By Salah Muradi
Following the strained relations between Turkey and Israel, Raceb Tayyip Edrogan, the Turkish Prime Minister embarked on an official trip to Iran.
Prior to this trip, the Turkish Prime Minister threw his support behind the Iranian regime’s nuclear program in an interview with the Guardian newspaper and referred to the P5+1 policy towards the clerical regime’s nuclear program as ‘unfair’.
Turkey is the only Islamic member-state within the NATO and as well as an important US ally in the region. Erdogan’s stance can bring about fundamental friction within the North Atlantic alliance in regards to regime’s nuclear policy, and can have downbeat blow to Turkey’s relations with the European countries and the US.
While the Turkish state strives hard to join the European Union, the government of Erdogan is becoming increasingly interested in tilting towards the Islamic world. This is also another issue that has braced the European Countries’ resolve to block Turkey accession to the EU.
Turkey’s support for the regime’s nuclear program, the clerical dictatorial regime and the newly installed government of Ahmadinejad is in sharp contrast with the policies of the European Union and its values of democracy and human rights.
Turkey can not shore up with an oppressive and obnoxious regime that is against all the western values, and at the same time expect the EU to agree to its membership request.
Erdogan accused Israel in the interview with the “Guardian” newspaper that the Jewish state wants to obliterate the regime in Iran, and by that count, the Turkish state espouses Iran’s policy towards Israel. Turkish policy towards Israel is becoming increasingly aligned with that of the Islamic regime against Israel. Turkey’s cozying up with the regime in Iran will distance the Turkish state further away from Israel and the Western states.
Erdogan’s government has initiated some unprecedented openings in regards to the country’s Kurdish question, and undoubtedly Turkey’s intimacy with the Islamic regime in Iran will have harmful impact on the process. The Iranian regime is facing the Kurdish problem of its own, and is very much disinclined to stand still and accept the reconciliation process in Turkey vis-à-vis the Kurds of Turkey and the Turkish state fearing that any such opening in Turkey might have a direct impact on the Iranian Kurds in their quest for self-determination and national rights.
Turkey has still not made up its mind in either joining the European Union and embracing the bloc’s democratic ideals or clinging to its traditional Islamic values of the Islamic world and the legacy of Ataturk. Choosing the Islamic world and particularly warming up with the tyrannical Islamic regimes such as the clerical regime in Iran will further hinder the democratization of the Middle East and resolving the Kurdish question in the region. If Turkey behaves contrary to this new approach, it can certainly assist in the stabilization of peace and democracy in the Middle East.
