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Erdoğan tells EU to fix its foreign policy orientation
Delivering speeches at Johns Hopkins University and the Washington branch of the Ankara-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) following his meeting with US President Barack Obama on Monday, Erdoğan ruled out arguments suggesting that Turkey’s foreign policy orientation has been shifting away from the West.
“Turkey cannot lose the West while looking towards the East; cannot lose the East while looking towards the West; cannot lose the South while looking towards the North; cannot lose the North while looking towards the South,” Erdoğan said, underlining EU-candidate Turkey’s democratic and secular structure.
Claims over a shift in Turkey’s foreign policy orientation are “deliberate” and “unfair,” he said, while noting that as a member of the Western alliance, Turkey’s capability of speaking with everyone should be seen as “an opportunity.”
“Those who are jealous [of this capability] are not right,” Erdoğan said, urging those to embrace Turkey’s contacts as an opportunity. “There is no such movement as neo-Ottomanism within the Turkish Republic. It’s an epithet aimed at casting a shadow over the current government,” he said, adding that since regional issues around Turkey have global importance, Turkey’s efforts for resolving regional issues have actually been serving global peace.
“There is nothing such as a shift of orientation, etc. It’s a normalization process. If there is something such as a shift in orientation that has to do with Europe, it should urgently be dealt with,” Erdoğan said, apparently criticizing EU member states such as France and Germany who offer Turkey options that fall short of full membership.
The prime minister reiterated his sensitivity over the enduring humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. “Israel has to end domestic opinion differences so that problems between Israel and Turkey can also be overcome.” He said there were also conflicting messages from the coalition partners on Turkey’s possible mediation of talks between Israel and Syria, too.
Speaking on Iran’s controversial nuclear program, he reiterated that Turkey wants all countries that possess nuclear weapons to get rid of them.
“We do not want nuclear weapons in our region or in another place. We should get rid of nuclear weapons in our countries. When you have the right to produce nuclear weapons, does it work if you tell someone not to do so? Wouldn’t this double-standard put you into a bad position?”
Touching upon the emigration of Anatolian Armenians during World War I, Erdoğan firmly denied allegations of genocide against the Anatolian Armenians during the Ottoman era.
“My ancestors didn’t commit genocide; they wouldn’t,” he said, while noting that progress in ongoing normalization efforts between Armenia and Turkey were related to progress concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Ruling out pressure on the press in Turkey, Erdoğan said the press was “even free to insult the president, the prime minister and their families.”
The US will continue intelligence sharing concerning northern Iraq where the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has camps, he said, signaling that the US would not take any new step concerning the elimination of the PKK camps in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq.
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