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American-Turkish relations and EU in the middle
by Thanos Kalamidas
2010-06-10 08:18:10 |
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Waiting for Turkey to vote against new sanctions on Iran in the UN Security Council Robert Gates, the US defence secretary did the most unexpected comment blaming European Union’s rejection to the country as the reasoning for this negative vote. And is fair to say that EU membership is very important for Turkey and obviously for the Turkish PM Erdogan the membership has become the ultimate target but that this is the reason for Turkish growing hostility to Israel that needs a lot of explanation for the American defence secretary if not telling us what’s really the truth behind his words.
For centuries colonial powers like England, France, Germany, Spain and others used force to expand, explore and exploit countries all around the world even in the same continent. USA acted more cleverly using corruption and manipulation with Turkey being one of the best examples. Establishing a manipulative and totally corrupted connection with the army, the real power behind the curtains in Turkish life and with a series of military coups and puppet dictators the Americans had an important ally in a strategic geographically area ready to obey any order even if that order was going against the general will of the people like good relations with Israel.
The majority of the Turkish people empathize with the Palestinians, support them in many ways. The only barrier behind an open support has been the official state that led by the army with the excuse of protecting the secular state has often alienated the nations from its natural allies in the Middle East where the ties are far beyond cultural and religion. And then came Erdogan, the man did his compromising with the deep state, the army – obviously otherwise he wouldn’t survived a second on the government – but he brought with him also an air of change. Using very cleverly the EU membership element he started changing sometimes softly, some others with force the Turkish state and gradually bringing it closer to the western reality. The same time he brought Islam in the mainstreams of Turkish politics demanding equal respect and establishing a new reality to Turkish politics, a reality closer to the people who are in vast majority Muslims.
Another thing the people have realized the role the US administrations played for decades in the interior politics, the serious decisions, the alliances and the alienations. There were periods that turkey found herself totally isolated from her natural allies because of her pro-American politics and it is known how hard the Turkish people paid the Korean War. On top of that the invasion to Iraq brought anew reality with the American embracement of the Kurds bringing back conspiracy theories about the Turkish trichotomy, a long nightmare for the Turkish state.
The reaction of the Turkish government to the invasion to Iraq, the change of cooperation that made US and allies to change invasion plans and logistics was the first sign of changing policies and had absolutely nothing to do with the European Union and the Turkish candidacy. The same time Turkey could not be an exception to her candidacy regulations the EU has apply to all candidates. And if turkey hasn’t yet fulfil all her obligations to EU, that’s something that has nothing to do with her position in the UN Security Council regarding Iran.
So what’s Mr. Brown’s problem? I have written it before and nothing has changed since the last time I wrote it. The reason the American administrations the last four decades, (this story really goes for so long) want to share the cost of the Turkish alliance with Europe. It is just too heavy for them especially under the latest global financial problems, the recession and the cost of the continuing Iraq problem and the war in Afghanistan.
Corruption and manipulation is an expensive sport and the Turkish deep state - the army status quo – is not used to sudden cuts; on the contrary they are used to sell their services very expensively. But this has to change since the American administration is running with a man who wants to do the difference for the American people and a Turkish PM who wants to end this background shadowing manipulating. But the same time Turkey’s strategic role continues being critical for the American plans in Middle East. So the EU membership becomes more urgent and any delay costs money to the Americans. And Mr. Brown knows all that. So when he blames the European Union’s rejection to the country as the reasoning for this negative vote the message is somewhere else and is up to the Europeans how they are going to react.
The same time this comment is another proves on how weak is the European foreign policy, how fragile is the unity of the European states and how easily the third biggest power in the world can become the black sheep of the American foreign policy and easy target. Somebody should have answered to Mr. Brown and straighten things out now but then again who is there to do so?
Ovi+politics Europe Ovi Turkey EU |
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