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Is Turkey Still a Viable Middle East Interlocutor?

Erdogan, whose country was once Israel’s only friend in the Middle East lambasted the behaviour of the Jewish state for its actions during the war against the Hamas-led resistance in Gaza last December. Additionally, the Turkish prime minister sharply criticised Israel for possessing nuclear weapons while calling for Iran to suspend its nuclear programme.

“This is a situation where we clearly have double standards,” said Erdogan, much to the consternation of Israeli diplomats and supporters in the audience. His statements even upset many Turks who see this shift in Kemalist policy as a dangerous step for Turkey. Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, the architect of modern day Turkey intended to distance the nation from its Ottoman past by aligning it more with Europe and away from the Middle East.

Indeed, Turkey has been fighting an uphill battle with the European Union for the good part of a decade and a half. Turkey feels it has met all the requirements put forward by the EU, but that Brussels keeps changing the rules along the way. Erdogan compared the EU’s attitude towards Turkey to “changing the rules for the quarterback in a football game in the 36^th minute.”

Erdogan went on to say that “Turkey has been in Limbo during the 
past 15 years.”

In that context, therefore, it should really come as no surprise to anyone - least of all the Europeans who have opposed Turkey’s entry into the EU - to see Turkey begin to gradually re-align its foreign policy in favour of the Arab and Muslim East. At least in this region Turkey is regarded as a regional powerhouse and a force to be reckoned with, as opposed to the West where many Turks are fed up of being seen as the poor man trying to gain entry into an elite club.The Turkish prime minister however stated, “there was no change in the axis of his country’s foreign policy.” In two consecutive speeches earlier, Erdogan said his country would continue to play the role of the intermediary in trying to mediate between Palestinians and Israelis and between 
Syrians and Israelis.

Of course, after his diatribe lashed out against Israel, which drew considerable criticism from supporters of Israel, it is now highly questionable if the Turkish prime minister will be accepted by the Jewish state as an honest interlocutor in the Middle East peace process.

This change of attitude by Turkey comes as no surprise to this reporter who had in fact predicted in numerous columns over the years that the European Union could not continue to treat Turkey the way it had and not expect Ankara at some point to turn away from Brussels and begin a rapprochement with countries of the Middle East and Central Asia.Erdogan’s speech was no doubt a move designed to demonstrate to his followers back home his political independence from Washington. The Turkish prime minister’s speeches will win him many points both at home and in the Arab/Muslim world.

While the prime minister’s discourse on Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories was received with stupor by Israeli diplomats, Arab diplomats on the other hand were more than pleased.

“He said what Arabs leaders should be saying but don’t dare say,” an Arab diplomat who asked not to be identified told this reporter that the Turkish prime minister’s speech “courageous.”

In what was clearly another jab at Israel, Erdogan called for a “legitimate order” in the Middle East saying, “forcing paranoia based on the fear of the other does not work.“We will not be able to solve our problems through military interventions and sheer 
power,” said Erdogan, adding that the solution to the problem should come through diplomacy.

The Turkish prime minister said that Iran producing nuclear weapons “is not just a threat for the region, but for the entire globe.” But, said Erdogan, “if a country possesses nuclear weapons, it cannot ask others to give them up.”

“Everyone should look in the mirror,” said Erdogan, referring to Israel’s policy of refusing to discus the issue. Indeed, while it is no secret that Israel has long possessed a nuclear arsenal the country’s leadership has never allowed international observers from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watch dog arm of the 
United Nations.

Claude Salhani is the editor of the Middle East Times and author of “While the Arab World Slept: the impact of the Bush years on the Middle East.”