for some years now. While trying to
    warm its relationships with countries that are condemned by the West
    one way or another, such as Iran, Syria and Sudan, Turkey also strives
    to maintain good relations with the West.

    Cornell calls this policy a "balancing game" and claims Turkey wants
    to walk this thin line without damaging its relations with either side.

    The worst scenario for the Turkish balancing game, Cornell predicted,
    would be a military confrontation in the region. The second-worst
    scenario would be a clash over sanctions at the United Nations Security
    Council, which is expected this spring.

    In recent weeks and days, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, along
    with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has also been intensely pushing
    for strong sanctions against Iran. Sarkozy made his first visit to
    China this past week since the relations between France and China
    went sour following a previous episode over Tibet. However, the
    president of China did not comment publicly on the sanctions issue
    after the meetings.

    Cornell says it appears as if the Obama administration just wants to
    pass "a package" but does not care much what will be in it. That's
    why the Obama administration is watering down the package and getting
    ready to live with a nuclear Iran.

    Turkey has made clear its views on the sanctions package. In a speech
    a couple of weeks ago in Washington, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
    Davutoglu reminded first about the past sanctions experience with Iraq,
    and how Turkey lost economically during this time. Davutoglu seemed
    unwavering about another sanctions package this time. Turkey plainly
    lauds its disbelief on the utility of the sanctions by repeating a
    "sanctions don't work" slogan.

    Today's Turkish administration, which has been promoting proactive
    and friendly policies in its region close to a decade now, views
    applying sanctions on Iran as being against its economic interests
    and friendlier Middle East policies.

    On the other side, the Obama administration will likely not seek
    retribution against Turkey for such opposition at the U.N. Security
    Council, according to another Washington-based Iranian-American
    security analyst.

    For President Obama, who has many hurdles to tackle before mending
    ties with the Muslim and Arab world, Turkey occupies a significant
    post; it is a country that cannot be overlooked or risk being lost,
    even if it ends up opposing sanctions.
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