Turkey looks to the East
BIGGER than France, Turkey is a part of Europe and Asia adjoining oil-rich Iran and sitting astride the Dardanelles, through which the Russian navy's Black Sea fleet passes.
Turkey, a member of Nato, marks the Eastern end of the Nato defense line. Its strategic significance for the US and its allies is immense.
Turkey's growing diplomatic initiatives have led it to offer mediation in regional disputes -- such as those between the US and Iran, Iraq and Syria, and between Israel and Syria -- and enhanced its international stature.
Turkey has also played a positive role in trying to remove misunderstandings between Pakistan and the Karzai government in Kabul. The last trilateral meeting between the heads of states was hosted by Turkey months ago, following which hostile statements against Pakistan by President Karzai and his spokespersons have ceased observers say.
Turkey acts as a bridge between oil and gas producing countries in the Caspian region and the Middle East and Europe. Turkey, a country where energy needs are rapidly growing, has also become an important market. The main goal of its energy strategy is to strengthen the transit role of the country on the axis of the East-West and North-South, as well as to transform Turkey into the energy center of the region.
Turkey occupies an important place in several pipelines from the Caspian Sea in the field of oil and gas. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (Turkey) (BTC) pipeline is of great importance from the point of view of global energy security. The pipeline ensures transportation of Azerbaijani oil along the route, and since the opening of the pipeline in 2005 about 700 million barrels of oil have been transported.
With Turkey's prospects of joining the European Union growing more elusive because of opposition from France, Germany and Greek-dominated Cyprus, Turkey has been reassessing its foreign policy. Furthermore, as the economy has contracted in the European Union, Turkey, a large exporting nation, has to seek different markets.
As international circumstances change, national interests are redefined. Turkey has to adjust its foreign policy with the changes in the international and domestic environment, which has led the country's foreign policy to look towards the East.
Senior Turkish officials reportedly said that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was mediating between Israel and Syria just weeks before the conflict in Gaza broke out, felt personally betrayed by Israel's aggression in Gaza and what he regarded as needless killing of innocent Palestinian women and children.
Turkey cancelled air force exercise with Israel, straining ties that frayed in January when the Turkish prime minister, in front of world leaders attending the World Economic Forum at Davos, castigated Israeli President Shimon Peres for waging war in Gaza.
On October 25, Prime Minister Erdogan visited Pakistan for three days. The extraordinary warmth and high importance extended to the prime minister was evident from the opportunity afforded to him to address the Pakistani Parliament on October 26 as well as being decorated with the highest award of Nishan-e-Pakistan.
Local media reports said that Erdogan was the fifth world leader to address the joint session of the Pakistani Parliament.
The Turkish prime minister was accompanied by a strong trade delegation, characterising Turkey's desire to expand its economic ties with Pakistan. In an effort to facilitate this, the two sides signed a MoU whereby businessmen would be granted 90 days visa on arrival at their respective airports.
Significantly, this came in the wake of the container train service launched between Pakistan and Turkey in August this year, which will strengthen the bilateral economic contacts and help expansion of trade and investment.
The Turkish prime minister's visit will have a positive impact on bilateral relations, particularly in the aspects of economic contacts, trade expansion and institutional linkages.
In August 2008, Turkey welcomed President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for a formal visit. No Western country has issued such an invitation to the Iranian leader. Moreover, in contrast to its Western allies, Ankara announced recently that it would not participate in any sanctions aimed at preventing Iran from going nuclear.
On October 27, the prime minister of Turkey visited Iran. During the visit, he reportedly said that the West was applying double standard in pressuring Iran over its nuclear program. "Those who are chanting for global nuclear disarmament should first start in their own countries," he said.
Although questions have been raised in Western capitals about Turkish foreign policy, Turkish officials and analysts insist that the country has no intention of abandoning the West. Rather than re-orienting its policy towards the East, Turkey's minister for European Union affairs argued that the opening of its border with Syria, the signing of the historic agreement to establish diplomatic relations after a century of hostility with Armenia, and the engagement of Iran and other Muslim-majority countries will help Turkey become a more effective interlocutor for its Western allies.
To balance its relations, the Turkish prime minister is scheduled to visit Washington on December 7 to discuss a broad range of issues with President Obama.
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