No, Turkey Has Not Abandoned the West

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system has recharged a hoary old debate over whether Turkey is moving away from the West. The accusations against the country range from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s alleged authoritarianism at home to undermining NATO abroad.

These charges are baseless. They point to a profound failure of understanding and a deliberate dismissal of Turkey’s legitimate security concerns, the regional dynamics in which it operates and the larger geopolitical realities.

The claim that Turkey is no longer a reliable NATO ally is groundless. On the contrary, Turkey has played and continues to take a crucial role in all major NATO missions, from Kosovo and Bosnia to Lebanon and Afghanistan. As a Muslim member, it has also played a key role in closing the perceptual and cultural gap between the Alliance and the larger Muslim world. Questioning Turkey’s standing in NATO is no different from questioning NATO’s integrity and relevance in the 21st century. As Admiral James Stavridis, a former supreme allied commander of NATO, notes, “losing the nation with the second-largest army in the alliance would be a significant geopolitical mistake.”

The recent tendency to paint Turkey as an outcast comes largely from two main issues. The first is Turkey’s decision to procure the Russian S-400 air defense system, which has led to a crisis with the U.S. The second is Turkey’s decision to continue exploration and drilling in the eastern Mediterranean, which has led to a crisis with the European Union. But it would be wrong to think these are the only issues that have landed us in the current crisis. The crisis is urgent and requires a broader perspective.

Alliance does not mean monopoly: it does not mean some members are free to impose their agenda on others. NATO cannot function properly when the security concerns of all members are not taken seriously. Turkey is no exception.

Turkey joined the Western alliance a century ago despite the fact that it fought a bloody war of independence against European powers. It has remained largely committed to the principles of multiparty democracy, rule of law, free markets and an openness to the world. After joining NATO in 1952, it became an integral part of the Western security architecture.

Over the past decade, Turkey has expanded its foreign-policy outlook—as the U.S, France, Germany, UK and others have done—in a multipolar world. This is based on the understanding that foreign policy is not a zero-sum game and the way forward is not a reductionist and exclusivist approach but rather a mutually empowering perspective. Turkey is as much entitled to protect its interests in the Middle East or Africa as France or the U.S. are, in these regions and elsewhere.

So the real question is not whether Turkey is moving away from the West but why Turkey’s legitimate security concerns are being ignored in a systematic manner. And there is a long list of these concerns. Turkey’s fight against the Kurdish terror group PKK has entered its fourth decade and the support it has received from its allies has been inconsistent and insufficient. Turkey has received even less support and sympathy in its fight against the Gulenists, especially after the July 15 coup attempt in 2016 when 251 people died and over 2,000 were injured.

Today, both the PKK and the Gulenists work freely out of Western countries. Turkey’s repeated requests for the extradition of the members of these terrorist networks have fallen on deaf ears.

Turkey’s security concerns have heightened after the Syrian civil war began in 2011. Even though Turkey carries the heaviest burden of the largest refugee crisis in recent memory, it has received little financial and political support. The decision by the Obama administration to ally itself with PKK’s political and military wings in Syria further damaged the bond of trust between the two allies. This policy, currently continued under the Trump administration, also poses a serious threat to Syria’s territorial integrity and political unity, and opens the country for proxy wars along ethnic and sectarian lines.

Turkey’s repeated attempts to purchase the Patriot missile system from the US have unfortunately resulted in no deal. What was worse was the decision by the Obama administration to remove Patriots from Turkey in 2015, while Turkey remained under threat from the Syrian war. Turkey’s efforts to purchase Patriots over the past two years have produced no results. The Russian air defense system became not a choice but necessity for Turkey.

A similar state of negligence and frustration has clouded relations between Turkey and the EU over the Cyprus issue. The Europeans know how much effort Turkey has put into resolving the issue since the 2004 Annan Plan was accepted by the Turkish Cypriots and rejected by the Greek Cypriots. By accepting the Greek Cypriots into the EU as a full member without resolving the issue, the EU not only violated its own principles but also committed a great injustice against Turkish Cypriots. Most recently, the Turkish side’s offer to establish a regime of fair and equal share of resources in the eastern Mediterranean has again been rejected.

Turkey is not moving away from the West or any other part of the world. On the contrary, it is expanding and diversifying its foreign-policy options. But it is being pushed away at the expense of the security and integrity of NATO. Instead of instrumentalizing Turkey for their short-term interests, our Western friends and allies need to treat Turkey as an equal partner and address its security concerns in a serious manner.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bobby Ghosh at aghosh73@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

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