“It is simply difficult to understand how in the world a prestigious institution at the State Department has a known Turkey-basher on its payroll teaching courses on developments taking place in key regional ally Turkey,” a senior deputy in Parliament and one of the founding members of ruling AK Party has said.
In an apparent reference to Soner Çağaptay, a strong critic of Turkey in what many see as biased and misleading articles he wrote, Murat Mercan, head of the parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee, questioned his position as chair of the Turkey Advanced Area Studies Program at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute (FSI). As FSI is charged with training members of the US foreign affairs community in Washington, the concern here in the Turkish capital that Çağaptay has uniquely positioned himself to unduly influence US diplomats against Turkey with a well-known bias against the current government.
“Çağaptay is well known for writing articles targeting only one political party in Turkey and his opinions are not objective. I find it very wrong that such a controversial person is allowed to give lectures on Turkey to officers and personnel of the US foreign affairs community,” Mercan told Today’s Zaman. “I don’t think it will serve US interests well and think it gives the wrong signals to the Turkish side as well,” he said, adding that he is concerned that Çağaptay will feed US diplomats wrong information and unsubstantiated claims as if they were true. “I sincerely hope US authorities will ponder this wrong,” Mercan noted.
Çağaptay is also the director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a Washington think tank closely associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). While the latter works to ensure that Congress remains pro-Israeli using massive election campaign contributions that it coordinates and directs, WINEP aims to influence the media and the executive branch through experts and publications and to tilt public opinion in Israel’s favor.
In an interview with Today’s Zaman, former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, a contributing editor to The American Conservative and a member of the American Conservative Defense Alliance, argued that “WINEP pretends to provide objective analysis regarding the Near East, but in reality it is only interested in supporting the Israeli point of view. When Turkey is perceived as a close friend of Israel, it will provide positive commentary on Turkey. When it is not, the analysis will be critical.”
Giraldi also points out that Çağaptay is the key player in this game as he is the Turkey “expert” at WINEP and through WINEP has access to the mainstream media in the United States. “For some time now, he has been emphasizing that Turkey is becoming Islamicized and is no longer a reliable partner for the West. Both of those contentions are inaccurate, but they reflect the Israeli point of view.”
Though it makes sense for a WINEP fellow to attack the Turkish government over deteriorating relations with Israel, Çağaptay’s other hat at the federal government institution baffles many Turkish officials and raises eyebrows among the leadership of the AK Party. “What is more wrong than appointing a known biased researcher to lead the chair on Turkish studies at FSI? Mistakes like this do not contribute to helping friendly relations between Turkey and the US, they seriously damage the prospect in a negative sense as well,” Salih Kapusuz, AK Party deputy chairman for public relations, said.
“From the perspective of US interests, there is no point in preferring Çağaptay, who looks at Turkey from a narrow ideological standpoint and offers biased viewpoints on Turkey,” Kapusuz told Today’s Zaman. He expressed hope that the US administration will not turn a blind eye to a Turkey-basher who might potentially harm US relations with Turkey.
In a series of op-ed pieces he authored mostly for the US media, Çağaptay charges that Turkey under AK Party governance turned its back on the West and abandoned its commitments to US policy. He holds the government responsible for strained relations with the right-wing Israeli government after the Gaza onslaught last year, which left over 1,400 Palestinians dead and many more wounded. Turkey, along with the international community, condemned the attacks carried out by the Israeli military and harshly criticized Israeli policies on Gaza as well as on the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Giraldi believes Israel is angry because Ankara has become critical of many Israeli actions, most particularly the January 2009 invasion of Gaza and subsequent developments with Syria and Iran. “Turkey is rightly concerned that Israel is intending to attack Iran. As an American I am particularly concerned that the United States will be drawn into such a war, making it regional, so I share the Turkish concern,” he told Today’s Zaman.
Providing a venue for Çağaptay in the State Department institution to channel distorted facts to diplomats-in-training is like shaping US policy towards Turkey through Israeli optics, Mehmet Seyfettin Erol, professor of international relations at Ankara’s Gazi University, said. In an interview with Today’s Zaman, Erol drew attention to the hazards of such an approach as adopted by FSI. “In a way, it tells the Turkish government that the US will judge you by the actions taking place on the Ankara-Tel Aviv line,” he said, adding to that “such a message would not be received well in the capital and might potentially inflame public opinion as well.” Erol further cautioned that the timing is worse for the US as Washington is struggling to pick up the pace in boosting a positive image of the US among Turks.
Giraldi sees there is a clear conflict of interest in Cağaptay working for FSI while also working for a think tank that is funded by a lobby that represents foreign interests. “He should be replaced,” Giraldi said. Asked about the hiring practices, ethics and code of conduct for lecturers and instructors at FSI, the State Department had not responded to Today’s Zaman inquiries by the time this article went to print.
Giraldi said, however, that the impact of Çağaptay’s discourse would not be that great. “His influence over young diplomats would likely be limited. When the officials arrive in Turkey, they quickly discover that many preconceptions about Turkey as seen through the US media and individuals like Çağaptay are false. Turkey has a vibrant democracy, a strong sense of identity as a nation and is a popular and welcoming environment both for American tourists and diplomats. Most American diplomats in Turkey understand very well that Ankara is the key to stability in the Near East region, and they appreciate the positive role that Turkey has played,” he said.
The tension between Turkey and Israel has not only played out in the US media outlets recently, at the behest of pro-Israeli lobby groups like WINEP, but also made it to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs proceedings which oversaw the narrowly adopted Armenian genocide resolution. The committee is strongly pro-Israel, and unlike in the past when Turkey and Israel had friendlier relations and Israel had quietly lobbied against the resolution, pro-Israel lobbies worked for the adoption of the resolution this time.
Giraldi believes the pro-Israel lobby pressured some lawmakers to vote for the resolution behind closed doors to exact revenge for the Davos spat between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Israeli President Shimon Peres. “AIPAC did not instruct anyone how to vote, but it did make sure that its allies in Congress would understand that a vote against Turkey would be appreciated to punish Ankara for its cooling relations with Israel,” he said. Labeling the Armenian genocide resolution a meaningless charade, Giraldi argued that it serves no good for Armenia or for Armenians and is only designed to punish and humiliate Turkey.
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