Friday, November 6, 2009

"Get us rid of Erdogan" says WINEP to the Turkish army ...

WINEP's David Schenker does not trust Turkey anymore! Unless the Military (Turkish that is) sends Erdogan packing to comfort Israel.... ! Here

"The European Union has long debated the merits of Turkish EU membership. But now, nearly a decade after Islamists took the reins of power in Ankara, the central question is no longer whether Turkey should be integrated into Europe's economic and political structure, but rather whether Turkey should remain a part of the Western defense structure.
Recent developments suggest that while Turkey's military leadership remains committed to the state's secular, Western orientation and the defining principles of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the civilian Islamist government led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) seems to have different ideas. Ankara is increasingly pursuing illiberal policies at home, for instance by attacking independent media, while aligning itself with militant, anti-western Middle East regimes abroad.
The latest demonstration of Ankara's political shift was its cancellation last month of Israel's long-standing participation in NATO military exercises in Turkey. Even worse, on the same day Israel was disinvited, Turkey announced imminent military exercises with Syria, a member of the U.S. list of "State Sponsors of Terrorism."....
Ankara is simultaneously moving closer to the mullocracy in Tehran, even though the Islamic Republic is undermining stability in Afghanistan and Iraq by providing insurgents in both countries with explosives that are killing NATO and U.S. soldiers. The Iranian regime is also threatening to annihilate Israel,...
While Ankara's politics have changed, the military's pro-Western disposition reportedly has not. But over the past decade, the dynamics between the politicians and the general staff have been transformed. For better or worse, Western pressures have compelled the Turkish military to remain in the barracks (get them out NOW!), and refrain from interfering in political developments. Today, the Turkish military can do little but watch as the secular, democratic, pro-Western republic established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the early 1900s is undermined.
While it's still too early to write Turkey out of NATO, in the not so distant future, the alliance will reach a decision point. In 2014, NATO's next generation fighter plane, the Joint Strike Fighter, will be delivered. Given the direction of Turkish politics, serious questions must be asked about whether the Islamist government in Ankara can be trusted with the highly advanced technology.
It's time that NATO start thinking about a worst case scenario in Turkey. ......... absent a remarkable turnaround, it would appear that the West is losing Turkey. Should this occur, it would constitute the most dramatic development in the region since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran."

3 comments:

Really Amused Senior Founding Member of the FLC said...

Hail to SMI (Schenker Maximus Idioticus). He's baaaack!!! He continues to delight us with his pearls of wisdom. Now, he wants to kick out Turkey out of Nato, have a military coup, and what else?! Is there still someone out there who reads the crap that passes for analysis and policy recommendations in the US foreign policy establishment, Congress, etc? If so, no wonder the US is in deep trouble!

Anonymous said...

Indeed really amused. The stupidity on display is purely awe inspiring.

I think WINEP's real problem with Turkey is it said it would not support sanctions on Iran (itself partly due to the Nabucco pipeline)

Turkey sees itself as a bridge between Syria-Iran and the US-Israel axis. For the US to diplomatically attack and make threats to Turkey is neither smart nor to there advantage.

And of course most EU countries certainly consider Turkey an ally that takes positions it agrees with in spirit if not in actions.

Erdogan in his annoyance with Israel is simply playing smart domestic politics.

From the Turkish newspaper Milliyet during the Gaza war.

“There haven’t been such widespread and spontaneous anti-Israel sentiments before. It’s not just the Islamic circles. It’s also the secularists and the nationalists. The protests have been representative of the whole of Turkish society. I don’t remember seeing such a public reaction on any other issue before.”

The piece goes on to talk about a Turkish-Israeli basketball game that had to be cancelled when 3,000 protesters turned up in the stadium waving Palestinian flags and burning Israeli ones.

Erdogan being a politician knows he won't lose any votes by standing up to Israel.

Gonzolegend.

Anon 2 said...

The Turkey-Israel basketball game mentioned above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH0dKWqLVLk