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EDITORIAL: ATATURK OVERTURNED?
http://www.projo.com/opinion/editorials/content/ED_turkey27_07-27-10_10J4KSI_v11.4140d1c.html
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The bloom is off the rose in the long friendship between Turkey
and the West. Ankara is now openly Islamist. Its support of Hamas -
exposed in the recent "peace" flotilla episode off the Gaza Strip -
ends any hope that Turkey might join the European Union anytime soon,
and now opens the question of Turkey's legitimacy as member of NATO.
"Who lost Turkey?" might join "Who lost China?" as a refrain of future
American history. Turkey's seat at the fulcrum point of East and West
gives it a crucial role in international diplomacy. Turkey has for
too long been taken for granted because it has been a stabilizing
force for eight decades.
But you can hardly blame Turkey for sniffing the diplomatic winds
and wondering who, today, is the "strong horse" in world affairs.
After World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish
leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk democratized Turkish politics, secularized
its society (which, like that of Iran, is Muslim but not Arabic),
separated mosque and state, and barred organized Islamic participation
in politics.
Turkey joined NATO in 1952, served as a bulwark against the Soviet
Union, and as an ally of Israel. Turkey's military (known, in
conjunction with Turkey's secularist judiciary, as the nation's
"deep state") staged four coups to protect the secularization of
Turkish society, most recently in 1997.
European governments, many with huge Turkish immigrant populations,
paid lip service to the idea of Turkish accession to the European
Union, but some have turned against it more overtly since an Islamist
party won parliamentary control in 2002, giving the prime ministry
to Recep Tayyip Erdogan. An Islamic activist, he has used democratic
rhetoric to deftly undermine 80 years of secularization.
The prime minister has calculated that few Western leaders are
willing to admit that Turkey's ameliorative role, especially in
Mideast affairs, has evaporated.
Meanwhile, Mr. Erdogan has twice rounded up secularist generals,
daring the military to act against his desecularization policy. The
military has twice sat on its hands. Now that Turkey has officially
supported efforts to break its erstwhile ally Israel's blockade
against supplying arms to terrorist Hamas, Ankara has shown its cards.
In sidling up to Iran by voting against the latest round of U.N.
sanctions against Iran's nuclear program, Turkey has declared whose
side it is on - a 180-degree turnabout from its traditional foreign
alliances.
So far, the Obama administration's reaction to those developments has
been distinctly muted. Surely, Turkey has trade and security reasons
for maintaining a link to the West, and the administration should
use its leverage to remind Turkey of these, while prodding moderates
to put greater pressure on the regime. The West has benefited from
Turkey's generally helpful role in world affairs (notwithstanding its
occupation of Cyprus, and its earlier Armenian genocide) and should
strive to bring it back into the fold.
We hope that cooler heads will eventually prevail in Ankara, but it
sure doesn't look that way now.
From: A. Papazian
http://www.projo.com/opinion/editorials/content/ED_turkey27_07-27-10_10J4KSI_v11.4140d1c.html
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The bloom is off the rose in the long friendship between Turkey
and the West. Ankara is now openly Islamist. Its support of Hamas -
exposed in the recent "peace" flotilla episode off the Gaza Strip -
ends any hope that Turkey might join the European Union anytime soon,
and now opens the question of Turkey's legitimacy as member of NATO.
"Who lost Turkey?" might join "Who lost China?" as a refrain of future
American history. Turkey's seat at the fulcrum point of East and West
gives it a crucial role in international diplomacy. Turkey has for
too long been taken for granted because it has been a stabilizing
force for eight decades.
But you can hardly blame Turkey for sniffing the diplomatic winds
and wondering who, today, is the "strong horse" in world affairs.
After World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish
leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk democratized Turkish politics, secularized
its society (which, like that of Iran, is Muslim but not Arabic),
separated mosque and state, and barred organized Islamic participation
in politics.
Turkey joined NATO in 1952, served as a bulwark against the Soviet
Union, and as an ally of Israel. Turkey's military (known, in
conjunction with Turkey's secularist judiciary, as the nation's
"deep state") staged four coups to protect the secularization of
Turkish society, most recently in 1997.
European governments, many with huge Turkish immigrant populations,
paid lip service to the idea of Turkish accession to the European
Union, but some have turned against it more overtly since an Islamist
party won parliamentary control in 2002, giving the prime ministry
to Recep Tayyip Erdogan. An Islamic activist, he has used democratic
rhetoric to deftly undermine 80 years of secularization.
The prime minister has calculated that few Western leaders are
willing to admit that Turkey's ameliorative role, especially in
Mideast affairs, has evaporated.
Meanwhile, Mr. Erdogan has twice rounded up secularist generals,
daring the military to act against his desecularization policy. The
military has twice sat on its hands. Now that Turkey has officially
supported efforts to break its erstwhile ally Israel's blockade
against supplying arms to terrorist Hamas, Ankara has shown its cards.
In sidling up to Iran by voting against the latest round of U.N.
sanctions against Iran's nuclear program, Turkey has declared whose
side it is on - a 180-degree turnabout from its traditional foreign
alliances.
So far, the Obama administration's reaction to those developments has
been distinctly muted. Surely, Turkey has trade and security reasons
for maintaining a link to the West, and the administration should
use its leverage to remind Turkey of these, while prodding moderates
to put greater pressure on the regime. The West has benefited from
Turkey's generally helpful role in world affairs (notwithstanding its
occupation of Cyprus, and its earlier Armenian genocide) and should
strive to bring it back into the fold.
We hope that cooler heads will eventually prevail in Ankara, but it
sure doesn't look that way now.
From: A. Papazian