{"id":41560,"date":"2019-11-13T17:22:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T17:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41560"},"modified":"2019-11-13T17:22:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T17:22:55","slug":"palestinian-death-toll-from-israeli-strikes-rises-to-22-gaza-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41560","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian death toll from Israeli strikes rises to 22: Gaza ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nMISSOURI: The vast majority of US policymakers, legislators, officials and even American citizens do not look favorably upon Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s official state visit on Wednesday. The honor of the White House invitation strikes many in the US as inappropriate and badly timed.<\/p>\n

\nThis, along with US President Donald Trump\u2019s Oct. 6 capitulation to Erdogan and his surprise announcement of an immediate withdrawal of US troops from the Syrian border, stand out as perhaps the only major issue to cause bipartisan opposition to Trump.<\/p>\n

\nEven as Erdogan meets with Trump on Wednesday, the US Congress is pushing forward with more sanctions against Turkey for its invasion of Syria disguised as a military operation \u2014 \u201cOperation Peace Spring\u201d \u2014 against \u201cKurdish terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIn recent years, Turkey has helped solidify Russian influence over large expanses of the war-torn Middle East at the expense of its traditional NATO allies, from whom it has steadily drifted away.<\/p>\n

\nAssuming that Trump\u2019s America (if not Europe) does not care so much about democracy or human rights norms, other recent Turkish policies make the collision with Washington and the Europeans abundantly clear.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\nTurkey helped Iran evade US sanctions for many years, leading to indictments against some of its officials and top bank executives.<\/p>\n

\nLast summer, Turkey purchased the S-400 air defense system from Russia, which is not inter-operable with NATO systems and could allow Russian technicians to gain valuable intelligence about American-made fighter aircraft.<\/p>\n

\nThroughout most of the civil war in Syria, Turkey backed various extremist groups fighting Bashar Al-Assad\u2019s regime. It allowed tens of thousands of militants to transit through its territory en route to Syria, without lifting a finger as they established their \u201ccaliphate\u201d right over the border.<\/p>\n

\nAfter also denying the Americans the use of the NATO airbase at Incirlik for anti-Daesh operations, Washington found its Syrian Kurdish allies to help them against Daesh. As soon as the Kurds had liberated the last of Daesh-held territories in Syria, Turkey insisted that it had to move against main Kurdish fighting force.<\/p>\n

\nWith its \u201cOperation Peace Spring,\u201d Turkey and its Syrian proxies successfully pushed the Americans out of most of Syria and forced the Kurds to turn to Russia and the Assad regime for protection.<\/p>\n

\nAs European leaders criticized the offensive, which many describe as a program of ethnic cleansing, Turkey threatened to unleash millions of Syrian refugees into Europe.<\/p>\n

\nThe ongoing fighting, chaos and displacement in northern Syria is also allowing Daesh captives held by the Kurds to escape, reinvigorating a movement that was on its deathbed just a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\nSmall wonder then, talk of expelling Turkey from NATO is now a mainstay in American and European media. Despite fierce Turkish opposition and lobbying, Congress on Oct. 29 finally passed a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\nAmerican attitudes towards Turkey were not always like this.<\/p>\n

\nIn the halls of US government and particularly in the State Department, there was a time when one could not overemphasize Turkey\u2019s importance or praise Ankara enough.<\/p>\n

\nIn the early days of the previous Democratic administration, President Obama often spoke of Turkey as \u201ca model\u201d for the rest of the Muslim world.<\/p>\n

\nWhat happened?<\/p>\n

\nPresident Erdogan and his Sunni nationalist Justice and Development Party (AKP) happened.<\/p>\n

\nAt the beginning of the AKP\u2019s takeover of Turkey, the changes seemed too slow or subtle to draw much attention. Following the AKP\u2019s first electoral victory in 2002, Turkey\u2019s military and secular old guard (known as \u201cKemalists\u201d) continued to wield a great deal of political power behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

\nThis Western-leaning old guard placed a great deal of value on Turkey\u2019s NATO membership, its relations with Washington and a general policy of not becoming too entangled in the myriad problems of the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\nThe first sign of change came just before America\u2019s 2003 invasion of Iraq. While few expected Turkey to participate in that war, top Turkish leaders and the military had promised the Americans they could pass through their territory to attack Saddam Hussein\u2019s Iraq from the north as well as the south.<\/p>\n

\nAKP parliamentarians surprised the old guard by voting not to allow American troops to transit through Turkey, effectively denying America its northern front against Saddam\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n

\nThe move proved extremely popular with the Turkish public, which despite a long relationship with NATO and the US, was never known for much pro-American sentiment.<\/p>\n

\nIn the following years, Erdogan managed to completely purge the Kemalist old guard and military from politics. He did so through his own charisma and a series of mostly fabricated conspiracy charges against his political opponents, aided by a growing economy and an increasingly strident anti-American, Islamist-sounding rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\nThe change in Turkey became most apparent by 2011, when the Turkish chief of army staff, the head of the air force, the head of the navy and the head of the land forces all resigned on the same day.<\/p>\n

\nOnce the Kemalist old guard was purged and the military forced back into its barracks, Erdogan and his inner circle could freely pursue their own foreign policy instincts.<\/p>\n

\nThese instincts seemed to call for Turkey to become more involved in the Middle East, to aspire towards regaining some of the stature and importance of its Ottoman forebears, to distance itself from American and European policies, and even to lean more towards the East and Russia.<\/p>\n

\nThese new foreign-policy goals put Turkey on a collision course with America\u2019s interests and those of other American allies.<\/p>\n

\nWhen the Arab Spring began in 2011, Erdogan\u2019s new Turkey supported Islamists in every Arab country rocked by protests. Erdogan himself reveled in the prospect of a new Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Middle East, envisioning himself as the neo-Ottoman leader of the new trend.<\/p>\n

\nHe bought currency for his ambition to lead the Arab and Sunni Islamist world by projecting himself as the Palestinians\u2019 indispensable defender, wrecking Turkey\u2019s delicate relationship with Israel in the process.<\/p>\n

\nThe mainstays of Islamist discourse include not only exploiting the Palestinian issue but anti-Western (especially anti-American) and anti-Semitic rhetoric, a promise to return to a \u201cgolden age\u201d of Muslim ascendance, and a penchant for authoritarianism at home.<\/p>\n

\nErdogan and his inner circle proved no exception to this rule. Erdogan and his party members continually accused the American ambassador in Ankara of innumerable plots against Turkey. They used dog whistle anti-Semitic language wherein the \u201cinterest-rate lobby\u201d and a \u201chigher mind\u201d sought to undermine Erdogan and his quest for a strong Turkey.<\/p>\n

\nThey spoke of \u201cliberating Jerusalem\u201d and insisted that any \u201cfriend of Zionism\u201d is an enemy of Turkey (which might include Washington, many wondered).<\/p>\n

\nThe Turkish minister of defense in October even posted a map online which showed northern Syria, northern Iraq, Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, parts of the Balkans and Greece, and all of Cyprus as part of Turkey \u2013 with the message: \u201cWe have no eyes on anyone\u2019s soil. We will only take what\u2019s ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe discourse fit very well with Erdogan\u2019s constant glorification of the Ottoman Empire.<\/p>\n

\nErdogan even built himself a $615 million, 1,100-room Ottoman-style palace in 2014, dubbed the \u201cWhite Palace\u201d (AK Saray). The palace includes a costumed honor guard of 16 warriors dressed in period garb from various Turkic empires of the last 2,000 years.<\/p>\n

\nAt the same time, Turkey under Erdogan became increasingly authoritarian after 2011, to the point than many wonder if the country can remain in a NATO alliance whose preamble states that members \u201c\u2026 are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAll of which makes many wonder what Erdogan and Trump will discuss at the White House on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\nWill the conversation include any talk of how Turkey damaged American interests in the Middle East; assisted Russia, Iran and Assad\u2019s designs on northeastern Syria; and provided Daesh and other militant groups there a new lease on life?<\/p>\n

\nDo Turkey and America even share any strategic interests?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MISSOURI: The vast majority of US policymakers, legislators, officials and even American citizens do not look favorably upon Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s official state visit on Wednesday. The honor of the White House invitation strikes many in the US as inappropriate and badly timed. This, along with US President Donald Trump\u2019s Oct. 6 capitulation…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}