This was evident in a recent exchange of remarks between Robert Gates, the US secretary of defense, and Jose Manuel Barosso, the president of the European Commission.Gates said, during a visit to London in early June: “The deterioration in the relationship between Turkey and Israel over the past year or so is a matter of concern. … I personally think that if there is anything in the notion that Turkey is, if you will, moving eastward, it is, in my view, in no small part because it was pushed and pushed by some in Europe refusing to give Turkey the kind of organic link to the West that Turkey sought.” (BBC News, June 9)
Barroso, in an interview with The New York Times, countered by saying: “I was surprised by those remarks. They don’t conform to the facts. The distance Turkey started to show [from NATO partners and the West] started with the invasion of Iraq and the pressure put on Turkey by the previous US administration.” He acknowledged that some European (French and German) positions were not helpful, but said that the EU should continue to pursue eventual Turkish membership. He cautioned that Turkish officials “are extremely sensitive to the way we listen to and respect what they have to propose.” (NYT, June 21)
What made most sense in this exchange was Barosso’s concluding words. “We should adapt our paradigm to the 21st century.” Yes, indeed. Both the US and the EU need to adapt themselves to the realities of the new age. The world has changed. It is neither the bipolar world of the Cold War or the unipolar world of the 1990s, but an increasingly multipolar world where the West is neither united nor able to dictate its terms to the rest. Turkey too has changed immensely. It is no longer a military-dominated, economic-crisis-ridden state that depends on and most of the times blindly follows the West but a self-confident regional power with a growing economy and a consolidating democracy.
Turkey today may no longer be blindly abiding by decisions taken in Washington or Brussels, but it surely is an increasingly modern, free, democratic and internationally respected member of the Western alliance with a Muslim population, which in principle should not be a liability but a major asset for the West. Isn’t the Turkey of today, which wants full membership in the EU, adopting reforms towards ending military tutelage and building a democracy on EU norms and pursuing a foreign policy based on principles of solving international problems, not through conflict and war but negotiation, diplomacy and economic integration, in line with the interests of the West, if that West is truly committed to liberal and democratic principles?
Aren’t Turkey’s efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis with Iran in the interest of the West, if that West is aware of the disaster another war in the Middle East could bring the world? Isn’t at least one member of the alliance being on speaking terms with Iran, Hezbullah and Hamas to the benefit of the West? Haven’t Turkey’s efforts to get Sunni Arabs involved in the political process raised hopes for stabilization in Iraq? Aren’t Turkey’s efforts to help a negotiated, peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem in the interest of the West and indeed of the Israeli people, when the continuation of the problem is increasingly radicalizing the Arab peoples and turning them against the West? Isn’t it much better for the West that the Arab peoples respect and listen to democratic, pro-Western Turkey rather than theocratic and anti-Western Iran? Isn’t it in the interest of the West that the Arab dissidents take democratic and pro-Western Turkey as their model, rather than the model proposed by al-Qaeda and the like? Isn’t all this enough to demonstrate that Turkey is part of the West, perhaps even more so than some others who claim to be so?
Neither the US nor the EU need worry about having “lost Turkey.” Turkey is not lost; it is only rediscovering itself in the new global setting. The West should not worry about Turkey turning to the “East” or of making a so-called “axis shift” as long as Turkish governments remain committed to policies based on the liberal and democratic principles currently pursued. What the West should fear is the not entirely negligible danger of an ultranationalist and militaristic Turkey replacing the current one. That is why it is still of great importance that the US listens to and pays attention to what Ankara is saying, and that the EU clears the obstacles to Turkey’s accession to the union when it fulfills the membership criteria.
