Explaining Anti-American Turkey's Plea for U.S. Intervention in
Syria (Zaman, Turkey)
"Washington come under fire whether it intervenes in the
region (in Libya) or it does not (in Syria). ... Pleas to the United States for
help toppling Assad, in particular from Turkey, stand out against the backdrop
of continuing strong anti-Americanism. The Pew Research Center's Global
Attitudes Project has, for many years, listed Turks as among the world
champions of anti-Americanism."
Pew Center polls consistently show Turks as some of the world's most anti-American people. Why do Turks so dislike America? And why is their government seeking U.S. intervention right next door? Columnist Joost Lagendijk investigates.
Prime
Minister RecepTayyipErdoğan, Foreign Minister AhmetDavutoğlu, and other ministers will visit the United
States this week. It is obvious that the main agenda items will have to do with
the situation in Syria.
The
Turkish government will, once again, try to convince their American
counterparts of the need to supply the moderate wing of the Syrian resistance
with weapons and guarantee the establishment of safe corridors or a no-fly zone
along the Turkish-Syrian border. The Obama Administration, once again, will
explain that they are deeply concerned about Syria's bloody civil war,
understand Turkey's concerns, but are unable or willing to respond positively
to Turkey's requests. This is either because they don't trust the Syrian rebels
or because establishing Assad-free zones in northern Syria would be too
complicated. Washington has settled on a new diplomatic initiative with Moscow,
and most likely, at the end of their U.S. visit, Erdoğan
and Davutoğlu will reluctantly express their
support for this initiative - and which deep down, they don't believe in.
In
my view, it is less remarkable that U.S. President Obama wants to stay out of
the Syrian swamp than that Ankara is so insistent on American intervention. This
once again shows how rapidly and impetuously expectations change about U.S. Middle
East policy. Ten years ago, for good reason, an overwhelming majority of Turks protested
the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Two years ago, the Turkish government, responding to
popular criticism, initially spoke out against joint U.S.-European military
intervention to save Libya's opposition in Benghazi, then suddenly change its
mind. Washington come under fire whether it intervenes in the region (in Libya)
or it does not (in Syria).
Pleas
to the United States for help toppling Assad, in particular from Turkey, stand
out against the backdrop of continuing strong anti-Americanism. The Pew
Research Center's Global Attitudes Project has, for many years, listed
Turks as among the world champions of anti-Americanism. A survey from 2012 showed
that 72 percent of Turks rate the U.S. unfavorably, with only 15 percent holding
positive perceptions. Only Pakistan and Jordan are more critical of Americans.
Mush
has been said and written about the incredible unpopularity of the United
States in the eyes of so many Turks over the last few years. While some
analysts point toward a deep hatred of American culture and civilization, most
observers believe anti-Americanism in Turkey is tied directly to extremely
detested U.S. policies in the region, first and foremost the 2003 Iraq invasion,
which caused a precipitous rise in Turkish disapproval.
Washington
insider ÖmerTaşpınar
knows his way around this issue, and in one of his Zaman columns last year, added an
interesting dimension, linking anti-Americanism to Turkey's own issues of
identity regarding the Kurdish question and political Islam. According to Taşpınar, across the board, Turks accuse America
of nurturing the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and
harboring plans to create an independent Kurdistan. Taşpınar
wrote: “Most secular Turks blame America for promoting "moderate Islam"
in Turkey, and using the AKP [Justice and Development
Party] to erode Kemalist secularism. Pious Turks are equally angry at
the U.S. because of its anti-Muslim policies and support for military coups.”
Posted By
Worldmeets.US
In
a recent article on Arab anti-Americanism in Foreign Affairs magazine, Marc Lynch, director of the Institute for
Middle East Studies at George Washington University, gave a unique twist to Taşpınar's argument. According to Lynch,
Islamists are in the process of changing their position on the U.S. He writes:
“For all their cultural and political antipathy toward the United States, the Islamists
are becoming the regime-incumbents benefiting from American support. They no
longer represent the vanguard of anti-American sentiment: that role has fallen,
ironically, to leftist and liberal opposition movements who might abstractly identify
with American values, but remain marginalized in a U.S.-backed status quo [translated
quote]."
Lynch's
observations, combined with Taşpınar's, may
corrspond to the specific situation in Turkey. If not,
explain why the AKP, assisted by Washington in its
effort to resolve the Kurdish issue, is so keen on U.S. involvement in Syria;
and the Republican People's Party (Turkey's opposition) is so vehemently
opposed?
