It's
Not A New Turkey, It's The Right Time
30 January 2010By Ramzy Baroud
Uri Avnery’s assessment of the recent Israeli-Turkish
diplomatic and political row - that “the relationship
between Turkey and Israel will probably return to
normal, if not to its former degree of warmth” – seems
sensible and daring. In my view, however, it is also
inaccurate.
Simply put, there is just no going back.
In a recent article entitled “Israel Must Get Used to
the New Turkey,” Suat Kiniklioðlu, Deputy Chairman of
External Affairs for Turkey’s ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) wrote, “Israel appears to be
yearning for the golden 1990s, which were the product
of a very specific situation in the region. Those days
are over and are unlikely to come back even if the
Justice and Development Party (AKP) ends up no longer
being in government.”
This assessment seems more consistent with reality.
One would agree with Avnery’s optimistic reading of
events if the recent row was caused by just a couple
of isolated incidents, for example, the gutsy public
exchange over Gaza between Turkish Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan and Israel’s President Shimon Peres at
the World Economic Forum in late January 2009, or the
recent premeditated humiliation of Oguz Celikkol,
Turkish Ambassador to Israel, by Israeli Deputy
Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon.
However, these incidents are anything but isolated.
They reflect a clear and probably irreversible shift
in Turkish foreign policy towards Israel, the US and
the Middle East as a whole.
For decades Turkey was torn between its historical
ties to Muslim and Arab countries on the one hand, and
the unstoppable drive towards Westernization on the
other. The latter seemed much more influential in
forming the new Turkish identity in its individual,
collective, and thus foreign policy manifestation and
outlook.
But even during the push and pull, Turkey grew in
import as a political and economic player. It also
grew into a nation with a decisive sense of
sovereignty, a growing sense of pride and a daring
capacity for asserting itself as a regional power.
In the 1970s, when ‘political Islam’ was on the rise
throughout the region, Turkey was experiencing its own
rethink, and various politicians and groups began
grappling with the idea of taking political Islam to a
whole new level.
In fact, it was Dr. Necmettin Erbakan, the Prime
Minister of Turkey between 1996 and 1997 who began
pushing against the conventional notion of Turkey as a
second-class NATO member desperate to identify with
everything Western.
In the late 1980s Erbakan’s Rafah Party (the Welfare
Party) took Turkey by storm. The party was hardly
apologetic about its Islamic roots and attitude. Its
rise to power as a result of the 1995 general
elections raised alarm, as the securely ‘pro-Western’
Turkey was deviating from the very the rigid script
that wrote off the country’s regional role as that of
a “lackey of NATO.” According to Salama A Salama, who
coined the phrase in a recent article in Al-Ahram
Weekly, Turkey is no longer this ‘lackey’. And
according to Kiniklioðlu, that’s something “Israel
must get used to”.
The days of Erbakan might be long gone. But the man’s
legacy registered something that never departed
Turkish national consciousness. He pushed the
boundary, dared to champion pro-Palestinian policies,
defied Western dictates and even pressed for economic
repositioning of his country with the creation of the
Developing Eight (D-8), uniting the most politically
significant Arab and Muslim countries. When Erbakan
was forced to step down in a ‘postmodernist’ military
coup, it was understood as the end of short-lived
political experiment which ended up proving that even
a benign form of political Islam was not to be
tolerated in Turkey. The army emerged, once again, all
powerful.
But things have changed drastically since then. The
Justice and Development Party (AKP) was elected to
power in 2002. The AK Party leadership was composed of
savvy, yet principled politicians who aimed for change
and even a geopolitical shift in their country’s
regional political outlook.
The AK Party began to lead a self-assertive Turkey
which was neither pleading for European acceptance nor
American validation. By rejecting the use of Turkish
territories as a launchpad of a US strike against Iraq
in 2003, Turkey was acquiring a voice, and a strong
one at that - with wide democratic representation and
growing popular support.
The trend continued, and in recent years Turkey dared
translate its political power and prowess into action,
without immediately severing the political and
military balances that took years to build. So, for
example, while it continued to honor past military
deals with Israel, it also made many successful
overtures to Syria and Iran. And, in being willing to
be seen as a unifier in the age of Muslim and Arab
disunity, it refused to take part in the conveniently
set up camps of ‘moderates’ and ‘extremists’. Instead
it maintained good ties with all its neighbors, and
its Arab allies.
Starting in 2007, the US began seeing the emergence of
the “New Turkey”. US President Barack Obama’s visit to
the country soon after his inauguration was one of
many signs that the West was taking notice of Turkey’s
‘special’ status. Turkey is not to be bullied,
threatened, or intimidated. Even Israel, which has for
long defied the norms of diplomacy, is now becoming
more aware of its limits, thanks to Turkish President
Abdullah Gül. Following Israel’s belligerent insult of
the Turkish Ambassador, he said, "Unless there is a
formal apology from Israel, we're going to put
Celikkol on the first plane back to Ankara." Israel,
of course, apologized, and humbly so.
It took Turkey many years to reach this level of
confidence and the country is hardly eager to be
anyone’s ‘lackey’ now. More, Turkey’s united and
constant stance in support of Gaza, and its
outspokenness against the threats against Lebanon,
Iran and Syria show clearly that the old days of
“warmth” are well behind us.
Turkey, of course, will find a very receptive audience
among Arabs and Muslims all over the world who are
desperate for a powerful and sensible leadership to
defend and champion their causes. Needless to say, for
the besieged Palestinians in Gaza, Erdogan is becoming
a household name, a folk hero, a new Nasser in fact.
The same sentiment is shared throughout the region.
- Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an
internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of
PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is "My Father
Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story" (Pluto
Press, London), now available on Amazon.com.
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