In a three-day visit to Paris this past week, Turkey’s charismatic President Abdallah Gül managed to win over countless French people, including many leading intellectuals -- but not President Nicolas Sarkozy, who remains adamantly opposed to Turkey’s entry into the European Union.
Last Friday’s Gül-Sarkozy meeting has been described as courteous but frosty. On leaving the Elysée Palace, Gül made no statement. Turkey recognises Sarkozy as a major obstacle to its European ambitions.
To coincide with Gül’s visit, some 400 events have been staged throughout France celebrating Turkey’s history, culture and contemporary achievements, including a sumptuous exhibition of Ottoman treasures at the Grand Palais, a vast glass structure just off the Champs-Elysées, in the heart of Paris.
No visitor to this exhibition can fail to be impressed by the power and sophistication of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over parts of south-eastern Europe and the Arab world for over 400 years until its defeat and dismemberment in the First World War. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk -- the creator of the Republic of Turkey -- carved the modern state out of the ruins of the Empire.
In France, President Gül’s intention was evidently to overcome the suspicion of Islam – and of Turkey seen as an Islamic power -- shared by many ordinary people. Large-scale immigration from North Africa, scare-mongering about ‘Islamic terror’, and the import into France of Middle East conflicts have all played their part in shaping negative French attitudes.
To counter such prejudices, Gül’s message was simple and direct: Turkey is a major country, with a global reach. Although Turkey’s population is largely Muslim, the Turkish state is democratic and secular, built on the rule of law. It is a force for security, stability and peace in the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. It is actively seeking to adopt European norms, and extend them to the region around it. Ataturk’s slogan of ‘Peace at home and peace abroad,’ remains the guiding principle of Turkey’s foreign policy.
If Sarkozy remains deaf to this message, it is certainly being heard in the Arab world, where Turkish influence is very much on the rise, together with a certain nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire which, with hindsight, is being compared favourably to the colonial rule of Britain and France between the world wars.
The Arabs have been discovering that, economically and strategically, Turkey is the region’s “big brother.” Its armed forces are the largest in the region, while its GDP, at over $1,000bn in 2008, outstrips that of Iran ($840bn) and Saudi Arabia ($600bn) -- without the benefit of oil revenues -- as well as that of Egypt ($450bn) and Israel ($205bn). As the 17th largest economy in the world, Turkey is a member of the G20, and played host earlier this month to the annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank.
In addition, Turkey has emerged as a potential peace-broker of Middle East conflicts, at a time when the European Union seems ineffective, because of divisions between its members, and when even the United States under President Barack Obama seems to be faltering.
In 2008, Turkey sponsored indirect talks between Israel and Syria -- a role it is prepared to resume when the parties indicate their readiness. By all accounts, last year’s indirect talks made good progress, and were about to advance to direct exchanges, until Israel’s cruel war in Gaza caused Syria to withdraw. Like opinion in much of the Arab world, Turkish opinion was greatly offended by Israel’s senseless brutality against a captive and virtually defenceless Palestinian population.
Meanwhile, the Syrian-Turkish relationship has flourished, with frequent exchanges of high-level visits. A free trade agreement has served to integrate the two economies while a visa agreement has facilitated movement of persons across their common border.
Turkey has been at pains to spread peace and goodwill across the region. It has been careful not to take sides in the Sunni-Shia divide; it has established good relations with the Maliki government in Baghdad, while pressing for the integration of the Sunni community in a united Iraq; it has tried to mediate between Palestinian factions; it has helped to bring about the recent Saudi-Syrian reconciliation; it is seeking to devise a peaceful approach to the Kurds in Turkey; and in Switzerland on 10 October, Turkey and Armenia signed a detailed protocol, laying the groundwork for normal relations between these ancient antagonists.
More acutely perhaps than most European countries, Turkey is aware that the Arab-Israeli conflict, if left unresolved, could explode into violence at any moment, with grave consequences for everyone. It is lending its strong support to President Obama’s peace efforts.
In brief, President Gul’s message is that Europe needs Turkey to help contain, and hopefully resolve, the many conflicts afflicting a turbulent Middle East.
Patrick Seale is a leading British writer on the Middle East, and the author of The Struggle for Syria; also, Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East; and Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire.
Copyright © 2009 Patrick Seale – distributed by Agence Global
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