Turkey & the West: Implications for Central Asia

Well, it's been going on for at least three years: a persistent damaging, punitive group of slights by the West to one of its best friends.  This past week it's gone from insulting to abusive, so it's really past time to say something.  These are the events:

1. Turkey, continually worried at the conflict pressures on their southern border, is poised to enter Kurdistan/Northern Iraq.

2. Turkey, working on reforms and Europeanization mechanisms, is due for another review of its status on integration with the EU.  Indications appear to be that they will be fobbed off yet again.

3. Turkey, the successor to the Ottoman Empire, has been this week a target of Congressional sanctions for the Armenian genocide. 

I’m going to briefly write on all three of these issues and then tie it in to Western strategic concerns with Central Asia . . .

Iraq/Kurdistan 
Since the beginning of the Iraq War, Turkey has been of immense value to the U.S. in terms of border stability to the North and the supply chain through its military bases.  Unfortunately, “taking the war to the terrorists” has been a huge burden on those terrorists’ neighbors.  For Eastern/Southern Turkey, this burden has been at times fatal and always dangerous.  Some of the terrorists reside in Kurdistan and desire Kurdish separatism. 

These extreme Kurdish separatists envision a Kurdistan which is not completely within Iraq's old border, but rather also impede into Turkey's sovereign territory.  The relative stability of Northern Iraq as opposed to say, Baghdad or Basra, is not a sign of absolute stability–in fact, there have been Kurdish PKK and PKK splinter groups that have bombed sites in Turkey.  That “relative stability” gives these extremist elements a “safe haven” to fight their own battles to the North and ignore the battles to the South.  Turkey has the right to safeguard its interests, however inconvenient it may be to the rest of us who are safeguarding our own.  The remarkable part is that Turkey has delayed its own security needs on the request of others, clearly looking for a consensus on the part of all.  But they cannot do so forever.

EU Integration
I don't have to say much here, because Lord/Christopher Patten over at the International Crisis Group has said most of it: Turkey has been a staunch ally through NATO for years.  Its military government was once the price paid to ensure Soviet deterrence–and now that history, which saved Europe much grief, is being used against them. 

Second, Turkey is important as a distribution avenue for oil and gas: from Russia, Iran, and the Caspian Sea.  Safeguarding that relationship is extremely important. 

Third, Turkey has been indispensible as a go-between between the West and Middle East/North Africa.  the position of go-between is one of those thankless jobs–one is always carrying the bulk of expectation from both sides.  Yet Turkey's work toward world integration is not being rewarded with a bona-fide offer of regional integration.  And yes, “being fair” has nothing to do with the issue by itself: but treating the West's agent to the East with respect would be, however, an indicator of sincerity on the part of the West toward predominantly Islamic states.

Genocide
Let's get this straight right now: I know from the inside of my spine and all the way outward that mass murder and genocide are atrocities.  I also know that acknowledgement is supposed to bring healing and resolution.  In 1919, a Turkish military tribunal sentenced the leaders of the 1915 genocide to death.  This is used as evidence that the genocide occurred.  It is not used, by at least one Armenian advocacy group, to show that the genocide was punished. 

Obviously, some resolution needs to occur past the tribunal.  But continuing to relegate Turkey to a ghetto of nations (where other nations with genocide on their record do not reside) is counter-productive.  Furthermore, the way that this gets used against Turkey is not geared toward a coordinated effort at resolution, but devolves into one incident after another, unrelated to a constructive resolution, and therefore unsolvable.  Most of all: we need Turkey to help us solve the genocides of today, in Africa and the Middle East.

Central Asia Connection
I have already alluded to the Caspian Sea-Turkey energy connection and to Turkey's tireless work in developing relationships that include the West in predominantly Islamic countries.  right now, Turkey's relationship to Kazakhstan aids in obtaining oil sales for the West, and for transit countries of the BTC pipeline: Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey itself.  Mediterranean oil port Ceyhan, in Turkey, ships petroleum to Europe and Japan. 

Furthermore, the famed isolation of Turkmenistan has been alleviated, mostly sub rosa, by the work of Turkish firms in Turkmenistan's textile business.  Very few multinational companies exist in Turkmenistan, but Turkey has been one of them.  By itself, this proves nothing: except that in mainstream discourse, we have omitted Turkey's contributions to globalization in Central Asia and elsewhere. 

So. my fellow Westerners: let's think again about dissing our best friend and most faithful representative out there in the world at large.  Those whom we would like to have as friends watch us: they see how we treat the friends we already have. 

Further Reading:
Armenian National Institute–dedicated to the Armenian Genocide
Bay Fang on the U.S. Congressional relationship to Turkey at the Baltimore Sun's “Swamp”
Proceedings from the Brookings Institution on a great event featuring Turkey, with Ambassador Holbrooke's comments.
Europe needs Turkey: an editorial from 2003 by Omar Taspinar

Maps: Indiana.edu; Kurdish Connection.com; BTC Investment.com