Turkey Is Now At A Crossroads

BY MURAT YETKIN
RADIKAL- Columnist Murat Yetkin comments on recent political developments in Turkey and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s speech to an international Islamic conference in Tehran, Iran. A summary of his column is as follows:
“-- Nesastend u goftend u berhastend. -- This is what, in Persian, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told visiting Iranian Vice President Mohammed Reza Aref a month ago, meaning, ‘They sat down, talked to each other and then just up and left.’ ‘Let’s not do it this way,’ Erdogan told Aref. ‘Our countries’ agreements have never gone beyond mere words on paper. In practice we have yet to make even the slightest progress,’ lamented Erdogan. ‘Let’s talk this time with an eye towards concrete results.’ Yes, a month ago Turkey was seeking ways to get closer to Iran.
And a year ago, National Security Council (MGK) Secretary-General Gen. Tuncer Kilinc, ‘for his part,’ told a meeting at the Istanbul War Academy that the European Union would not let Turkey in anyway, so that the country should move to establish closer ties with Eurasian countries such as Russia and Iran.
Recently, however, we have been witnessing quite different developments. Let’s first take the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association’s (TUSIAD) contacts in the US this week. Following his meeting with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who has loudly expressed his ‘disappointment’ with Turkey and the Turkish Armed Forces’ (TSK) ‘less-than-supportive’ attitude during the Iraq war, TUSIAD Chairman Tuncay Ozilhan said Wolfowitz had effectively told him that the ball was now in Turkey’s court to mend Turkish-US relations, and that Washington hoped to get Turkey’s support on certain future political developments in the Middle East. When asked whether the US’ expectations had anything to do with Iran, Ozilhan said guardedly, ‘Wolfowitz didn’t mention any country by name.’
It has become more than a mere prediction that following up on Iraq, the US’ new target will be Iran, especially when Wolfowitz’s boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made a statement on the issue on Tuesday. The importance of the debate for Turkey is shaping up around US fears that Turkey will gradually shift its 80-year Western-centric foreign policy due a rift between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and the Turkish bureaucratic establishment, which is vigorously suspicious of the AKP. And those who insist on the status quo in the country tied the Gordion knot even tighter by announcing their reservations on the necessity to speed up EU harmonization reforms.
Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok has identified Turkey’s EU accession with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s pointing to the West as the source of progress. The opposite of this perspective is one recommending seeking alliances in the East and conversely drawing back from the West.
Just at this very crucial moment came Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s historic statements at the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) meetings held in Tehran, Iran. It is quite surprising to hear such remarks at an Islamic conference from a politician who has pursued a religious line in politics since his early years. Gul has said that the Muslim world had to renew itself by establishing transparent, responsible administrations which strive for equality between women and men, and which are governed by economic rationalism, free of any references to ‘divine law.’
Gul’s remarks are in no way related to an Islamic systematic of thinking and governing. It’s like the number two man of the AKP was trying to demonstrate that the party favored a government based on religious rules neither in Turkey nor in any other Muslim country. And he even did it at an Islamic conference, one moreover in Tehran. Moreover, Gul echoed the US’ perspective on the Middle East, characterized by calls for ‘democracy’ and the international fight against terrorism, by condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Riyadh and Casablanca perpetrated by suspected Islamic groups and by voicing his support for the US-backed road map for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In Iran, the AKP government thus declared its support for the US agenda in the Middle East and Iran. Meanwhile, the MGK discussed the EU harmonization package and the situation in the Middle East (including Iran) in the post-Iraq war era, that is in fact, discussed the future course of relations with the US. These developments are very likely to have an impact on domestic issues, and even on civilian-military relations.

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