Don’t Let Turkey Slip Away

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From top: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; Ankara’s main square after a coup d’etat, September 12, 1980.

To wash our hands of the Turkish crisis would be a mistake.

Eamon Delaney writes:

Three years ago, I wrote about Turkish leader Erdogan and how his authoritarian tendencies were threatening not only Turkey but also the near east and the country’s application for EU membership.

‘Imperious Leader has gone too far with his strange edicts’ was the prescient headline.

Well, now we will find out just how far Erdogan will go.

The Turkish President has reacted furiously to the failed coup against him by dismissing and jailing tens of thousands of military personnel and officials. He is now moving on to the courts and the schools.

Of course, the strange edicts of Erdogan have led to this. But his proposals of three years ago (a partial ban on alcohol, and on the wearing of bright lipsticks by Turkish Air stewardesses!) are trifling compared to his attempts since then to consolidate powers in a revised Presidency.

Protests have come from secular activists, but also from followers of Fethullah Gulen, the mystic cleric, who has fallen out with Erdogan and alleges corruption by the Turkish regime. Turkey blames the elderly Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, of fomenting the coup from afar and want the US to extradite him.

Basically, Erdogan cannot believe that anyone can disagree with him and wants to return the country to the strong man leadership of the country’s founder Ataturk or even the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. In fairness, he has won continuous elections and has presided over an amazing economic revival in Turkey.

On a recent visit, it took me two hours to get to the airport from central Istanbul such was the congestion of shiny new cars circling the Bosphorus.

But my jubilant taxi driver wouldn’t hear of any complaints and pointed to his AKP election stickers (Erdogan’s ruling party). This prosperity has provoked a new pride – but also new demands and challenges.

So, for the rest us, this crisis couldn’t be happening at a worse time. We rely on Turkey, a major NATO member, in the fight against ISIS and in dealing with war-torn Syria, as well as on coping with the refugee crisis, as shown by the financial deal it did with the EU.

Can the West control the situation and control Erdogan, and restrain his vengeance? It has to be done. Otherwise, we are in real trouble.

And it would endanger what has been created in Turkey itself, which is an amazing, vibrant culture and the ideal crossover between East and West, and between the Islamic world and a mainly Christian Europe.

Huge advances have been made in trade, art, fashion and culture and even in human rights, as well as in recognising the rights of the country’s Kurdish minority, although a guerrilla war continues with the Kurdish PKK terror group. Young Turks often ask me whether the Northern Ireland peace process offers an example of a way out.

Some would say that the crisis shows the damage that can be done by just one ruler, in the shape of Erdogan, or indeed Putin in Russia. But, like Putin, Erdogan remains very popular and has had to tend with a scheming and dangerous political landscape, and with dangerous neighbours.

For the West, and the EU in particular, the reaction should be to stay close to the situation and exert what influence it has as a restraint on a Turkey that still craves a European association. To wash our hands of the Turkish crisis, or to impose sanctions or isolation, would be a mistake.

The irony is that the recent coup in Turkey was done ostensibly to ‘protect democracy’.

In Turkey, the army has traditionally been a bulwark for secularisation. This was the legacy of the country’s founder Ataturk, who much to the delight of the West, kept Turkey in the Western camp. But he was a dictator too.

Indeed in 1980, after a period of political chaos, the army staged a coup and imposed order. And, on New Year’s Eve 1981, when martial law was lifted for the first time since, I was among the many young backpackers in Istanbul who joined in the celebrations! It was quite a party. The soldiers were cheered as heroes, who had rescued Turkey from instability and ‘backward’ Islam.

Turkey has come a long way since then. It has advanced economically but is has also become more Islamic in a moderate way which is probably a more accurate manifestation of society than Ataturk’s repressive secularism.

Erdogan’s wife is veiled, for example. But his Islam is a long way from the radicalised Islam of the ISIS or the Gulf States. Turkey is, as Irish travellers well testify, almost entirely Westernised.

However, the Turkish President is volatile. He has reacted furiously to social media, stormed off the stage at a Davos discussion on Israel and gave the go-ahead for the downing of a Russian jet.

The hope would be that his shrewdness and common sense would prevail and he would see that any further overreaction would endanger him, as well as Turkey and the region. However, on current evidence, that realisation clearly hasn’t come yet.

Now that the UK has left EU (what timing!) it is really left to the Germans to fashion a response. Germany has a huge Turkish community and should be familiar with the culture there, including the political landscape. Being sympathetic but firm should be the approach – and not letting Turkey slip way.

Otherwise, we are facing turmoil in the near East and an end to meaningful cooperation on refugees and jihadis – the last chance that a shaken Europe needs right now.

Eamon Delaney is an author, former diplomat and founder member of think tank Hibernia Forum.

Washing our hands of Turkey’s crisis would mean chaos in the Near East (Eamon Delaney)

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19 thoughts on “Don’t Let Turkey Slip Away

  1. RonanF

    The West had great results the last time it disposed of a despotic leader. Turkey is the last buffer that Europe has, like him or not, Erdogan will keep that buffer. The West’s intervention would foolish to say the least.

  2. Tish Mahorey

    The Hibernia Forum is also something that needs to be closely monitored and not ignored.

    1. bisted

      ‘…The Hibernia Forum is an entirely voluntary organisation but welcomes the prospect of donations, however large or small, so as to keep alive the messages of liberty, economic freedom, job creation and prudent Government.’
      …another registered charity?

      1. Sido

        “So, for the rest us, this crisis couldn’t be happening at a worse time. We rely on Turkey, a major NATO member, in the fight against ISIS – Ooops – blew it right there Eamon.

    1. Sido

      “Some would say that the crisis shows the damage that can be done by just one ruler, in the shape of Erdogan, or indeed Putin in Russia. But, like Putin, Erdogan remains very popular and has had to tend with a scheming and dangerous political landscape, and with dangerous neighbours.”

      Statyng on line with the American State Department and EU agitprop – I see.

      1. Tish Mahorey

        Eamon ‘One Book’ Delaney is probably funded by the US. He spent enough time there to be indoctrinated. Spreading their ideology here now.

  3. jambon

    Eamon, you’re an awful eejit. This isn’t debatey time at whatever Jesuit school you attended. It’s real life, you have nothing to add to any actual debate, apart from your silly ‘I’m the best boy at debating’ face.

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