Thursday, April 4, 2013

How Turkey's regional ambitions crumbled

By Ramzy Baroud
Asia Times

"Pre-Arab Spring Turkey seemed to have found a magical non-confrontational formula to resolve historic regional tensions, with the ruling Justice and Development Party proclaiming its re-election victory in 2011 as a win for countries stretching from the Balkans to North Africa and Central Asia. The euphoria died when the flames of Syria's sectarian violence licked Turkey's borders, forcing it back towards Israel.......

"Confused" may be an appropriate term to describe Turkey's current foreign policy in the Middle East and in Israel in particular. The source of that confusion - aside from the appalling violence in Syria and earlier in Libya - is Turkey's own mistakes.

The Turkish government's inconsistency regarding Israel highlights earlier discrepancies in other political contexts.......

Erdogan's office responded: "Erdogan told Benyamin Netanyahu that he valued the centuries-long strong friendship and cooperation between the Turkish and Jewish nations." According to Netanyahu, the apology over the "operational mistakes" had everything to do with the need to share intelligence over Syria between both of the countries' militaries. To balance out Turkey's hurried retreat to its old political foreign policy, Erdogan is reportedly planning to visit Gaza in April......"

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