The Globe and Mail (Canada)
September 21, 2012 Friday
A VIEW FROM THE EYE OF THE STORM
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu tells Patrick Martin that his
nation’s unique position straddling the Middle East and Europe, both
geographically and geopolitically, positions it as the natural leader
for a divided region. Certainly its ambitions on the world stage are
lofty
by: PATRICK MARTIN
It’s been called a model of a moderate Islamist government; it’s also
been called neo-Ottoman.
Certainly, not since Ottoman days has Turkey’s government been so
internationally oriented, have its diplomats, investments and
businesses been so far flung.
Since coming to office in 2002, the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan
has opened 25 new embassies in Africa and four new embassies in Latin
America. The country’s exports have boomed and are no longer focused
on Europe. Turkey is the largest investor in the autonomous Kurdish
region in northern Iraq and has just committed itself to contributing
$2-billion to help newly democratic Egypt build up its infrastructure.
At the same time, Turkey’s armed forces have trained soldiers in
Afghanistan and fortified rebels in Libya’s civil war.
It helped broker peace talks between Israel and Syria, and now sits in
a four-nation group along with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran trying to
end the civil war in Syria.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the architect of this new
outreach policy, was in Canada this week to attempt to “re-energize”
Turkish-Canadian relations. He said that the Erdogan government, which
has seen its popular vote grow over the course of three elections,
made a strategic decision to reach out to the world and increase
Turkey’s role everywhere.
“We opted for soft power,” Mr. Davutoglu said, and with it came a
number of basic principles – one was to have “zero problems with our
neighbours.”
To that end, it dropped visa requirements with several neighbouring
states, entered into partnerships with Iran and Syria and opened a
consulate in northern Iraq (despite Turkey’s fears of Kurdish
nationalism).
Of course, there have been reverses.
Its efforts to resolve the 35-year-old conflict between Israel and
Syria collapsed when Israel unexpectedly launched a major assault on
Hamas in Gaza in December, 2008.
“There were only one or two words missing” in the Israel-Syria
agreement, Mr. Davutoglu said, when Israel launched that attack,
killing hundreds. The next, and possibly final meeting, he said, had
been scheduled for two days later.
“It was cancelled,” he said. “We could not give a green light to such
behaviour.”
Since then, Mr. Davutoglu said, Turkey has thrown itself into helping
the Palestinian cause, which he views as “the most important regional
and global issue.”
“If there’s no peace in Jerusalem,” he said, “there will be no peace
in Palestine. If there’s no peace in Palestine, there will be no peace
in the Middle East. If there’s no peace in the Middle East, there will
be no peace in the world.”
Unfortunately, he said, the current Israeli government is the biggest
obstacle to that equation for peace.
Then, what had begun as friendly relations with Syria deteriorated
when the country’s President, Bashar al-Assad, brutally crushed
protest marches.
Concerning Syria and throughout the Arab world, Mr. Davutoglu said,
“we took a strategic decision to help people, not regimes.”
Turkey tried for nine months, he said, “to get Assad to change,” to
“get ahead of reforms.”
“But he didn’t listen.”
That was when Turkey became a supporter of the opposition. “We didn’t
want future generations ever to see that we collaborated with a
dictator,” he said.
One of the guiding principles of the Erdogan-Davutoglu program was to
strike a balance between freedom and security.
For decades, he noted, governments in Turkey emphasized the security
over freedoms. The current government has changed that, he said.
However, the Foreign Minister did not mention, nor would he entertain
questions, concerning the trial of 44 journalists charged with
terrorism and supporting the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK).
Turkey currently has more than 100 journalists in prison, more than
any recent government, more even than China or Iran.
Nor did Mr. Davutoglu refer to the trial of some 365 retired and
current generals, charged with plotting a coup soon after Mr.
Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party took office a decade ago.
Judges in the case, that has seen several delays and contentious
rulings, said Thursday they still had not agreed on a verdict and
would need at least another day before they can rule.
Another of Turkey’s neighbours has been a bitter disappointment: the
European Union, which, once again, rejected Turkey’s efforts to become
a member.
Membership is “still desirable,” Mr. Davutoglu said. “We will wait
another 50 years if necessary.”
But, in the meantime, he said, it is Europe that is the loser.
“The EU must take some strategic decisions for the future: Either it
will be geopolitically relevant, economically competitive and
culturally inclusive, or it will be geopolitically irrelevant,
economically static and culturally exclusivist.
“For the EU to be in the first category, Turkey is the key,” he said.
“Turkey is not any more a burden to Europe as it was 10 years ago. …
It is an asset.”
If Turkey had been in the EU, he insisted, unemployment would have
dropped. In 2011, he noted, some two million Europeans lost jobs,
while Turkey created two million new jobs.
It is prejudice or “cultural misperceptions” as Mr. Davutoglu politely
called them, that stand in the way of Europe accepting Turkey, And it
is cultural misperceptions that stands in the way of Turkey having
good relations with Canada.
People in Canada should ask themselves why, he said. Why is he the
first Turkish Foreign Minister to visit Canada in 14 years? Why are
relations between the two countries not as good as those between
Turkey and Brazil?
“For us, we are ready,” Mr. Davutoglu said. “But like all other
nations of dignity, we will never, ever accept insult of our nation.”
When the Harper government, in 2006, officially recognized the deaths
of Armenians in Turkey during the First World War as an act of
“genocide” by the Turks, it set up a “psychological barrier” between
us, he said.
“We will never accept these kinds of political pressures on Turkey.
“We do not talk about what happened to Red Indians in the North
American continent or other things,” he said.
“It is not [the place] of a third country’s Parliament to determine
what happened in other lands 100 years ago.”
Mr. Davutoglu said he was encouraged by the government of Canada
allowing a Turkish monument to be built at the site where a Turkish
diplomat was assassinated 30 years ago last month.
“By this monument, Canada is showing great maturity,” he said.
“At the same time,” he added, “we hope that Canada can contribute to
reconciliation efforts between Armenians and Turks, rather than taking
sides on this issue.”
*****
For all its ambitions as a regional peacemaker and expanding
international player, Turkey still has enormous hurdles to overcome
1
Its domestic population is losing enthusiasm for supporting the
opposition in Syria – it is proving to be costly and dangerous and the
government’s advocacy of military action doesn’t help.
2
Despite its support for the Kurds of northern Iraq and its promises of
greater tolerance for Kurdish identity inside Turkey, Kurdish rebels
are waging the most violent campaign in years.
3
While Turkey may see itself as the answer to the European Union’s
economic and security needs, the EU’s rule of unanimity means that as
long as (Greek) Cyprus is a member, Turkey won’t be.
4
Though the Erdogan government eschews religiosity and stresses its
secular nature, people inside and outside Turkey fear it plans to
change the constitution and usher in Islamic rule.
5
Peace in Jerusalem may be the key to world peace, but the Israeli
government of Benjamin Netanyahu is not about to apologize to Turkey
for the 2009 slaying of eight Turkish civilians in a convoy bound for
Gaza, let alone take Turkish advice on divvying up historic Palestine.