ArsalanKhan21
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Pakistan trained and equipped Talibans and Turkey did the same for some ISIS militants both have defamed Islam and Muslims around the world.
YAVUZ BAYDAR - ’Pakistanization’ of Turkey under way
’Pakistanization’ of Turkey under way
YAVUZ BAYDAR
y.baydar@todayszaman.com
August 31, 2015, Monday
Every fresh move by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his 3D chess game takes Turkey away from its real long-term interests, inviting instability.
The interim government's composition reflects his reasoning, and adds to the concerns that Turkey's “adriftness,” its farewell to all the basic values that hold the country glued together, will have bitter consequences.
The current Cabinet, constructed carefully as a shield to protect against whatever Erdoğan feels threatens him, has the word “war” written all over it. It is not just the war now taking place against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) -- in that order -- but also a war against what he sees as “domestic enemies” -- a term Erdoğan inherited from his earlier antagonist, the military.
Two key ministers, of interior affairs and justice, have apparently been chosen with particular care from among bureaucrats whose unconditional loyalty has been tested over time. Tightening security measures against the opposition and the media are on the agenda. So is tighter control over the judiciary.
More important, the part of this 3D chess game that has to do with foreign policy will soon add to the concerns that, as all the expectations, enthusiasm and social dynamics of democratization in Turkey are fading rapidly, and with an opposition unable to unite on basic values, so too wane the interests of Turkey's democratic allies in its “normalization.”
The third carefully chosen, “key” minister is also a bureaucrat. Until the snap election, the Foreign Ministry will be run by its (former) undersecretary, Feridun Sinirlioğlu. The top diplomat, whose credentials in his job leave no doubt, was appointed mainly to try to put some of Turkey's major mess in order and get it up from “ground zero,” in terms of resetting some vital relations with neighbors.
The perception abroad of Turkey today under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is that its relations with key allies are seriously damaged by trust issues, and that, against its claims otherwise, it has no prospects of being a “state to reckon with” regarding the region.
Sinirlioğlu, therefore, will have a serious weight on his shoulders. There are, as reported before, three major, urgent issues Erdoğan sees as a way to polish his image and extend his rule as long as he can: cooperation in the battle against ISIL by way of opening the İncirlik Air Base to joint operations, appearing to mend ties with Israel and working on a comprehensive resolution to the long-divided island of Cyprus. The first two areas are mainly addressing the US, and the last one, the EU.
Both the choice of minister and the agenda smell of cynicism, raising suspicions further.
“There are signs of a growing understanding in Washington that the US was duped by the Turks, or at best its negotiators deceived themselves when they agreed [to] their bargain with Ankara,” wrote Patrick Cockburn in the Independent.
“The disastrous miscalculation made by the United States in signing a military agreement with Turkey at the expense of the Kurds becomes daily more apparent.”
It is a fact that both the domestic and international sides of Erdoğan's 3D chess game called “political survival” have already reshaped some of the parameters.
The international players with power, also acting pragmatically, have been gaining ground to abuse Turkey's weaknesses, and the domestic dimension of the chess game has now opened the gates to a dormant phenomenon: militarism.
In the broader picture, Turkey under Erdoğan, with a new synthesis of “Turk-Islam” taking shape, resembles the model of Pakistan -- approaching, as it were, an adoption of it.
The real casualty of that shift will certainly be democratization and the human rights situation. Neither the US nor the EU seems to mind a further deterioration. When I talk to my sources in Washington D.C., all I hear these days is İncirlik here and İncirlik there. It reminds me of the Cold War mindset.
“The most important aspect of all,” wrote my colleague Soli Özel, summing up his talks in London and D.C. in Habertürk daily recently, “nobody seems to care about the quality of democracy or about the authoritarianism in Turkey anymore. The restart of the war with the PKK is of concern, but the opening of İncirlik weighs much heavier than all other concerns.''
YAVUZ BAYDAR - ’Pakistanization’ of Turkey under way
’Pakistanization’ of Turkey under way
YAVUZ BAYDAR
y.baydar@todayszaman.com
August 31, 2015, Monday
Every fresh move by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his 3D chess game takes Turkey away from its real long-term interests, inviting instability.
The interim government's composition reflects his reasoning, and adds to the concerns that Turkey's “adriftness,” its farewell to all the basic values that hold the country glued together, will have bitter consequences.
The current Cabinet, constructed carefully as a shield to protect against whatever Erdoğan feels threatens him, has the word “war” written all over it. It is not just the war now taking place against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) -- in that order -- but also a war against what he sees as “domestic enemies” -- a term Erdoğan inherited from his earlier antagonist, the military.
Two key ministers, of interior affairs and justice, have apparently been chosen with particular care from among bureaucrats whose unconditional loyalty has been tested over time. Tightening security measures against the opposition and the media are on the agenda. So is tighter control over the judiciary.
More important, the part of this 3D chess game that has to do with foreign policy will soon add to the concerns that, as all the expectations, enthusiasm and social dynamics of democratization in Turkey are fading rapidly, and with an opposition unable to unite on basic values, so too wane the interests of Turkey's democratic allies in its “normalization.”
The third carefully chosen, “key” minister is also a bureaucrat. Until the snap election, the Foreign Ministry will be run by its (former) undersecretary, Feridun Sinirlioğlu. The top diplomat, whose credentials in his job leave no doubt, was appointed mainly to try to put some of Turkey's major mess in order and get it up from “ground zero,” in terms of resetting some vital relations with neighbors.
The perception abroad of Turkey today under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is that its relations with key allies are seriously damaged by trust issues, and that, against its claims otherwise, it has no prospects of being a “state to reckon with” regarding the region.
Sinirlioğlu, therefore, will have a serious weight on his shoulders. There are, as reported before, three major, urgent issues Erdoğan sees as a way to polish his image and extend his rule as long as he can: cooperation in the battle against ISIL by way of opening the İncirlik Air Base to joint operations, appearing to mend ties with Israel and working on a comprehensive resolution to the long-divided island of Cyprus. The first two areas are mainly addressing the US, and the last one, the EU.
Both the choice of minister and the agenda smell of cynicism, raising suspicions further.
“There are signs of a growing understanding in Washington that the US was duped by the Turks, or at best its negotiators deceived themselves when they agreed [to] their bargain with Ankara,” wrote Patrick Cockburn in the Independent.
“The disastrous miscalculation made by the United States in signing a military agreement with Turkey at the expense of the Kurds becomes daily more apparent.”
It is a fact that both the domestic and international sides of Erdoğan's 3D chess game called “political survival” have already reshaped some of the parameters.
The international players with power, also acting pragmatically, have been gaining ground to abuse Turkey's weaknesses, and the domestic dimension of the chess game has now opened the gates to a dormant phenomenon: militarism.
In the broader picture, Turkey under Erdoğan, with a new synthesis of “Turk-Islam” taking shape, resembles the model of Pakistan -- approaching, as it were, an adoption of it.
The real casualty of that shift will certainly be democratization and the human rights situation. Neither the US nor the EU seems to mind a further deterioration. When I talk to my sources in Washington D.C., all I hear these days is İncirlik here and İncirlik there. It reminds me of the Cold War mindset.
“The most important aspect of all,” wrote my colleague Soli Özel, summing up his talks in London and D.C. in Habertürk daily recently, “nobody seems to care about the quality of democracy or about the authoritarianism in Turkey anymore. The restart of the war with the PKK is of concern, but the opening of İncirlik weighs much heavier than all other concerns.''
In any case, if Turkey gets blowback it will be Erdogan's fault and, since it's a democracy, thus the people's fault. I don't know if it's apathy or idiocy but it's their country, not mine. Although there's no reason why Pakistan can't become as successful as Turkey and even more and it's true there are many good lessons to be learned from the Turkish model.
