Is the West losing Turkey?

The critics are wrong to assume that Turkey’s increasing presence in the Middle East is a reversal of Turkey’s traditional alliance with the West. Turkey is a member of NATO and is currently serving in several NATO missions. More than half of Turkey’s foreign trade (about 55 percent) is still with European Union countries, and this fact has not changed over the last 10 years. Turkey is a member of numerous European and other international organizations, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe. Last but not least, Turkey has been actively pursuing EU membership on the same terms that other countries have become members.

While Turkey makes no plans to either leave NATO or give up on its EU bid, it is Europe that is dragging its feet to accept Turkey as a key ally. Until very recently, Turkey’s security concerns over the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have been mostly ignored by Turkey’s European and American friends. Allegations of Western support for the PKK have been widespread and several European countries are still home to various PKK organizations and activities. Further back in history, several US governments supported military coups in Turkey -- a fact well known in and outside official circles. On both the EU process and the Cyprus issue, Turkey is being done great injustice and the Europeans appear to follow a weak policy with double standards. Do we expect the Turkish people to turn a blind eye to all of these?

But Turkey’s new activism in the Middle East and other regions is not a reaction to Turkey’s disappointment with its Western friends. Rather, it is a fully rational attempt to seize new spaces of opportunity presented by new facts of globalization and regional reordering. At a time when Europeans are virtually absent from key geopolitical issues and the new Obama administration is yet to chart its new course of action in Iran, Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan, Turkey is emerging as a self-confident and balancing actor.

Turkey wants to improve its relations with Iraq, Syria and Iran because they are Turkey’s immediate neighbors and Turkey has paid a hefty price for not having improved its relations in the past. Iran is a particularly sensitive issue and a simple one for Turkey: Turkey wants to remain a reliable actor and neighbor for Iran because the Iranians will not be persuaded or coerced by further sanctions or policies of intimidation to give up their nuclear program. Turkey is the only country in the region that can talk to Iran, giving basically the same message that the P5+1 gives but doing so with a style of its own. Contrary to what some critics claim, Turkey never said it will welcome Iran’s nuclear program to produce a bomb. Turkey wants a nuclear-free Middle East, and this applies to Iran as well as other countries suspected of having nuclear bombs.

In his speech at the Turkish Parliament on Nov. 3, Prime Minister Erdoğan drew attention to an irony: While Europeans and Americans conduct all kinds of business in the Middle East, from military action to oil and education, these relations are seen as normal. When Turkey wants to participate in the same type of businesses and improve its cultural, social and economic relations with Arab and Muslim countries, this is seen as shifting alliances and leaving the West.