For Turkey, it’s all about their neighbors
By Gary Graham | September 18, 2008 | Turkey
The story of modern Turkey can be reduced to one simple theme. It's all about Turkey's relationships with its neighbor.
Our group of traveling journalists met with a number of officials in Ankara on Thursday, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the vice chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), an opposition leader and energy experts.
Turkey's neighbors play critical roles, whether it be Russia, which supplies more than 75 percent of the country's natural gas, the volatile situations in Iran and Iraq, or the European nations who represent potential trade and commerce partners.
Erdogan said Russia sends more tourists to Turkey than anyone else. By the end of this year, the number of Russian visitors could hit four million, he said. Tourism continues to grow, a fact accentuated by the fact that even Iran is now sending one million tourists annually.
Turkey has been increasing its profile in the region, reaching out to key players and brokering negotiations in contentious and difficult situations. “We have a saying, if your neighbor's house is on fire and you don't help put it out, it eventually will catch up with your house,” said Egemen Bagis, a U.S.-educated member of Parliament and vice chairman of foreign affairs for the AK party.
Bagis reflected the sentiment of several we've talked to this week about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. “Going into Iraq was a mistake,” Bagis said. Getting out of Iraq and leaving chaos behind could be even worse, he told our group, which is here for 10 days on a trip sponsored by the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
The war in Iraq caused Turkish public opinion in favor of the U.S. to plummet and it's going to be difficult to restore U.S. credibility here, various officials said. Erdogan said the U.S. failed to present a convincing argument to the world that the war was necessary. Erdogan said, “No country with a Muslim population was a member of the coalition” put together by the U.S. He and others said the first major positive step by the Bush administration took place in November 2007 when President Bush declared its support for Turkish efforts to combat the impact of the PKK terrorists who are waging attacks on behalf of Kurds in northern Iraq and inside Turkey.
Onur Oymen, deputy chairman of he opposition Republican People's Party, CHP, said what has happened in Iraq “goes beyond collateral damage.” Asked how the U.S. might restore its image here, he said, “The handover of Iraq will result in a better image among Turks.”
Bagis urged the U.S. “to tell the world\" that there are millions of Muslims living in the U.S. and they enjoy great freedoms. That, he said, would help the U.S image among the one billion Muslims worldwide.
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