Wither Turkey?
Since the rise of the Islamist AKP, Turkey has increasingly been moving away from the kind of secular government that President Obama rightfully praised as a model for others in the Middle East. Instead, The Turkish government seems to be lining up with the anti-West faction, led by Iran. Consider some of the following stories breaking this week:
Turkey, Syria to stage joint Military exercise, and engaging in a military cooperation agreement:
Turkish defense industry sources told Today’s Zaman that the letter of intent to be signed between the two countries is a sign of the level of political relations reached between Turkey and Syria.
“Otherwise, it does not mean that the two countries will immediately enter into cooperation in arms production,” the same sources emphasized.
The letter of intent is expected to be signed between visiting Syrian Defense Minister Hassan Turkmani and Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül either today or tomorrow.
Meanwhile DEBKA is reporting that Turkish arms and military advisors will be sent to train the Lebanese army, And Israel Matzav says he’s seeing Turkish news sites which seems to confirm that.
The good news, at least according to the Jerusalem Post, is that the Turkish military is none to enthusiastic about being told to partner up with Syria:
“The Turkish military is not happy about this. It does not like Syria, and views it as a problematic state,” said Prof. Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University.
Inbar added that he was in touch with a number of Turkish army officers.
My question is: Why? Why would the AKP turn towards the Iran-Syria axis, as opposed to other Muslim states (presuming of course that the AKP is predisposed to turn away from the western secular nations which it has previously allied (NATO and Israel).
Not being Arabs, are the Turkish Islamists more inclined to side with the Shiite Iranians over the Arab Sunnis states like Saudi Arabia and Egypt which are opposed to Iran’s hegemonic goals?
I would argue that it has less to do with Arab or non-Arab or Shiite or not-Shiite, than it does Iran’s (so far successful) attempt to make itself (and its partner in crime Syria) the center of Anti-Western resistance. This is also the reason that Sunni groups like Hamas and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood are siding with Iran, as well as Non-Islamist, but still anti-American, Anti-Israel Hugo Chavez. It’s unfortunate to see Turkey heading in this direction. Hopefully the secular establishment in Turkey will re-assert itself before they are firmly in Iranian orbit.