EURASIAN COOPERATION ENJOYS BEING PRIORITY FOR AKP

 

Though accession to the EU is clearly a top priority for all political parties in Turkey,  the Erdogan Government’s political Islamic roots make the Eurasian Cooperation an almost equally important and popular target. The ethnical and religious popularity of the Eurasian Cooperation, as well as  its logical realism and rationale, has induced the AKP rule to pay lip service to the USA’s strategic cooperation claim whilst silently pushing through the Eurasian one as the second choice or even an alternative to EU accession. In other words, the United States and, to a lesser extent, NATO are no longer the indispensable top preferences for the present Government and even the State organs, but third-rate useful instruments after other “Cooperation and Security” arrangements such as the OSCE for Europe and similar organisations or initiatives for other regions like Eurasia, the Middle East, the Gulf, the Caucasus, and the Balkans. For details of this unnoticed new characteristic of Turkish diplomacy and security please see the article below.

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 “I would like to underline that for Turkey NATO will continue to be the primary security organisation of Europe and the wider Euro-Atlantic area. In case of future crises in our continent, NATO should always be the first option. That is to say, EU can intervene and take the leadership of a peace-keeping operation in Europe only when NATO chooses not to do so."

These words uttered by Ambassador Onur Oymen on April 13^th, 2002 in Antalya at the twelfth International Conference on Security and Cooperation, in his official capacity as the Turkish Permanent Representative to NATO, ostensibly go diametrically opposed to the Pulse assessment above. But do they really given the fact that in less than two years since that statement much water has run under the bridge?

Basic changes in Turkey’s security and cooperation assessments in two years

Above all, with the American attack on and occupation of Iraq since March 20^th, 2003, brand new concepts have appeared in the world about Security and Cooperation and the legitimacy of military actions because of vague arrangements such as “the Coalition forces” invented by the Bush-Blair team for waging war on a country, instead of Chapter VII of the UN Charter for international peace and security or regional arrangements such as NATO to maintain peace in the world.

That is why today the same Onur Oymen, in his capacity as the Deputy Chairman of the opposition CHP, is opposing even the Government’s most cautious facility to the American forces in Iraq for passage through the Incirlik base to return home. And according to the information given to the press by General Ilker Basbug, the Deputy Chief, TGS, on Friday (16^th), that passage is one way, from Iraq towards the United States and not vice versa. The rotation is  for the total or partial evacuation of the 130 thousand American soldiers from Iraq, and not for their reinforcement or even replacement via Incirlik. American soldiers from Iraq will be transferred home or elsewhere within 24 hours in which period they will not be able to leave the airbase.

These strictest rules against the American forces in Turkey where they once used to have a free hand are a good example of what the Bush mentality has brought this Super Power to in the world and especially in Turkey since it started its occupation of Iraq less than a year ago. But these restrictions on the American forces in Turkey have a deeper meaning than the world’s impatience of this aggression and concern the AKP rule’s religious ties and feelings. Certainly, the USA’s decades long policies to create a Kurdish State at the meeting point of the Turkish-Iranian-Iraqi frontiers and the PKK terrorism in Turkey have also played a great part in these developments.

When Tansu Ciller came to power in mid-1993 as a result of American machinations and began to repeat in Parliament the American policy of advocating to Turkey a “political solution” instead of military action against the PKK uprising, Turkish security forces strongly stood in the way maintaining that after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, Washington was now enforcing the last leg of this policy and trying to create an independent Kurdistan in south eastern Turkey, as well as parts of Iraq and Iran. When the new Prime Minister demanded proof of it, they presented official and semi official American documents of the last few decades about these intentions, with a map similar to the one printed along with this article.

It was the end of the “political solution” nonsense about the PKK and the beginning of the eradication of this terrorism by the Turkish Armed Forces after 15-years of toil and bloodshed.

Turkey urges Shiites of Iraq - “raise your voice”

It put an end to the PKK adventure in Turkey, but did not prevent Washington from going on with its ambitions of creating an independent Kurdistan in the region, starting with northern Iraq. Saddam’s irrational adventures over Iran, Kuwait and the entire Middle East in general provided a golden opportunity to the United States to carry on with these plans. Today there is a de facto Kurdish administration in northern Iraq and the American forces are reinforcing their efforts to create an independent Kurdistan with Kirkuk its capital, no matter how much they try to deny it and pay lip service to the political unity and sovereignty of Iraq with its natural resources belonging to the entire nation.

With its strategic location, Turkey is certainly the biggest hindrance to the realisation of these plans, however, and the recent Kurdish initiatives and draft constitutions for Iraq and “Kurdistan” induced Ankara to take fresh steps in reinforcing these barriers in the way of the American plans.  

After top level contacts with Syria and Iran in order to elaborate on a coordinated Iraq policy of these three next door neighbours of Iraq, Turkey has now taken the initiative to activate the various ethnical and religious groups of Iraq against these activities to create an independent Kurdistan.

Last week the Shiite leader of Iraq, Al Hakim, was in Ankara. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, according to Milliyet, urged him to raise their voice against these Kurdish activities. PM Tayyip Erdogan said after a briefing at the TGS Headquarters that the Kurds were playing with fire. General Basbug enlightened the Turkish public opinion about the briefing to the Prime Minister by saying that an ethnical federation in Iraq would mean a blood bath in the country and the entire region. It was the confirmation of General Kivrikoglu’s warning to Wolfovitch right at the beginning of the Iraq adventure that an independent Kurdistan would be a second Palestine in the region with its 50 years of bloodshed which is still going on. Turkey would not permit such development right on its frontier, stressed the then top man of the Turkish Armed Forces.

Syria and Iran were also preoccupied with similar activities throughout the week and the result was alarming for the United States. Tens of thousands of Shiites in the relatively calm southern Iraq were on the streets denouncing the American occupation and their influential spiritual leader the Ayetullah Ali Sistani was threatening to issue a Fatwa (religious order) against the American forces if they went on with their plans. The Bush Administration was alarmed enough to call its top official in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, to Washington for consultations. The outcome of these deliberations is not yet known, but one thing is certain that they have no chance of succeeding in their efforts to create an ethnical federation of the Arabs and the Kurds as a first step towards full independence at a later date.

Like in Afghanistan, in Iraq too the only way out for Washington is to return to NATO policies and there are such initiatives between Turkey and the United States, as General Basbug clearly stated in his press conference on Friday. Talks at major general level are going on between the military authorities of the two countries. NATO took over the security affairs of Afghanistan with Turkey fulfilling the commander duty at the beginning and it was a great achievement in improving the conditions in that country. A similar arrangement for Iraq may save the Bush Administration from its current quagmire in that oil rich country.

There are several hindrances in the way for the smooth functioning of this policy in Iraq, however. The United States has been engaged too deeply in its independent Kurdistan policy with the Kurdish tribal chiefs like Barzani and Talabani and Turkey has also taken several initiatives primarily with its neighbours like Iran and Syria to counter these American initiatives, much to the disenchantment, indeed chagrin, of Washington.

Unpalatable developments for Washington’s Kurdistan policy

President Bashar Asad’s State visit to Turkey along with his charming and modern wife on the first days of this year was a major achievement in solving chronic problems between Turkey and Syria. Damascus silently took the initiative to officially drop its claim on Hatay after nearly 70 years of desperate efforts.

The agreements for prevention of double taxation and mutual encouragement of investments Turkey has so far signed with more than 50 countries contain the following definition:

“The term ‘Turkey’ in this agreement means the sovereignty area that Turkey owns, its territorial waters, as well as the sea areas where it has judicial powers or sovereignty rights, in accordance with International Law, for prospecting, exploiting and protecting the natural resources.”

PM Mustafa Miro of Syria had declined to sign this agreement during his official visit to Turkey in mid 2003 merely because of this provision which meant putting an end to Syria’s claim on Hatay. President Asad realistically agreed to sign it during his State visit. In addition to the above definition, Turkey included “internal waters and the soil underneath as well as the airspace above.”

It was not the only major step eliminating the relics of the cold war arrangements poisoning mutual relations. Between 1957 and 1959 Turkey laid 615,000 land mines on the Syrian frontier to prevent smuggling. These mines are now being removed to open up 30,000 hectares of fertile arable lands to farming. It will provide employment to 6000 families in  this country and constitute a major step in improving cooperation with Syria. Hatay will be made a centre for frontier trade with that country and the entire Middle East will benefit from this cooperation spirit in the region.

During the two big explosions in Istanbul that claimed nearly 60 lives including the British Consul General Roger Short last November, Turkey asked Syria to extradite two suspects. The Syrians promptly handed over 22 Turks who were receiving religious education in Damascus, including the two accused. General Hilmi Ozkok, Chief TGS, gave thanks to President Asad during the State visit for Syria’s effective cooperation with Turkey on mutual security questions.

Similar developments are unrolling between Turkey and Iran as well, and if the United States comes round to allowing Iraq to do the same with Turkey and its other next door neighbours such as developing the highway and railway connections with new frontier gates, the region will fast become an area of economic cooperation and stability for the benefit of all, primarily the highly industrialised Turkey.

This fact, in itself, is reason enough for Turkey to do everything in its power to prevent the creation of an independent Kurdistan as a stumbling block for these interregional cooperation.

The Caucuses leg of this cooperation up in the north with the Russian Federation and other Eurasian countries is undergoing an even more radical and interesting development. Will PM Erdogan’s forthcoming visit to Washington undermine these developments? Time will tell, but certainly it will not be very easy in view of Turkey’s long standing experiences with Washington. uras@ada.net.tr – January 18^th, 2004