Erdogan Defends "No" Vote in Security Council on Further Iran Sanctions

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday defended Turkey's "no" vote at Wednesday’s UN Security Council meeting that produced an agreement for the implementation of further sanctions on Iran. Erdogan said that during his country’s negotiations alongside Brazil for the Tehran agreement, which stipulated a transfer of enriched uranium from Iran to Turkey in exchange for uranium fuel rods for medical purposes, Turkey was in constant contact and coordination with the permanent members of the Security Council.

“When we were making strides towards the Tehran agreement we were in contact with the U.N permanent Security Council members,” said Erdogan at the Turkish Arab Economic Forum on Thursday. “Since the beginning we have always advocated a diplomatic solution to the problem. The U.N Security Council said that negotiations could still continue, and Turkey and Brazil will continue to negotiate.”

Erdogan attacked the Security Council’s decision to ratchet up sanctions, accusing certain permanent members of the council of dismissing a diplomatic solution, favoring instead a more hostile approach that Erdogan paralleled to the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“With embargoes there is no way out of the problem. We learned this before. There are hundreds of widows and orphans in Iraq. Who is responsible for this?” said Erdogan, attacking “those people who have turned this region into a region of conflict.”

Erdogan explained that Turkey needed to vote against an additional embargo on Iran because of the fuel-swap agreement that his country had signed. He said that only if Iran proved that it was not standing by the words of its agreement could the international community reject the diplomatic progress that has so far been pioneered by Turkey and Brazil.

“Now that we signed [the agreement with Iran], we have to stand behind these signatures…This is why we said ‘no’ yesterday. If we want to advocate diplomacy, we had to say ‘no’,” said Erdogan. “Iran is behind its words.”

“Ill-Intentioned Propaganda”

Erdogan had some harsh words for critics, both domestic and international, who are concerned that Turkey is shifting away from the west and moving towards the east.

“Those who claim that Turkey is detaching from the west are part of ill-intentioned propaganda,” said Erdogan.

Erdogan reiterated his support for EU accession and said that, despite hindrances coming from some Europeans towards Turkey’s membership bid, Turkey is still committed to meeting the requirements for EU accession.

“Within the European union there are countries that try to slow down negotiations and raise barriers. We are not discouraged. We are still committed,” said Erdogan.

The Turkish Arab Economic Forum at which Erdogan was speaking was formed three years ago after a strong push from Prime Minister Erdogan’s government to strengthen ties with the Arab world. Since then, visa requirements to Turkey for people coming from Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Libya have been dropped. The trade volume between Turkey and Arab countries went from $7 billion in 2002 to roughly $30 billion today. According to figures cited by the Prime Minister, between 2002 and 2009, $6.2 billion in FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) came into Turkey from Arab countries.

“Each brother or sister who wants to invest in Turkey should know that our doors are wide open to him or her,” said Erdogan.

The developing ties between Turkey and the Arab world stretches beyond economic ties, according to the leaders who were gathered at the forum Thursday. Several, including Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, recalled the common history, culture, and religion shared between Turkey and Arab countries

“The Muslim world, led by Turks, led by Arabs, has built great civilizations in the past. The Muslim world was the source for innovation and enlightenment during the 9th and 17th centuries. There is no reason why we cannot go back to our roots,” said Simsek.

Erdogan also waxed poetic about the relationship between Turks and Arabs, quoting Turkish poet Mehmet Akif Ersoy who said that “the Arab is both the left eye and the left hand of the Turk,” which received thundering applause from the audience.

Harsh Words for Israel

Leaders from Turkey and the Arab world spoke at the forum on Wednesday about the need for political cooperation as well, particularly in providing a unified front against Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians. All visiting leaders expressed their condolences and support to Turkey and the Turks who were killed by Israeli soldiers in international waters last week as they were attempting to transport humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

“Turkey’s martyrs are our martyrs as well,” said Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League, about those killed by Israel on the flotilla. “We welcome the role Turkey plays” regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict and the pursuit of peace in the region.

Saad Hariri, the prime minister of Lebanon, also expressed thanks to Turkey for the role it is playing in the region.

“I express my condolences to the people of Turkey for the murder of martyrs,” said Hariri.

No word was spared in the condemnations of Israel at the forum. “Our region has undergone such suffering under the criminal, barbaric actions of Israel,” said Hariri.

“At the moment, Israel is the reason for the black hole in the region,” said Amr Moussa.

Erdogan said that Turkey was standing up to state terrorism. He praised those who were on the boat going to Gaza with supplies, lamenting the fate of those who were killed or injured in last week’s attack by Israel.

“We are raising our voice against unfairness…we are against all forms of terror, including state terror,” said Erdogan. “I have seen with my own eyes that in different parts of their bodies there were bullet holes… doesn’t it mean we are keeping our eyes wide shut to state terrorism and piracy on the high seas?”

“While Gaza is under the blockade, we will never sacrifice the principles we believe,” said Erdogan, pledging further support for Gaza.

Erdogan Reaches out to Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot Media

Istanbul-
Turkey would be willing to reduce its troops on the divided island of Cyprus if a settlement is reached between Turkish and Greek Cypriots, the Turkish Prime Minister said in his first statement to Greek Cypriot journalists.
Turkey is still committed to facilitating a solution between the two sides, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday, speaking to a gathering of Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot journalists about the long-standing Cyprus dispute at the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul.
"I'm very happy," said Aysu Basri, a journalist who works for Turkish Cypriot paper Yeni Düzen and who attended the meeting. She believes that Erdoğan is showing "sincere behavior" in addressing the Greek Cypriots.
"Erdoğan's statements were not new, but this meeting with Greek Cypriots was important because it means that the Turkish side is having direct contact with the Greek side," said Basri. "It was very exciting because it was the first time the prime minister tried to make a statement to the Greek Cypriots. On the Greek side, there is no direct contact and they get their news from translations. Sometimes those translations can be manipulated."
Cenk Mutluyakalı, editor in chief of Yeni Düzen, feels similarly about Erdoğan's outreach.
"This was a well thought out gesture on the part of Turkey," Mutluyakalı said. "The Greek Cypriot press has been portraying Ankara as the one stalling the peace process. Yet, by talking to the Greek Cypriot press, the prime minister talked about Turkey's vision for a lasting peace on the island. The Greek press is now full of the prime minister's statements about his views on peace."
Stefanos Evripidou, who attended Saturday's meeting, wrote for the Greek Cypriot paper the Cyprus Mail that, "an hour and a half after the meeting began, 30 minutes over schedule, Erdoğan looked visibly more relaxed among his Cypriot audience." He also quoted Erdoğan as saying at the end of the meeting: "We'll do it together, thank you very much."
Clear message
Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat and his Greek Cypriot counterpart Dimitris Christofias have held reunification talks since September 2008 but have agreed on little beyond their mutual will to reach an agreement. An upcoming presidential election in Turkish Cyprus and a recent resolution adopted by the Greek Cypriot parliament refusing any guarantors or rights of intervention by outsidershave been casting shadows on peace talks.
"The clear message was that any deal that Talat and his associates reach will have Turkey's full blessing as long as it is based on political equality," Egemen Bağış, state minister and chief negotiator for EU talks who also attended the meeting, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.
A statement from Talat's office welcomed Erdoğan's efforts to reach out to the Greek Cypriot side. "The messages of Erdoğan in his statement at the weekend and especially his effort to convey them to the Greek Cypriot people through Greek Cypriot intellectuals is the most recent and clearest expression of the Turkish side's decisiveness about a settlement," read the statement from the president's office.
According to journalists who were present at the meeting, the prime minister confirmed once again that the number of Turkish troops in Cyprus could be reduced if a settlement is reached - a move that had previously been tied to the U.N. backed "Annan plan." The Annan plan, a proposal to settle the dispute by creating a federal system of governance, was accepted by Turkish Cypriots but failed due to a rejection by Greek Cypriots in a referendum held in 2004.
Bağış made it clear that Turkey is not the only country that has troops on the island. "Other countries should consider withdrawing their troops from the island," he said.
(This article appeared in Hurriyet Daily News on March 2)

Turkey's Foreign Policy Shifts

Istanbul, October 21-

At a conference in Istanbul, Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan spoke on Monday about the lead role he envisions Turkey taking in the Middle East.

“It is imperative to establish a new global order,” Erdogan said at the istanbul forum, a 2 day conference which brought policy makers and analysts from both the Middle East and the West to discuss regional issues.

“Turkey has a major role to play in the region,” said Erdogan. His soaring rhetoric, which vacillated between that of peacemaker and populist, appeared to place Turkey at the head of a new global power structure as “a shining star of this world.”

Responding to coverage of the diplomatic fraying between his country and Israel in recent months, Erdogan parried that “not everyone" in the region "has to feel trust for us.” This contrasts with his government's stated goal of acting as honest broker and once again hosting talks between Israel and Syria. Earlier talks broke down with the start of the 2008 Israel-Gaza War.

Relations between Turkey and Israel, which had always been strong, have begun to deteriorate. In the wake of the 2008 assault on Gaza, Turkey became an outspoken critic of Israel, particularly over the high number of civilian casualties which occurred during the conflict. In January, Erdogan walked out of a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland after a dispute with Israeli President Shimon Peres over the Gaza War. Tensions have risen in recent days following the cancellation of a joint NATO military operation, where Turkey reportedly had chosen to exclude Israel, prompting the U.S and other NATO members to withdraw. Despite official statements from all sides that the cancellation was due to technical problems, both Prime Minister Erdogan and his Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu have suggested in subsequent press conferences that the cancellation was in response to disagreements over the 2008 Gaza assault.

Congressman Robert Wexler, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Europe and an outspoken supporter of Israel, responded directly to the Prime Minister’s foreign policy program in a panel discussion at the istanbul forum.

“Why is it that warmer relations with Syria, why is it the new relationship with Iran, why is it that a more prominent Turkey has to, it seems, come at the expense of Turkey’s relationship with Israel?” said Wexler.

Ibrahim Kalin, foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Erdogan, countered Wexler in the panel and claimed that there was no black and white alignment into which Turkish foreign policy must fall. He went on to say that “you cannot have security of Israel at the expense of the security of Palestinians.”

Tension at the forum seemed to crescendo when Jamal Zahalka, an Arab member of the Knesset, viciously attacked President Obama’s approach to Middle East Peace, stating that “the main obstacle for any settlement in the Middle East is the American Policy,” citing Obama’s commitment to “unbreakable” relations between America and Israel, regardless of changes in Israeli policy.

The conference was sponsored by the German Marshall Fund, Stratim, and SETA (The Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research) whose contributors often include members of Turkey's governing AK party.

Today, the American and Israeli militaries began joint exercises of the annual Juniper Cobra. This year, it is reported that the exercises will simulate possible missile attacks on Israel, presumably as a response to fears of Iranian nuclear ambitions. Turkey currently enjoys warm relations with Iran.