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Spotlight: Amid row with EU, Turkey increasingly isolated ahead of key vote

Source: Xinhua 2017-03-28 01:44:58

ISTANBUL, March 27 (Xinhua) -- As a referendum on whether to turn to the presidential system looms, Turkey finds itself more and more isolated amid unending rows with European countries as well as discord with the U.S. and Russia over their support to Kurdish militia in Syria.

Ties with the EU have already been strained following last July's failed coup in Turkey, but things have gotten worse lately with the 28-nation bloc due to a ban on political campaigning by Turkish politicians.

Despite Turkish protests, Washington and Moscow are cooperating with Kurdish militia in Syria seen by Ankara as terrorists.

Meanwhile, Turkey's relations with its neighbors are not smooth either, although its ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), had boastingly talked, until not long ago, about pursuing a foreign policy of "zero problems with neighbors."

Turkey has strained ties with Iraq and Egypt, and does not recognize as legitimate the current Syrian regime and had contributed to the efforts to bring about its downfall until last summer.

Turkey's relations with Iran, a staunch supporter of the Syrian and Iraqi governments, are not smooth due to strong differences over regional issues.

The current Turkish foreign policy would result in "regional and global isolation," Huseyin Bagci, a professor of international relations with the Middle East Technical University (METU), told Xinhua.

Noting Turkey is showing resistance to the existing global system, he added, "Turkey is being dragged out of the system, because its policies are not in harmony with the system."

The Islamist AKP has long been criticized by Turkey's opposition parties for pursuing a sectarian foreign policy in the Middle East that does not serve the country's best interests.

"We are quarrelling with everybody and Turkey is getting more and more isolated," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said last week.

Relations with Germany and the Netherlands, Turkey's NATO partners, have soured after they banned some Turkish cabinet ministers from addressing Turkish immigrants early this month.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was not allowed to fly into the Netherlands, while another Turkish minister who entered the country by land without permission to address a rally of Turkish diaspora was deported by the police.

A war of words followed, in which top Turkish officials accused the governments of both countries of adopting Nazi and fascist methods by trampling on free speech.

The Nazi accusations drew harsh criticism not only from Germany and the Netherlands, but also from EU officials as well as other EU member states.

Officials from both Turkey and the EU have started to talk about ending Turkey's negotiations on joining the bloc.

Turkey may organize another referendum on whether to stop the accession talks with the EU, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.

He also underlined he would continue to call Europe Nazi and fascist as long as he is portrayed as a dictator by the West. The president harshly criticized the EU for treating Turkey without due respect.

Turkey will hold a referendum on April 16 to decide whether to replace the country's parliamentarian system with an executive presidency.

For Faruk Logoglu, a former diplomat who held top posts in the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the isolation facing Turkey is a self-inflicted one resulting from wrong policy moves.

"The ongoing confrontation with the EU and the resurging tensions in relations with Russia as well as with the U.S. are pushing Turkey out of its orbit," he told Xinhua.

Early last week, EU Commissioner for enlargement negotiations Johannes Hahn said the prospect of Turkey becoming an EU member looks more and more unrealistic.

He also noted he cannot rule out the possibility that the EU could soon stop negotiations unless Turkey moves to boost the rule of law at home.

EU criticism regarding perceived authoritarianism in Turkey has increased after the failed coup bid, while Turkey accused the bloc of protecting terrorists and taking too long to side with Turkey against the coup.

Shortly after the coup attempt, the Turkish government imposed an emergency rule which has been in effect ever since.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel adopted a more cautious discourse regarding Turkey's accession bid. In response to a question about whether the EU should end accession talks with Turkey, she said the union should wait until the vote in April to decide on the future of the relationship.

"The price is likely to be high for Turkey in terms of its weakening ties with the West, the end of Turkey's EU accession prospect, renewed tension with the U.S., increasing dependence on Russia, further deterioration in its ties with its neighbors," Logoglu said.

Turkey's ruling party and Erdogan, who headed the AKP, have been campaigning for "yes" in the referendum.

The constitutional amendments to be voted on in the plebiscite is blasted by most opposition parties for weakening the parliament, lacking proper checks and balances while creating an all-powerful president who would also have a strong control over the judiciary.

Yasar Yakis, who served as foreign minister when the AKP first came to power in 2002, warned that losing the friendship of many countries would be costly for Turkey as those countries may not extend support to Turkey in time of difficulty.

He told Xinhua that the isolation Turkey has been suffering is not anything new, but has been there for the past couple of years due to wrong policy choices.

Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan's current spokesman, described back in 2013 the isolation Turkey found itself in as "precious loneliness," indicating that was an isolation one would feel honored to suffer as it came as a result of an attitude based on values. Kalin was then a top foreign policy adviser to then Prime Minister Erdogan.

Germany's recently elected President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that Erdogan is jeopardizing everything that has been built over the years between the EU and Turkey.

Infuriated by the EU countries' attitude, Erdogan threatened that the union would be the biggest loser if it keeps up its discriminating ways toward Turkey and its citizens.

He said last week, "if you continue to act this way, no European, Westerner will be able to walk safely on the streets anywhere in the world."

Kilicdaroglu, the CHP leader, described Erdogan's discourse as dangerous, warning such remarks would mean that Turkey would carry out terrorist attacks in Europe if the European countries continue acting the way they do.

Kilicdaroglu demanded to know whether Erdogan was trying to say he is in charge of al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

The ruling AKP was accused both at home and abroad in the past of supporting radical Islamist groups in Syria to push for the downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

METU's Bagci described Turkey's situation as a "total mismanagement of foreign policy." Remaking the foreign policy is possible for Turkey, but not without changing attitude, he added.

Turkey is angry at some European countries for acting as a safe haven to militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and not returning, following the coup attempt, members of the Turkish military accused of being linked to Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen is a U.S.-based Turkish cleric who is accused by Ankara of masterminding the coup. Turkey says it's Gulen's sympathizers in the military who attempted the coup.

Many EU countries such as Germany, Greece and Sweden said they would not return the Turkish officers who sought political asylum. Turkey has also failed so far to convince the U.S. to extradite Gulen.

Germany's foreign intelligence chief Bruno Kahl said last week that they are not convinced that Gulen had a role in the coup, drawing sharp criticism from Turkey.

Turkey has also had problems lately with Bulgaria which accused Turkey, according to reports in local media, of meddling in its general elections held on Sunday.

Bulgaria withdrew its ambassador to Ankara about ten days ago. It also declared persona non grata several Turkish officials at the Turkish embassy in Sofia as well as Aziz Babuscu, an AKP deputy, the Hurriyet daily reported Saturday.

Around 10 percent of Bulgaria's population is estimated to be ethnically Turkish.

Amid rising tension with the EU, it came out that Germany is blocking the sale of some weapons systems to Turkey.

"The Turkish effort to compensate its problems with the West by getting closer to Russia is not paying off, given renewed hitches in bilateral trade ties and the sharp difference over Kurdish militia in Syria," said Logoglu. "Turkey has painted itself into a corner with its own mistakes."

Turkish immigrants, business people living in European countries would also get negatively affected by the rising tension, warned Yakis.

According to reports in local media, some European countries are considering to stop granting double citizenship to immigrants, a status enjoyed by many Turks in Europe.

In Germany, there are around 3.2 million people from Turkey, while the figure is approximately 400,000 in the Netherlands. France, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland and Britain are among the European countries where there is a significant Turkish diaspora.

Turkey should also expect to suffer all the consequences of this self-inflicted isolation, such as loss of trade, investments and tourism revenues, noted Logoglu.

Almost half of Turkey's exports go to Europe, while over 60 percent of the direct investments in Turkey are from European countries.

Turkey has failed to convince the U.S. and Russia against collaborating with the Syrian Kurdish militia which both countries treat as a legitimate partner in the fight against the Islamic State and other radical groups.

Turkey feels saddened by the interest the U.S. and Russia are showing in terrorist organizations such as the PKK and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), President Erdogan said last week.

"Turkey is now out of the equation in Syria and has no chance of playing a dominant role," remarked Bagci.

Turkey's military operation against the YPG was recently blocked by the U.S. and Russian forces.

Turkey has repeatedly said in recent months that its troops in Syria would move on to kick the Kurdish militia out of Manbij.

The idea of seizing the town, however, appears now to have been dropped due to the deployment of U.S. and Russian troops around the town in obvious support to the YPG.

Russia also established a military presence recently in the Afrin canton in Syria to monitor potential violations of cease-fire. The canton is one of the three cantons controlled by the Kurdish militia along the Turkish border.

A Turkish soldier on duty near the Syrian border was killed last week by gunfire from Afrin. Russia's charge d'affaires was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry following the incident to hear Turkey's protest.

In addition, some Russian generals were pictured wearing symbols of the Kurdish militia on their uniforms last week while they joined the YPG in spring festival.

Turkey sees the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK that has been waging an insurgency against Turkey for over 30 years.

Turkey is particularly concerned that the emergence of an autonomous or independent Kurdish entity in northern Syria may set a precedent for its own nearly 20 million Kurds and encourage Kurdish separatism at home.

Turkey only managed to mend its ties with Russia last summer after downing in November 2015 a Russian fighter jet bombing rebels in Syria.

The bilateral ties are far from having been fully restored. Other than differences on the Syrian issue, both sides are blocking the import of some agricultural products from each other.

"Turkey's security will also be negatively affected by all this because it is no longer clear what Turkey's zip code is," commented Logoglu.

 
Spotlight: Amid row with EU, Turkey increasingly isolated ahead of key vote
                 Source: Xinhua | 2017-03-28 01:44:58 | Editor: huaxia

ISTANBUL, March 27 (Xinhua) -- As a referendum on whether to turn to the presidential system looms, Turkey finds itself more and more isolated amid unending rows with European countries as well as discord with the U.S. and Russia over their support to Kurdish militia in Syria.

Ties with the EU have already been strained following last July's failed coup in Turkey, but things have gotten worse lately with the 28-nation bloc due to a ban on political campaigning by Turkish politicians.

Despite Turkish protests, Washington and Moscow are cooperating with Kurdish militia in Syria seen by Ankara as terrorists.

Meanwhile, Turkey's relations with its neighbors are not smooth either, although its ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), had boastingly talked, until not long ago, about pursuing a foreign policy of "zero problems with neighbors."

Turkey has strained ties with Iraq and Egypt, and does not recognize as legitimate the current Syrian regime and had contributed to the efforts to bring about its downfall until last summer.

Turkey's relations with Iran, a staunch supporter of the Syrian and Iraqi governments, are not smooth due to strong differences over regional issues.

The current Turkish foreign policy would result in "regional and global isolation," Huseyin Bagci, a professor of international relations with the Middle East Technical University (METU), told Xinhua.

Noting Turkey is showing resistance to the existing global system, he added, "Turkey is being dragged out of the system, because its policies are not in harmony with the system."

The Islamist AKP has long been criticized by Turkey's opposition parties for pursuing a sectarian foreign policy in the Middle East that does not serve the country's best interests.

"We are quarrelling with everybody and Turkey is getting more and more isolated," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said last week.

Relations with Germany and the Netherlands, Turkey's NATO partners, have soured after they banned some Turkish cabinet ministers from addressing Turkish immigrants early this month.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was not allowed to fly into the Netherlands, while another Turkish minister who entered the country by land without permission to address a rally of Turkish diaspora was deported by the police.

A war of words followed, in which top Turkish officials accused the governments of both countries of adopting Nazi and fascist methods by trampling on free speech.

The Nazi accusations drew harsh criticism not only from Germany and the Netherlands, but also from EU officials as well as other EU member states.

Officials from both Turkey and the EU have started to talk about ending Turkey's negotiations on joining the bloc.

Turkey may organize another referendum on whether to stop the accession talks with the EU, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.

He also underlined he would continue to call Europe Nazi and fascist as long as he is portrayed as a dictator by the West. The president harshly criticized the EU for treating Turkey without due respect.

Turkey will hold a referendum on April 16 to decide whether to replace the country's parliamentarian system with an executive presidency.

For Faruk Logoglu, a former diplomat who held top posts in the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the isolation facing Turkey is a self-inflicted one resulting from wrong policy moves.

"The ongoing confrontation with the EU and the resurging tensions in relations with Russia as well as with the U.S. are pushing Turkey out of its orbit," he told Xinhua.

Early last week, EU Commissioner for enlargement negotiations Johannes Hahn said the prospect of Turkey becoming an EU member looks more and more unrealistic.

He also noted he cannot rule out the possibility that the EU could soon stop negotiations unless Turkey moves to boost the rule of law at home.

EU criticism regarding perceived authoritarianism in Turkey has increased after the failed coup bid, while Turkey accused the bloc of protecting terrorists and taking too long to side with Turkey against the coup.

Shortly after the coup attempt, the Turkish government imposed an emergency rule which has been in effect ever since.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel adopted a more cautious discourse regarding Turkey's accession bid. In response to a question about whether the EU should end accession talks with Turkey, she said the union should wait until the vote in April to decide on the future of the relationship.

"The price is likely to be high for Turkey in terms of its weakening ties with the West, the end of Turkey's EU accession prospect, renewed tension with the U.S., increasing dependence on Russia, further deterioration in its ties with its neighbors," Logoglu said.

Turkey's ruling party and Erdogan, who headed the AKP, have been campaigning for "yes" in the referendum.

The constitutional amendments to be voted on in the plebiscite is blasted by most opposition parties for weakening the parliament, lacking proper checks and balances while creating an all-powerful president who would also have a strong control over the judiciary.

Yasar Yakis, who served as foreign minister when the AKP first came to power in 2002, warned that losing the friendship of many countries would be costly for Turkey as those countries may not extend support to Turkey in time of difficulty.

He told Xinhua that the isolation Turkey has been suffering is not anything new, but has been there for the past couple of years due to wrong policy choices.

Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan's current spokesman, described back in 2013 the isolation Turkey found itself in as "precious loneliness," indicating that was an isolation one would feel honored to suffer as it came as a result of an attitude based on values. Kalin was then a top foreign policy adviser to then Prime Minister Erdogan.

Germany's recently elected President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that Erdogan is jeopardizing everything that has been built over the years between the EU and Turkey.

Infuriated by the EU countries' attitude, Erdogan threatened that the union would be the biggest loser if it keeps up its discriminating ways toward Turkey and its citizens.

He said last week, "if you continue to act this way, no European, Westerner will be able to walk safely on the streets anywhere in the world."

Kilicdaroglu, the CHP leader, described Erdogan's discourse as dangerous, warning such remarks would mean that Turkey would carry out terrorist attacks in Europe if the European countries continue acting the way they do.

Kilicdaroglu demanded to know whether Erdogan was trying to say he is in charge of al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

The ruling AKP was accused both at home and abroad in the past of supporting radical Islamist groups in Syria to push for the downfall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

METU's Bagci described Turkey's situation as a "total mismanagement of foreign policy." Remaking the foreign policy is possible for Turkey, but not without changing attitude, he added.

Turkey is angry at some European countries for acting as a safe haven to militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and not returning, following the coup attempt, members of the Turkish military accused of being linked to Fethullah Gulen.

Gulen is a U.S.-based Turkish cleric who is accused by Ankara of masterminding the coup. Turkey says it's Gulen's sympathizers in the military who attempted the coup.

Many EU countries such as Germany, Greece and Sweden said they would not return the Turkish officers who sought political asylum. Turkey has also failed so far to convince the U.S. to extradite Gulen.

Germany's foreign intelligence chief Bruno Kahl said last week that they are not convinced that Gulen had a role in the coup, drawing sharp criticism from Turkey.

Turkey has also had problems lately with Bulgaria which accused Turkey, according to reports in local media, of meddling in its general elections held on Sunday.

Bulgaria withdrew its ambassador to Ankara about ten days ago. It also declared persona non grata several Turkish officials at the Turkish embassy in Sofia as well as Aziz Babuscu, an AKP deputy, the Hurriyet daily reported Saturday.

Around 10 percent of Bulgaria's population is estimated to be ethnically Turkish.

Amid rising tension with the EU, it came out that Germany is blocking the sale of some weapons systems to Turkey.

"The Turkish effort to compensate its problems with the West by getting closer to Russia is not paying off, given renewed hitches in bilateral trade ties and the sharp difference over Kurdish militia in Syria," said Logoglu. "Turkey has painted itself into a corner with its own mistakes."

Turkish immigrants, business people living in European countries would also get negatively affected by the rising tension, warned Yakis.

According to reports in local media, some European countries are considering to stop granting double citizenship to immigrants, a status enjoyed by many Turks in Europe.

In Germany, there are around 3.2 million people from Turkey, while the figure is approximately 400,000 in the Netherlands. France, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland and Britain are among the European countries where there is a significant Turkish diaspora.

Turkey should also expect to suffer all the consequences of this self-inflicted isolation, such as loss of trade, investments and tourism revenues, noted Logoglu.

Almost half of Turkey's exports go to Europe, while over 60 percent of the direct investments in Turkey are from European countries.

Turkey has failed to convince the U.S. and Russia against collaborating with the Syrian Kurdish militia which both countries treat as a legitimate partner in the fight against the Islamic State and other radical groups.

Turkey feels saddened by the interest the U.S. and Russia are showing in terrorist organizations such as the PKK and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), President Erdogan said last week.

"Turkey is now out of the equation in Syria and has no chance of playing a dominant role," remarked Bagci.

Turkey's military operation against the YPG was recently blocked by the U.S. and Russian forces.

Turkey has repeatedly said in recent months that its troops in Syria would move on to kick the Kurdish militia out of Manbij.

The idea of seizing the town, however, appears now to have been dropped due to the deployment of U.S. and Russian troops around the town in obvious support to the YPG.

Russia also established a military presence recently in the Afrin canton in Syria to monitor potential violations of cease-fire. The canton is one of the three cantons controlled by the Kurdish militia along the Turkish border.

A Turkish soldier on duty near the Syrian border was killed last week by gunfire from Afrin. Russia's charge d'affaires was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry following the incident to hear Turkey's protest.

In addition, some Russian generals were pictured wearing symbols of the Kurdish militia on their uniforms last week while they joined the YPG in spring festival.

Turkey sees the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK that has been waging an insurgency against Turkey for over 30 years.

Turkey is particularly concerned that the emergence of an autonomous or independent Kurdish entity in northern Syria may set a precedent for its own nearly 20 million Kurds and encourage Kurdish separatism at home.

Turkey only managed to mend its ties with Russia last summer after downing in November 2015 a Russian fighter jet bombing rebels in Syria.

The bilateral ties are far from having been fully restored. Other than differences on the Syrian issue, both sides are blocking the import of some agricultural products from each other.

"Turkey's security will also be negatively affected by all this because it is no longer clear what Turkey's zip code is," commented Logoglu.

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