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TURKEY NEEDS LESS MIDDLE EAST, MORE EUROPE
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Aug 8 2013
MURAT YETKİN
There must be a reason why President Abdullah Gul said in his message
on August 7 to Turkish citizens for the Muslim "Fitr" holiday, that
the country should lock itself up to European Union membership targets.
It is obvious that those addressed by the message are not the
whole people but the Tayyip Erdogan government; it is up to the
government to make its policy choices whether to shift back to a
European values-oriented line or stick with the Middle East-oriented
one which has been dominant for the last few years.
Before being elected as the President of the country in 2007, Gul first
served as Prime Minister and then as Foreign Minister in the Justice
and Development Party (AK Parti) governments. Before that he served
in the Council of Europe's Parliamentarian Assembly in Strasbourg
for some 10 years as member of the Turkish group. Before getting
into politics he worked for eight years in the Middle East, mostly
in Saudi Arabia. So, Gul has enough experience and in the correct
place to give such an advice to both the people and the government.
It is true that the Turkish-EU relations have lost their momentum since
2005 mainly because of the Cyprus conflict and the political atmosphere
in mainland Europe dictated by German and French governments. It
is also true that Turkey's growing interest in Middle East (in
the greater sense) politics with a particular stress on cultural
(including religious) similarities caused the distance in between to
grow further. With the insertion of the Kurdish problem relations
with Iraq and Syria becoming so close that Ankara started to have
joint cabinet meetings, mediating between Syria and Israel, with
increasing foreign trade with all its eastern and southern geography.
The zero problem with neighbors policy which had broken a psychological
barrier with Gul's contact with Armenia, reached its summit during
new Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's visit to Iraq's Kurdistan
Regional Government headquarters in Erbil in 2009.
But 2009 could be considered as the start of the decline from that
zenith as well. The relations with Israel started to sour because of
Israel's hardline Gaza policy (which later on turned into a disaster
during the Mavi Marmara tragedy in 2010) and started to show cracks
in the Libya civil war, as the second stop of the Arab Spring after
Tunisia. When a moderate wing of the Muslim Brotherhood (taking the
ballot box strategy of AK Parti as an example) took power first in
Tunisia and then in Egypt, Ankara got excited and perhaps for that
reason got too involved in the Syrian civil war, in which the main
bulk of the opposition was again the Brotherhood. The Arab Spring
has seemingly hit the rocks in Syria and Egypt and is becoming more
unstable in Tunisia and Libya every other day.
Ali Babacan, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the economy,
has served as Foreign Minister between Gul and Davutoglu. Babacan
said on August 6 that Turkey may have to cut its growth and export
targets for 2013 further. He added that the effect of the Gezi Park
protests was not so important as the global developments dictated by
FED policies. Yet, Babacan knows it clearly that strong anti-Western
rhetoric in use by the government and policies targeting the banking
system and big industrialists in Turkey may have a deterrent effect
on the flux of foreign capital to Turkey.
Less income will not bring more democracy to Turkey, but more democracy
could bring more income. More democracy is not possible with more
focus on the Middle East politics and values, especially in times
of uncertainty. More democracy could be possible with more focus on
European Union values, no matter how far the membership prospect for
Turkey might seem. That might be the point Gul wanted to make.
A happy Bayram to all Muslim HDN readers.
August/08/2013
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-needs-less-middle-east-more-europe.aspx?pageID=449&nID=52185&NewsCatID=409
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Aug 8 2013
MURAT YETKİN
There must be a reason why President Abdullah Gul said in his message
on August 7 to Turkish citizens for the Muslim "Fitr" holiday, that
the country should lock itself up to European Union membership targets.
It is obvious that those addressed by the message are not the
whole people but the Tayyip Erdogan government; it is up to the
government to make its policy choices whether to shift back to a
European values-oriented line or stick with the Middle East-oriented
one which has been dominant for the last few years.
Before being elected as the President of the country in 2007, Gul first
served as Prime Minister and then as Foreign Minister in the Justice
and Development Party (AK Parti) governments. Before that he served
in the Council of Europe's Parliamentarian Assembly in Strasbourg
for some 10 years as member of the Turkish group. Before getting
into politics he worked for eight years in the Middle East, mostly
in Saudi Arabia. So, Gul has enough experience and in the correct
place to give such an advice to both the people and the government.
It is true that the Turkish-EU relations have lost their momentum since
2005 mainly because of the Cyprus conflict and the political atmosphere
in mainland Europe dictated by German and French governments. It
is also true that Turkey's growing interest in Middle East (in
the greater sense) politics with a particular stress on cultural
(including religious) similarities caused the distance in between to
grow further. With the insertion of the Kurdish problem relations
with Iraq and Syria becoming so close that Ankara started to have
joint cabinet meetings, mediating between Syria and Israel, with
increasing foreign trade with all its eastern and southern geography.
The zero problem with neighbors policy which had broken a psychological
barrier with Gul's contact with Armenia, reached its summit during
new Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's visit to Iraq's Kurdistan
Regional Government headquarters in Erbil in 2009.
But 2009 could be considered as the start of the decline from that
zenith as well. The relations with Israel started to sour because of
Israel's hardline Gaza policy (which later on turned into a disaster
during the Mavi Marmara tragedy in 2010) and started to show cracks
in the Libya civil war, as the second stop of the Arab Spring after
Tunisia. When a moderate wing of the Muslim Brotherhood (taking the
ballot box strategy of AK Parti as an example) took power first in
Tunisia and then in Egypt, Ankara got excited and perhaps for that
reason got too involved in the Syrian civil war, in which the main
bulk of the opposition was again the Brotherhood. The Arab Spring
has seemingly hit the rocks in Syria and Egypt and is becoming more
unstable in Tunisia and Libya every other day.
Ali Babacan, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the economy,
has served as Foreign Minister between Gul and Davutoglu. Babacan
said on August 6 that Turkey may have to cut its growth and export
targets for 2013 further. He added that the effect of the Gezi Park
protests was not so important as the global developments dictated by
FED policies. Yet, Babacan knows it clearly that strong anti-Western
rhetoric in use by the government and policies targeting the banking
system and big industrialists in Turkey may have a deterrent effect
on the flux of foreign capital to Turkey.
Less income will not bring more democracy to Turkey, but more democracy
could bring more income. More democracy is not possible with more
focus on the Middle East politics and values, especially in times
of uncertainty. More democracy could be possible with more focus on
European Union values, no matter how far the membership prospect for
Turkey might seem. That might be the point Gul wanted to make.
A happy Bayram to all Muslim HDN readers.
August/08/2013
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-needs-less-middle-east-more-europe.aspx?pageID=449&nID=52185&NewsCatID=409
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress