Expert blasts AKP gov’t for ‘anti-American’ policies

Cagaptay’s remarks are seen as further evidence of widening gap between Erdoğan and pro-Israeli groups in the US

ÜMİT ENGİNSOY Monday, September 18, 2006
WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News

A leading expert on Turkey has accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government of steering the country away from pro-U.S. and pro-Western policies, also suggesting that an election victory for the ruling party “might well turn Turkey into an unrecognizable country, somehow democratic, superficially secular, and definitely not Western.”
Analysts said that remarks by Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy, a pro-Israeli think tank here, was an indication of a widening gap between Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) and pro-Israeli groups in the U.S. capital.
“The AKP experience in Turkey shows that, once in government, Islamist parties bring about change in unexpected ways,” Cagaptay said. “The AKP's foreign policy is scratching away the Turks' sense of national identity, while infusing Turkish society with a strong sense of Muslim nationalism. In the rift between the West and the Muslim world, Turkey is fast approaching the tipping point at which ‘the cat will not walk back.'”
He was addressing a Sept. 14 hearing titled “Is There a Clash of Civilizations? Islam, Democracy, and U.S. Middle East and Central Asia Policy” at the Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia of the House of Representatives Committee on International Relations.
The AKP won a landslide victory in Turkey's November, 2002 general elections, obtaining an overwhelming majority in parliament. Turkey faces two critical elections next year, a parliamentary vote for the next president in the spring and new legislative polls in the fall.
Cagaptay said that Turkey had followed a quite predictable foreign policy, cooperating enthusiastically with Washington in the Middle East and the Balkans, aligning itself with Israel and keeping at arms length from radical neighbors such as Iran and Syria, before the AKP came to power.
“Today, though, the picture looks much different. U.S.-Turkish relations are strained on almost all Middle East issues. From their views of terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah to dealing with Iran and Syria, the United States and Turkey have developed vastly disparate positions since the AKP's rise to power,” he said.
Blaming the AKP for the Turkish Parliament's refusal to allow U.S. forces to use Turkish territory on the eve of the 2003 Iraq war, Cagaptay said: “The AKP's anti-American rhetoric has caused a shift in Turkish public opinion towards the United States, while the party has pursued rapprochement with Muslim states in the Middle East. Accordingly, Turkish and U.S. views of the region have diverged significantly.”
He particularly criticized Erdoğan for pursuing close ties with Iran and Syria, two U.S. foes in the Middle East.
“While the AKP has pursued a policy of rapprochement with Syria and Iran, Turkish attitudes toward the United States have soured significantly,” Cagaptay said.
He said Washington was also partly responsible for the deteriorating ties. “Some of the blame lies with Washington. The United States's unwillingness to take action against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq is a source of frustration. Lately, Turkish casualties resulting from PKK attacks have been mounting at a rate close to that experienced by U.S. forces in Iraq. The civilian carnage in Iraq itself has added to the Turkish frustration.”
Cagaptay criticized the AKP government's position on Israel. “The AKP is also alienating Turkey's other traditional ally in the region, Israel. A good example came earlier this year when Erdoğan invited the leader of Hamas' military wing, Khaled Mashal, to Ankara, despite criticism from the West and pro-Western Turks. The AKP continues to defend the visit, keeps contacts with Mashal, and opposes Western efforts to isolate Hamas,” he said.
“Will secular, Western-minded Turks, long unable to provide a captivating political message, successfully challenge the AKP [in the elections], and will the United States support such an initiative? If not, a second AKP government might well turn Turkey into an unrecognizable country, somehow democratic, superficially secular, and definitely not Western,” Cagaptay said, summing up his presentation.
Sources here said that Cagaptay's colleagues at the Washington Institute shared his views on the AKP government's policies.
Earlier other Washington experts -- including Frank Gaffney, director of the right-wing think tank Center for Security Policy, and Michael Rubin, a specialist with the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) -- had been vocal in their accusations of anti-secular and anti-Western policies from Erdoğan and his government.
Both Gaffney and the AEI's experts publicly are known as pro-Israeli neoconservatives, or foreign policy hawks particularly on Middle Eastern matters. The Washington Institute also is known for its pro-Israeli position, but many of its experts are Democrats who hardly can be associated with the neoconservative movement.
“The bottom-line is that many U.S. Jewish groups are increasingly frustrated with Erdoğan and his government,” said one analyst here.
Erdoğan and his aides strongly reject criticism that they are seeking to steer Turkey away from the West, saying that Ankara's progress toward full European Union membership -- that gained momentum during the AKP tenure -- is solid evidence that they are continuing with the country's Western orientation.