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A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH TURKEY
by David Ignatius
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-obamas-friend-in-turkey/2012/06/07/gJQAAhqCMV_story.html
June 8, 2012 Friday 8:12 PM EST
As President Obama was feeling his way in foreign policy during
his first months in office, he decided to cultivate a friendship
with Turkey's headstrong prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Over
the past year, this investment in Turkey has begun to pay some big
dividends - anchoring U.S. policy in a region that sometimes seems
adrift. Erdogan's clout was on display this week as he hosted a meeting
here of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that celebrated the stability
of the "Turkish model" of Muslim democracy amid the turmoil of the
Arab Spring. One panel had the enraptured title "Turkey as a Source
of Inspiration."
In a speech Tuesday, Erdogan named Turkey's achievements over
the decade he has been in power: Its economy has grown an annual
average of 5.3 percent since 2002, the fastest rate of any country
in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; gross
domestic product has more than tripled, as have its foreign reserves;
investment from abroad has increased more than 16 times. For Erdogan,
receiving a visit from the WEF was a kind of vindication. The Turkish
leader walked angrily offstage at the group's 2009 meeting in Davos,
Switzerland, after a panel moderator (yours truly) didn't allow him
time to respond to Israeli President Shimon Peres's remarks about
the Gaza war. This week, that moment seemed well in the past.
Turkey's ascendancy in the region may seem obvious now, but it
was less so in 2009, when Obama began working to build a special
relationship. To an otherwise predictable European itinerary for his
first overseas trip in April 2009, he added a stop in Ankara. What
impressed the Turks wasn't just that he spoke to their parliament
but that earlier, in Strasbourg, he pushed for a greater role for
Turkey in NATO, and in Prague he argued for Turkish membership in
the European Union.
Obama and Erdogan continued their courtship despite a sharp
deterioration in Turkey's relations with Israel after the Gaza war
and despite U.S. worries in early 2010 that Ankara was becoming too
friendly with Iran. Obama expressed his concerns in a blunt two-hour
conversation at the June 2010 Group of 20 summit in Toronto. Since
then, according to both sides, there has been growing mutual trust.
"My prime minister sees a friend in President Obama," says Egemen
Bagis, the minister for European affairs and one of Erdogan's closest
political advisers. "The two can very candidly express their opinions.
They might not always agree, but they feel confident enough to share
positions."
An example of the Obama-Erdogan channel was their meeting in March
at the Asian summit in Seoul. The top item was Obama's request that
Erdogan convey a message to Iran's supreme leader about U.S. interest
in a nuclear agreement. In Seoul, Erdogan also promised to reopen a
Greek Orthodox seminary on the island of Halki, granting a request
that Obama had made in 2009; Erdogan had earlier agreed to Obama's
request that Turkey permit services at an ancient Armenian church on
Akdamar Island in Lake Van. Turks cite several other concessions made
by the Turkish leader: Obama persuaded him to install a missile-defense
radar system that became operational this year, upsetting Tehran. And
at U.S. urging, Erdogan reversed his initial opposition to NATO
intervention last year in Libya.
In playing the Turkey card, Obama has upset some powerful political
constituencies at home. Jewish groups protest that Obama's warming to
Ankara has come even as Israel's relationship with Turkey has chilled
almost to the freezing point. Armenian groups are upset that Obama
has soft-pedaled his once-emphatic call for Turkey to recognize the
genocide of 1915. And human-rights groups complain that the United
States is tolerating Erdogan's squeeze on Turkish journalists, judges
and political foes.
But as the Arab Spring has darkened, the administration has been
glad for its alliance with this prosperous Muslim democracy - which
it can celebrate as a beacon for the neighborhood. Ahmet Davutoglu,
Turkey's ambitious foreign minister, argues that his country is a
role model for Arabs because it shows that democracy brings dignity,
not chaos or extremism.
Bagis puts it this way: "There are many Muslim leaders who can go to
Egypt and pray in a mosque. And there are many Western leaders who
can go talk about democracy. Erdogan did both." For Turkey these days,
that's something of a trump card. But there's a mutual dependence. It
seems fair to say that no world leader has a greater stake in Obama's
reelection than the Turkish prime minister.
From: Baghdasarian
by David Ignatius
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-obamas-friend-in-turkey/2012/06/07/gJQAAhqCMV_story.html
June 8, 2012 Friday 8:12 PM EST
As President Obama was feeling his way in foreign policy during
his first months in office, he decided to cultivate a friendship
with Turkey's headstrong prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Over
the past year, this investment in Turkey has begun to pay some big
dividends - anchoring U.S. policy in a region that sometimes seems
adrift. Erdogan's clout was on display this week as he hosted a meeting
here of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that celebrated the stability
of the "Turkish model" of Muslim democracy amid the turmoil of the
Arab Spring. One panel had the enraptured title "Turkey as a Source
of Inspiration."
In a speech Tuesday, Erdogan named Turkey's achievements over
the decade he has been in power: Its economy has grown an annual
average of 5.3 percent since 2002, the fastest rate of any country
in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; gross
domestic product has more than tripled, as have its foreign reserves;
investment from abroad has increased more than 16 times. For Erdogan,
receiving a visit from the WEF was a kind of vindication. The Turkish
leader walked angrily offstage at the group's 2009 meeting in Davos,
Switzerland, after a panel moderator (yours truly) didn't allow him
time to respond to Israeli President Shimon Peres's remarks about
the Gaza war. This week, that moment seemed well in the past.
Turkey's ascendancy in the region may seem obvious now, but it
was less so in 2009, when Obama began working to build a special
relationship. To an otherwise predictable European itinerary for his
first overseas trip in April 2009, he added a stop in Ankara. What
impressed the Turks wasn't just that he spoke to their parliament
but that earlier, in Strasbourg, he pushed for a greater role for
Turkey in NATO, and in Prague he argued for Turkish membership in
the European Union.
Obama and Erdogan continued their courtship despite a sharp
deterioration in Turkey's relations with Israel after the Gaza war
and despite U.S. worries in early 2010 that Ankara was becoming too
friendly with Iran. Obama expressed his concerns in a blunt two-hour
conversation at the June 2010 Group of 20 summit in Toronto. Since
then, according to both sides, there has been growing mutual trust.
"My prime minister sees a friend in President Obama," says Egemen
Bagis, the minister for European affairs and one of Erdogan's closest
political advisers. "The two can very candidly express their opinions.
They might not always agree, but they feel confident enough to share
positions."
An example of the Obama-Erdogan channel was their meeting in March
at the Asian summit in Seoul. The top item was Obama's request that
Erdogan convey a message to Iran's supreme leader about U.S. interest
in a nuclear agreement. In Seoul, Erdogan also promised to reopen a
Greek Orthodox seminary on the island of Halki, granting a request
that Obama had made in 2009; Erdogan had earlier agreed to Obama's
request that Turkey permit services at an ancient Armenian church on
Akdamar Island in Lake Van. Turks cite several other concessions made
by the Turkish leader: Obama persuaded him to install a missile-defense
radar system that became operational this year, upsetting Tehran. And
at U.S. urging, Erdogan reversed his initial opposition to NATO
intervention last year in Libya.
In playing the Turkey card, Obama has upset some powerful political
constituencies at home. Jewish groups protest that Obama's warming to
Ankara has come even as Israel's relationship with Turkey has chilled
almost to the freezing point. Armenian groups are upset that Obama
has soft-pedaled his once-emphatic call for Turkey to recognize the
genocide of 1915. And human-rights groups complain that the United
States is tolerating Erdogan's squeeze on Turkish journalists, judges
and political foes.
But as the Arab Spring has darkened, the administration has been
glad for its alliance with this prosperous Muslim democracy - which
it can celebrate as a beacon for the neighborhood. Ahmet Davutoglu,
Turkey's ambitious foreign minister, argues that his country is a
role model for Arabs because it shows that democracy brings dignity,
not chaos or extremism.
Bagis puts it this way: "There are many Muslim leaders who can go to
Egypt and pray in a mosque. And there are many Western leaders who
can go talk about democracy. Erdogan did both." For Turkey these days,
that's something of a trump card. But there's a mutual dependence. It
seems fair to say that no world leader has a greater stake in Obama's
reelection than the Turkish prime minister.
From: Baghdasarian