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How WikiLeaks Cables Capture 21st-Century Turkey

(Washington Post) Jackson Diehl - Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reiterated during a visit to Washington last week that the clash between Israeli commandos and Turkish Islamic activists off the coast of Gaza in May can be fairly compared with al-Qaeda's attacks on New York and Washington. "It was the Turkish 9/11 - I repeat it!" he exclaimed. "Our citizens were killed by a foreign army." Actually, it wasn't quite that simple. The Turks were not innocent civilians but militants who sought a confrontation; they were killed by professional soldiers whose first weapons were mace and paintballs. Turkey is a member of NATO, a host of U.S. military bases vital to operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a major purchaser of American weapons. But is it still really an ally? Popular support has given Prime Minister Erdogan the confidence to undercut U.S. policy in Iran, cultivate anti-American Muslim dictators in Sudan and Syria, and make Israel a near-enemy. "Britain has a commonwealth" with its former colonies, Davutoglu reminded me. Why shouldn't Turkey rebuild its leadership in former Ottoman lands in the Balkans, Middle East and Central Asia? "At the end of the day we will have to live with a Turkey whose population is propelling much of what we see," Ambassador James F. Jeffrey wrote in a penetrating dispatch. "This calls for an issue-by-issue approach and recognition that Turkey will often go its own way." "The current cast of political leaders," he noted, have a "special yen for destructive drama and rhetoric. But we see no one better on the horizon."
2010-12-10 08:12:51
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