Opinion, May 2003, Al-Jazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
Turkey finds itself at a critical juncture,
Khatoun Haidar
The Daily Star, 5/26/03
Turkey will shortly be due to its IMF
bi-monthly progress review. The results will determine eligibility to a
promised $500 million loan. Turkey is late on 11 of 15 pledges to the fund
that has already cut the latest payment by more than half because of
previous delays. The markets are jittery and investors on their guards
though the actual state of the economy is not different from May 6 when
the Turkish government was able to sell one-year bonds at yields of 54
percent, down from the 63 percent previously achieved in April.
The only difference is that today investors predict that the IMF will be
harsher on Turkey due to the deterioration of its relations with the US
following its stand during the Iraq war. The US is the largest shareholder
of the IMF and many say, “relations with the IMF are completely
political.” The US seems unforgiving: earlier this month US Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said that the Turkish government needs to
acknowledge its mistakes if it wants to mend ties with the US.
The actual state of affairs is putting serious pressures on Prime Minister
Erdogan whose party was elected on a platform promising to build highways
nationwide, increase agricultural subsidies, and create 1.5 million jobs.
The government seems cornered and the feeling on the street is one of fear
of the political and economic fallout of the Iraqi conflict.
The latest polls showed opposition to the pro-US policies over Iraq fall
from 80 percent to 41.5 percent. The main reason for the shift is the
worry about financial survival especially when Ankara’s expectations of
15 million tourists this year seem way ambitious.
Turks are afraid and feel alone. For long they relied on their importance
to the US: the only Muslim member of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, they share borders with Iran, Iraq, and Syria. And for long
they basked in the shadow of the military that is constitutionally in
charge with guarding the secular principles of the state. This time,
surprising the world, the Turkish Parliament heard the people, and the
army did not interfere. Even opposition nationalist such as Altemur Kilic
recognized that opposing the war was “Turkey’s democratic choice, but
defying Washington will cost Turkey dear.”
It is true that the US is using and will use all available means of
pressure to get Turkey back to play the role of the staunch ally that
never discusses the validity of American policies. But it is also true
that this administration while publicly proclaiming itself the defender of
democracy around the world cannot afford to undermine what it has always
proclaimed as “the only democratic state in the Islamic world.”
Let us not forget that the war in Iraq was fought under a motto of
promoting democracy. The US has also to walk a fine line between its
payback time urge and keeping Ankara away from the Iranian-Syrian axis.
Turkey, Iran, and Syria all border northern Iraq and oppose any step
toward Kurdish empowerment, self-rule or statehood in post-war Iraq. They
fear it would nurture the existing separatist tendencies among their
Kurdish populations. Turkey still has a few thousand troops in northern
Iraq to crack down on Abdullah Ocalan PKK rebels that withdrew into
northern Iraq after Abdullah Ocelan was tried and jailed in 1999. Now
Turkey is under pressure from the US to withdraw its forces, however
Washington cannot be seen as compromising with the rebels that it had
already labeled as “terrorists.”
Clearly Turkey is one of the few countries that still can be allied to the
US and keep a margin of independence aimed at promoting self-interest
provided that they step away from half measures and take a final turn
along the road of democracy, economic development, and social cohesion.
These steps will also speed up the realization of Turkey’s aspiration to
join the European Union. Besides a more pragmatic approach to the Cypriote
problem, Turkey has still to carry out a series of political and economic
reforms to meet EU criteria. The EU says that it will decide at the end of
2004 whether it will open negotiations with Ankara. The odds are now in
favor of a positive attitude towards Turkey’s candidacy.
Turkey is today at a conjunction in its history. A strong democratic
Turkey which is a member of the EU has the potential to play a leading
role in a region of the world where extremism is on the rise due to
oppression, hopelessness, and misunderstanding.
Khatoun Haidar is a Lebanese journalist. She contributed this commentary for The Daily Star
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |