Post by pieter on Jun 1, 2010 11:40:39 GMT -7
Turkish relations with the Middle East and North Africa
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Pilsudski of Turkey
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk created a radical shift in Turkish domestic and foreign policy by instituting a strong tradition of secular democracy, which had its roots in the West. Atatürk was an admirer of Enlightenment in many ways and made numerous reforms to modernize Turkey, based on the principles of positivist and rationalist Enlightenment, which he believed would foster educational and scientific progress. In this period, Turkey shifted increasingly towards the West, while culturally and ideologically distancing itself from the conservative mindset, practices and traditions of the Middle East, which were regarded by the Turkish revolutionaries as the source of the backwardness that had caused the Ottoman Empire to collapse.
In The New Turkey (Granta Books, 2005) BBC correspondent Chris Morris claims that “Turkey’s secular democracy, its application for EU membership and its close relationship with the United States have long been regarded in Tehran, Baghdad and Damascus with intense suspicion. Islamists look at the secular state which buried the caliphate and think ‘betrayal’; and Arab nationalists still haven’t forgotten that Turks are their former colonial rulers.” “But there’s been a thaw, especially since the AKP came to power,” and “the new Turkish model – trying to mix greater democracy and Islam together – is now the subject of curiosity and not a little envy.”
Algeria
Algeria has an embassy in Ankara, and a general consulate in Istanbul. Turkey has an embassy in Algiers.
Egyptian–Turkish relations
Egypt and Turkey are bound by strong religious and historical ties. For five centuries, Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire, with the seat of the Caliphate in Istanbul and the seat of culture in Cairo. Turkey established diplomatic relations with Egypt in 1925 at the level of Charge d’ Affaires and upgraded its mission in Cairo to Ambassadorial level in 1948. Both countries have embassies and consulate generals in each other's capitals. Both countries have signed a free trade agreement in December 2005. Both countries are full members of the Union for the Mediterranean. A natural gas deal between Egypt and Turkey—the largest joint Egyptian-Turkish project to date, estimated to cost $4 billion—is being implemented. In April 16 of 2008, Egypt and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding to improve and further military relations and cooperation between the two countries. Turkey and Egypt are among the leading countries of both the Middle East and Mediterranean regions, and are often said to be key in middle-east peace.
Iranian–Turkish relations
Turkish-Iranian relations have essentially been peaceful since 1923. There are an estimated 12 to 21 million Turkic speakers in Iran (the Iranian Azeris and Turkmens) who mostly live in the northern regions of the country. However, a period of coldness in bilateral relations existed following the 1979 Iranian Revolution due to the conflicting ideologies of secular Turkey and theocratic Iran. Ankara has long suspected Iran's support for Islamist organizations and militant groups in Turkey. Nevertheless, the economic and political relations between the two countries have significantly improved in the recent years. Today, Iran and Turkey cooperate in a wide variety of fields that range from fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, and promoting stability in Iraq and Central Asia. Both countries have strongly advocated Iraqi territorial integrity since the beginning of the 2003 Iraqi invasion. Iran and Turkey also have very close economic relations. Both countries are part of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and both were once members of the CENTO alliance. Turkey receives a significant number of Iranian tourists every year, while Iran is a major natural gas supplier of Turkey. Turkish construction companies have undertaken important projects in Iran, such as the new Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran.
In April 2010, Washington stepped up its efforts to impose a new round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. But key regional powers such as Turkey oppose the adoption of a new round of sanctions against Tehran. Some think-tanks such as the CEE Council have argued that the Iranian nuclear crisis could deepen the Turkey-US rift and trigger a new arms race in the Middle East, fuelled essentially by ideological motives.
Iraqi–Turkish relations
PKK fighters in Northern-Iraq
Facing strong domestic opposition in Turkey, a government motion to allow U.S. troops to attack Iraq from Turkey's border failed to reach the necessary majority in 2003. A primary concern for Turkey was an independent Kurdish state arising from a destabilised Iraq; it has previously fought an insurgent war on its own soil, in which an estimated 37,000 people lost their lives, against the PKK (listed as a terrorist organization by a number of states and organisations, including the U.S. and the EU).
BAGHDAD, IRAQ, MARCH 23: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (R) shakes hands with Turkish President Abdullah Gul (L) on March 23, 2009 at the Presidential Palace in Baghdad, Iraq. Gul is in Iraq, the first vistit by a Turkish head of state in 33 years, to hold talks with senior Iraqi leaders.
The United States' reluctance to threaten the relative stability of northern Iraq by launching operations against the PKK led the Turkish Parliament to authorise a cross border military operation in 2007. On February 22, 2008, the Turkish Armed Forces launched a ground operation in northern Iraq against the PKK rebels in a move described as the first significant Turkish ground offensive into Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003. The ground offensive was preceded by air strikes of the Turkish Air Force against the PKK camps in northern Iraq, which began on December 16, 2007. Turkey's armed forces stepped up their offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq on February 27, 2008 amid rising diplomatic tensions between Baghdad and Ankara. The Turkish military pulled out of northern Iraq on February 29, 2008. Turkish troops fired artillery shells into northern Iraq on March 5, 2008.
Israel and Palestinian territories
Turkey was the first country with a Muslim majority to formally recognize the State of Israel, on March 28, 1949; before Israel was admitted to the United Nations on May 11, 1949. Israel is considered by many as Turkey's closest ally in the world, after the United States. The founders of the State of Israel and prominent Israeli politicians such as David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Moshe Shertok had all studied in the leading Turkish schools of Istanbul in their youth, namely Galatasaray Lisesi and Istanbul University.
The history of the Jewish-Turkish relations dates back to the medieval Khazar Empire. The nobility class of the Khazar Turks converted to Judaism at some point between the last decades of the 8th and the early decades of the 9th centuries AD. Later, in the 14th-16th centuries, the Ottoman Sultan Beyazid II invited the Sephardic Jews fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions to settle in the Ottoman Empire. The later record of warm relations dates to the 19th century, when the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, himself of Jewish origin, supported the Ottoman Empire in numerous disputes, particularly in the Berlin Congress of 1878. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Republic of Turkey again served as a safe haven for the European Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust. A Turkish diplomat, Selahattin Ulkumen, is honoured as one of the Righteous Among The Nations for his work in rescuing Jews from Nazi officials on the island of Rhodes, by issuing them Turkish visas and later arranging for their transport to Turkish territory. Another diplomat, Necdet Kent, also rescued Jews from Nazi authorities, for which he was awarded a special medal by the government of the State of Israel.
Turkish diplomat Selahattin Ulkumen
Turkish diplomat, Necdet Kent ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necdet_Kent )
Israel has been a major supplier of arms to Turkey. Military, strategic, and diplomatic cooperation between Turkey and Israel is accorded very high priority by the governments of both countries, which share concerns with respect to the regional instabilities in the Middle East. In the book Israel's Secret Wars, Benny Morris provides an account of how Mossad operatives based in Turkey infiltrated into Iraq and orchestrated a number of Iraqi Kurdish uprisings to weaken the Iraqi government. It has been reported that the Israeli Mossad played a major role in the capture of the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in 1999. The Israeli and Turkish navies have conducted joint exercises. Turkey also provides its large air space (something Israel lacks) to the jets of the Israeli Air Force for training purposes, particularly the area around the Konya Air Base in central Anatolia. There is a plan to build a massive pipeline from Turkey to supply water, electricity, gas and oil to Israel.[81] In 2000, Israel and Turkey signed a Free Trade Agreement.
In the beginning of 2006, the Israeli Foreign Ministry characterized its relations with Turkey as "perfect". However, in February 2006, a visit paid by Khaled Meshal, leader of the newly elected Hamas, changed this status. Israeli diplomats went so far as to compare this visit to a possible official visit of Abdullah Öcalan (the imprisoned PKK leader) to Israel, but Turkish authorities immediately denounced this comparison as "irresponsible and erroneous". After Khaled Meshal paid an official visit to Russia, Turkish-Israeli relations entered a "cooling down" process. Some have suggested that this was only a public relations stunt to show the Islamic world that Turkey was on their side because Turkey had been silent in major issues important to Arabs and the Islamic community such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Lebanon crisis.
New flag for Gaza created by Turks on behalf of the people in Gaza
New tensions arose in Turkish-Israeli relations during the Israel's attack on Gaza in 2008-2009. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan became among the most outspoke critics of Israel's conduct in the war, referring to its military operations as a "crime against humanity". Although at political and military levels the two nations enjoy a close relationship, mass opinion in Turkey is generally sympathetic towards the Palestinians. Relations suffered a further blow when during the World Economic Forum in Davos at 29 January 2009, Prime Minister Erdogan walked out of the forum in protest, frustrated that he had not been given enough time to reply to Israeli President Shimon Peres. Erdogan harshly criticsed the President, stating Israel knew "very well how to kill".
Turkey-Kuwait relations
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Turkey describes the current relations at "outstanding levels". Bilateral trade between the two countries is around 275 Million dollars. The two countries have recently signed fifteen agreements for cooperation in tourism, health, environment, economy, commercial exchange and oil.
Turkish-Lebanese relations
Although matters between Ankara and Beirut have never been tense; relations between Turkey and Lebanon have mostly been coldly dormant owing to the former's quietness towards the Second Infitada because of its' closeness to Israel. However relations between the two countries have the hope of thickening because of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's actions during the Offensive in Gaza.
Sudanese–Turkish relations
Sudan has an embassy in Ankara. Turkey has an embassy in Khartoum. Although on opposing sides of the Middle East Peace Process spectrum, Turkey and Sudan have in recent years joined forces to end the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Both countries have made repeated plea talks during the offensive in Gaza during the beginning of 2009 to Palestinian officials to be of both economic and political aid to the turmoilic state.
Syrian–Turkish relations
Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, meets with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009.
Syrian–Turkish relations have long been strained even though Turkey shares its longest common border with Syria and various other geographic, cultural, and historical links tie the two neighbouring states together. This friction has been due to disputes including the self annexation of the Hatay Province to Turkey in 1939, water disputes resulting from the Southeastern Anatolia Project, and Syria’s support for the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). Relations have improved greatly since October 1998, when PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was expelled by Syrian authorities, with recent trade agreements and joint military maneuvers.
The Turkish-Syrian relationship has now become very strong and intimate as Turkey and Syria have cancelled entry visas and signed joint declaration of strategic council (October 2009)
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Pilsudski of Turkey
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk created a radical shift in Turkish domestic and foreign policy by instituting a strong tradition of secular democracy, which had its roots in the West. Atatürk was an admirer of Enlightenment in many ways and made numerous reforms to modernize Turkey, based on the principles of positivist and rationalist Enlightenment, which he believed would foster educational and scientific progress. In this period, Turkey shifted increasingly towards the West, while culturally and ideologically distancing itself from the conservative mindset, practices and traditions of the Middle East, which were regarded by the Turkish revolutionaries as the source of the backwardness that had caused the Ottoman Empire to collapse.
In The New Turkey (Granta Books, 2005) BBC correspondent Chris Morris claims that “Turkey’s secular democracy, its application for EU membership and its close relationship with the United States have long been regarded in Tehran, Baghdad and Damascus with intense suspicion. Islamists look at the secular state which buried the caliphate and think ‘betrayal’; and Arab nationalists still haven’t forgotten that Turks are their former colonial rulers.” “But there’s been a thaw, especially since the AKP came to power,” and “the new Turkish model – trying to mix greater democracy and Islam together – is now the subject of curiosity and not a little envy.”
Algeria
Algeria has an embassy in Ankara, and a general consulate in Istanbul. Turkey has an embassy in Algiers.
Egyptian–Turkish relations
Egypt and Turkey are bound by strong religious and historical ties. For five centuries, Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire, with the seat of the Caliphate in Istanbul and the seat of culture in Cairo. Turkey established diplomatic relations with Egypt in 1925 at the level of Charge d’ Affaires and upgraded its mission in Cairo to Ambassadorial level in 1948. Both countries have embassies and consulate generals in each other's capitals. Both countries have signed a free trade agreement in December 2005. Both countries are full members of the Union for the Mediterranean. A natural gas deal between Egypt and Turkey—the largest joint Egyptian-Turkish project to date, estimated to cost $4 billion—is being implemented. In April 16 of 2008, Egypt and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding to improve and further military relations and cooperation between the two countries. Turkey and Egypt are among the leading countries of both the Middle East and Mediterranean regions, and are often said to be key in middle-east peace.
Iranian–Turkish relations
Turkish-Iranian relations have essentially been peaceful since 1923. There are an estimated 12 to 21 million Turkic speakers in Iran (the Iranian Azeris and Turkmens) who mostly live in the northern regions of the country. However, a period of coldness in bilateral relations existed following the 1979 Iranian Revolution due to the conflicting ideologies of secular Turkey and theocratic Iran. Ankara has long suspected Iran's support for Islamist organizations and militant groups in Turkey. Nevertheless, the economic and political relations between the two countries have significantly improved in the recent years. Today, Iran and Turkey cooperate in a wide variety of fields that range from fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, and promoting stability in Iraq and Central Asia. Both countries have strongly advocated Iraqi territorial integrity since the beginning of the 2003 Iraqi invasion. Iran and Turkey also have very close economic relations. Both countries are part of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and both were once members of the CENTO alliance. Turkey receives a significant number of Iranian tourists every year, while Iran is a major natural gas supplier of Turkey. Turkish construction companies have undertaken important projects in Iran, such as the new Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran.
In April 2010, Washington stepped up its efforts to impose a new round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. But key regional powers such as Turkey oppose the adoption of a new round of sanctions against Tehran. Some think-tanks such as the CEE Council have argued that the Iranian nuclear crisis could deepen the Turkey-US rift and trigger a new arms race in the Middle East, fuelled essentially by ideological motives.
Iraqi–Turkish relations
PKK fighters in Northern-Iraq
Facing strong domestic opposition in Turkey, a government motion to allow U.S. troops to attack Iraq from Turkey's border failed to reach the necessary majority in 2003. A primary concern for Turkey was an independent Kurdish state arising from a destabilised Iraq; it has previously fought an insurgent war on its own soil, in which an estimated 37,000 people lost their lives, against the PKK (listed as a terrorist organization by a number of states and organisations, including the U.S. and the EU).
BAGHDAD, IRAQ, MARCH 23: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (R) shakes hands with Turkish President Abdullah Gul (L) on March 23, 2009 at the Presidential Palace in Baghdad, Iraq. Gul is in Iraq, the first vistit by a Turkish head of state in 33 years, to hold talks with senior Iraqi leaders.
The United States' reluctance to threaten the relative stability of northern Iraq by launching operations against the PKK led the Turkish Parliament to authorise a cross border military operation in 2007. On February 22, 2008, the Turkish Armed Forces launched a ground operation in northern Iraq against the PKK rebels in a move described as the first significant Turkish ground offensive into Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003. The ground offensive was preceded by air strikes of the Turkish Air Force against the PKK camps in northern Iraq, which began on December 16, 2007. Turkey's armed forces stepped up their offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq on February 27, 2008 amid rising diplomatic tensions between Baghdad and Ankara. The Turkish military pulled out of northern Iraq on February 29, 2008. Turkish troops fired artillery shells into northern Iraq on March 5, 2008.
Israel and Palestinian territories
Turkey was the first country with a Muslim majority to formally recognize the State of Israel, on March 28, 1949; before Israel was admitted to the United Nations on May 11, 1949. Israel is considered by many as Turkey's closest ally in the world, after the United States. The founders of the State of Israel and prominent Israeli politicians such as David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and Moshe Shertok had all studied in the leading Turkish schools of Istanbul in their youth, namely Galatasaray Lisesi and Istanbul University.
The history of the Jewish-Turkish relations dates back to the medieval Khazar Empire. The nobility class of the Khazar Turks converted to Judaism at some point between the last decades of the 8th and the early decades of the 9th centuries AD. Later, in the 14th-16th centuries, the Ottoman Sultan Beyazid II invited the Sephardic Jews fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions to settle in the Ottoman Empire. The later record of warm relations dates to the 19th century, when the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, himself of Jewish origin, supported the Ottoman Empire in numerous disputes, particularly in the Berlin Congress of 1878. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Republic of Turkey again served as a safe haven for the European Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust. A Turkish diplomat, Selahattin Ulkumen, is honoured as one of the Righteous Among The Nations for his work in rescuing Jews from Nazi officials on the island of Rhodes, by issuing them Turkish visas and later arranging for their transport to Turkish territory. Another diplomat, Necdet Kent, also rescued Jews from Nazi authorities, for which he was awarded a special medal by the government of the State of Israel.
Turkish diplomat Selahattin Ulkumen
Turkish diplomat, Necdet Kent ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necdet_Kent )
Israel has been a major supplier of arms to Turkey. Military, strategic, and diplomatic cooperation between Turkey and Israel is accorded very high priority by the governments of both countries, which share concerns with respect to the regional instabilities in the Middle East. In the book Israel's Secret Wars, Benny Morris provides an account of how Mossad operatives based in Turkey infiltrated into Iraq and orchestrated a number of Iraqi Kurdish uprisings to weaken the Iraqi government. It has been reported that the Israeli Mossad played a major role in the capture of the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in 1999. The Israeli and Turkish navies have conducted joint exercises. Turkey also provides its large air space (something Israel lacks) to the jets of the Israeli Air Force for training purposes, particularly the area around the Konya Air Base in central Anatolia. There is a plan to build a massive pipeline from Turkey to supply water, electricity, gas and oil to Israel.[81] In 2000, Israel and Turkey signed a Free Trade Agreement.
In the beginning of 2006, the Israeli Foreign Ministry characterized its relations with Turkey as "perfect". However, in February 2006, a visit paid by Khaled Meshal, leader of the newly elected Hamas, changed this status. Israeli diplomats went so far as to compare this visit to a possible official visit of Abdullah Öcalan (the imprisoned PKK leader) to Israel, but Turkish authorities immediately denounced this comparison as "irresponsible and erroneous". After Khaled Meshal paid an official visit to Russia, Turkish-Israeli relations entered a "cooling down" process. Some have suggested that this was only a public relations stunt to show the Islamic world that Turkey was on their side because Turkey had been silent in major issues important to Arabs and the Islamic community such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Lebanon crisis.
New flag for Gaza created by Turks on behalf of the people in Gaza
New tensions arose in Turkish-Israeli relations during the Israel's attack on Gaza in 2008-2009. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan became among the most outspoke critics of Israel's conduct in the war, referring to its military operations as a "crime against humanity". Although at political and military levels the two nations enjoy a close relationship, mass opinion in Turkey is generally sympathetic towards the Palestinians. Relations suffered a further blow when during the World Economic Forum in Davos at 29 January 2009, Prime Minister Erdogan walked out of the forum in protest, frustrated that he had not been given enough time to reply to Israeli President Shimon Peres. Erdogan harshly criticsed the President, stating Israel knew "very well how to kill".
Turkey-Kuwait relations
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Turkey describes the current relations at "outstanding levels". Bilateral trade between the two countries is around 275 Million dollars. The two countries have recently signed fifteen agreements for cooperation in tourism, health, environment, economy, commercial exchange and oil.
Turkish-Lebanese relations
Although matters between Ankara and Beirut have never been tense; relations between Turkey and Lebanon have mostly been coldly dormant owing to the former's quietness towards the Second Infitada because of its' closeness to Israel. However relations between the two countries have the hope of thickening because of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's actions during the Offensive in Gaza.
Sudanese–Turkish relations
Sudan has an embassy in Ankara. Turkey has an embassy in Khartoum. Although on opposing sides of the Middle East Peace Process spectrum, Turkey and Sudan have in recent years joined forces to end the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Both countries have made repeated plea talks during the offensive in Gaza during the beginning of 2009 to Palestinian officials to be of both economic and political aid to the turmoilic state.
Syrian–Turkish relations
Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, meets with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009.
Syrian–Turkish relations have long been strained even though Turkey shares its longest common border with Syria and various other geographic, cultural, and historical links tie the two neighbouring states together. This friction has been due to disputes including the self annexation of the Hatay Province to Turkey in 1939, water disputes resulting from the Southeastern Anatolia Project, and Syria’s support for the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). Relations have improved greatly since October 1998, when PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was expelled by Syrian authorities, with recent trade agreements and joint military maneuvers.
The Turkish-Syrian relationship has now become very strong and intimate as Turkey and Syria have cancelled entry visas and signed joint declaration of strategic council (October 2009)
