Soner Cagaptay<\/p>\n
Washington Post, February 2, 2009<\/p>\n
Turkey is a special Muslim country. Of the more than 50 majority-
\nMuslim nations, it is the only one that is a NATO ally, is in
\naccession talks with the European Union, is a liberal democracy and
\nhas normal relations with Israel. Under its current government by the
\nJustice and Development Party (AKP), however, Turkey is losing these
\nspecial qualities. Liberal political trends are disappearing, E.U.
\naccession talks have stalled, ties with anti-Western states such as
\nIran are improving and relations with Israel are deteriorating. On
\nThursday, for example, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked out
\nof a panel at Davos, Switzerland, after chiding Israeli President
\nShimon Peres for “killing people.” If Turkey fails in these areas or
\nwavers in its commitment to transatlantic structures such as NATO, it
\ncannot expect to be President Obama’s favorite Muslim country.
\nConsider the domestic situation in Turkey and its effect on relations
\nwith the European Union. Although Turkey started accession talks,
\nthat train has come to a halt. French objections to Turkish
\nmembership slowed the process, but the impact of the AKP’s slide from
\nliberal values cannot be ignored. After six years of AKP rule, the
\npeople of Turkey are less free and less equal, as various news and
\nother reports on media freedom and gender equality show. In April
\n2007, for instance, the AKP passed an Internet law that has led to a
\nban on YouTube, making Turkey the only European country to shut down
\naccess to the popular site. On the U.N. Development Program’s gender-
\nempowerment index, Turkey has slipped to 90th from 63rd in 2002, the
\nyear the AKP came to power, putting it behind even Saudi Arabia. It
\nis difficult to take seriously the AKP’s claim to be a liberal party
\nwhen Saudi women are considered more politically, economically and
\nsocially empowered than Turkish women.<\/p>\n
Then there is foreign policy. Take Turkey’s status as a NATO ally of
\nthe United States: Ankara’s rapprochement with Tehran has gone so far
\nsince 2002 that it is doubtful whether Turkey would side with the
\nUnited States in dealing with the issue of a nuclear Iran. In
\nDecember, Erdogan told a Washington crowd that “countries that oppose
\nIran’s nuclear weapons should themselves not have nuclear weapons.”<\/p>\n
The AKP’s commitment to U.S. positions is even weaker on other
\nissues, including Hamas. During the recent Israeli operations in
\nGaza, Erdogan questioned the validity of Israel’s U.N. seat while
\nsaying that he wants to represent Hamas on international platforms.
\nThree days before moderate Arab allies of Washington, including
\nEgypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, gathered on Jan. 19 in Kuwait to
\ndiscuss an end to the Gaza conflict, Erdogan’s officials met with
\nIran, Syria and Sudan in Qatar, effectively upstaging the moderates.
\nAmazingly, Turkey is now taking a harder line on the Arab-Israeli
\nconflict than even Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
For years, Turkey has had normal relations with Israel, including
\nstrong military, tourist, and cultural and commercial ties. The Turks
\ndid not emphasize religion or ideology in their relationship with the
\nJewish state, so Israelis felt comfortable visiting, doing business
\nand vacationing in Turkey. But Erdogan’s recent anti-Israeli
\nstatements — he even suggested that God would punish Israel — have
\nmade normal relations a thing of the past. On Jan. 4, 200,000 Turks
\nturned out in freezing rain in Istanbul to wish death to Israel; on
\nJan. 7, an Israeli girls’ volleyball team was attacked by a Turkish
\naudience chanting, “Muslim policemen, bring us the Jews, so we can
\nslaughter them.”<\/p>\n
Emerging anti-Semitism also challenges Turkey’s special status. Anti-
\nSemitism is not hard-wired into Turkish society — rather its seeds
\nare being spread by the political leadership. Erdogan has pumped up
\nsuch sentiments by suggesting Jewish culpability for the conflict in
\nGaza and alleging that Jewish-controlled media outlets were
\nmisrepresenting the facts. Moreover, on Jan. 6, while demanding
\nremorse for Israel’s Gaza operations, Erdogan said to Turkish
\nJews, “Did we not accept you in the Ottoman Empire?” Turkey’s tiny,
\nwell-integrated Jewish community is being threatened: Jewish
\nbusinesses are being boycotted, and instances of violence have been
\nreported. These are shameful developments in a land that has provided
\na home for Jews since 1492, when the Ottomans opened their arms to
\nJewish people fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. The Ottoman sultans
\nmust be spinning in their graves.<\/p>\n
The erosion of Turkey’s liberalism under the AKP is alienating Turkey
\nfrom the West. If Turkish foreign policy is based on solidarity with
\nIslamist regimes or causes, Ankara cannot hope to be considered a
\nserious NATO ally. Likewise, if the AKP discriminates against women,
\nforgoes normal relations with Israel, curbs media freedoms or loses
\ninterest in joining Europe, it will hardly endear itself to the
\nUnited States. And if Erdogan’s AKP keeps serving a menu of
\nilliberalism at home and religion in foreign policy, Turkey will no
\nlonger be special — and that would be unfortunate.<\/p>\n
Soner Cagaptay is a senior fellow and director of the Turkish
\nResearch Program at The Washington Institute, and author of Islam
\nSecularism and Nationalism in Modern Turkey: Who Is a Turk?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Soner Cagaptay Washington Post, February 2, 2009 Turkey is a special Muslim country. Of the more than 50 majority- Muslim nations, it is the only one that is a NATO ally, is in accession talks with the European Union, is a liberal democracy and has normal relations with Israel. Under its current government by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":775211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,148],"tags":[997,975],"class_list":["post-8922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","category-israel","tag-davos","tag-gaza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}