Turkey’s Iraq Policy

BY CENGIZ CANDAR
TERCUMAN- Columnist Cengiz Candar writes about Turkey’s foreign policy towards Iraq and the Middle East in general. A summary of his column is as follows:
No country can claim the title ‘regional power’ without possessing the requisite deep, detailed insight into, and the distinct ‘vision’ and understanding of, its own particular region. In today’s information-centric world, a ‘power’ needs to have more than mere military might. What is more important is so-called ‘soft power.’ For instance, take the US. Apart from the economic prosperity and technology-imbued military superiority which make the US a world superpower, it enjoys soft power to an extent unmatched by any other country. And information is the most important component of this soft power.
For example, what does Turkey know about Iraq? Does it take a comprehensive view of the country? Or rather, is Turkey’s vision of this nation merely confined to northern Iraq, or the region between our Habur Gate and Kirkuk, where one finds our once-Turkish-city of Mosul? If these suspicions are true, then this sort of vision (by the way, one cannot call it ‘Turkey’s Iraq policy’) relates only to Turkey’s security concerns but nothing more. Such a stance towards Iraq can only be explained by a defensive instinct.
Turkey’s Iraq policy is rather of a kind which a nation-state lacking confidence would assume. Is it possible for such a country to be a regional power and fulfill the tasks such a position requires? As a matter of fact, the civilian wing of the administration, having been encouraged by France and Abduallah Gul’s mode of making diplomacy, is leading Turkey to stagger into the region on the tail of Syria and Iran, in such a suspicious way as if a ‘secret agenda’ existed between Turkey and these countries. This foreign policy path is more like a ‘regional stunt’ rather than the manner of a regional power. This situation became even more obvious once the possibilities of Turkish-US ties in northern Iraq were exhausted.
The policy of the ‘other’ wing of the Ankara administration on Iraq is completely predicated on ‘the Kurdish concern’ and hence ‘the protection of Iraq’s Turkmen population.’ But Iraq’s US military-dominated postwar situation is ill-suited to alleviate our concerns over the Kurds, and moreover protecting our Turkmen kin is scarcely possible without US cooperation.
Iraq can in no way be understood without recognizing and getting to know its Shiite people, which constitute a substantial portion of the nation’s population. Turning a blind eye to the Shiites and singling out the Kurds and Turkmen would yield Turkey nothing in formulating a sound Iraq policy.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION