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Turkey’s recent efforts to reach out to predominantly Muslim countries and sign strategic partnership deals to strengthen cooperation with them have raised concerns among the United States and Europe as well as within the country about whether EU-aspirant Turkey was turning East instead of West.
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Fears that Turkey is abandoning its bridge-building role were fanned last month when it canceled air force exercises with Israel, straining ties that began to fray in January when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rebuked Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, over the war in Gaza, in front of world leaders in Davos, Switzerland. Likewise, Erdoğan siding with Iran on its controversial nuclear work and accusing the West of applying a double standard in pressuring Iran over its nuclear program during a visit to Tehran last month further increased the concerns. Analysts who examine the causes of these concerns find them unfounded and say that Turkey is on the right path in strengthening ties and solving problems with its neighbors. Zaman’s Mehmet Yılmaz finds the concerns of the circles who are worried that Turkey is turning East instead of West unfounded and asks some questions to prove why the argument is wrong. “Has Turkey decided to quit NATO membership? No. Is Turkey readying to quit its membership of the Council of Europe? No. Have entry talks with the EU been suspended? No. Has Turkey ended its partnership relations with the United States? No,” says Yılmaz. Questioning the underlying reasons behind the criticism of Turkey turning to the East, he explains that an idea which sees Europe as the center of the world and the source of culture makes some think that Turkey having some cooperation with countries with which it has historical ties is a “change of axis.” Dismissing the concerns of the circles in question, he says: “Turkey is not going anywhere. It just returns to its essence and tries to stand on its feet. That is it. Turkey’s route is sound and it is on the right path,” says Yılmaz. According to Vatan’s Okay Gönensin, one of the possible reasons for the government’s latest efforts to strengthen ties with the East in line with its “zero problems with neighbors” policy might be the fact that no European country was included in the government’s intense diplomatic efforts. In addition, the government has given no push to the realization of reforms necessary for EU membership. Although Gönensin finds the argument that “the Turkish government has closed its windows facing West while it has opened its windows facing East,” an unfounded one, he says if some circles have concerns about this, they should be taken seriously.
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| 03 November 2009, Tuesday |
| FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK |
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