The 3 July military coup in Egypt rattled the Turkish foreign policy in the Middle East, where nearly, all the major countries in the region openly or discreetly backed the military coup in Egypt. The only country that took a clear-cut position right at the outset is Turkey, which in turn signifies new fault lines in the politics of the Middle East.
The statements from Ankara have been strongly condemnatory of the coup in Egypt. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said: “A leader who came [to power] with the support of the people can only be removed through elections. It is unacceptable for democratically elected leaders, for whatever reason, to be toppled through illegal means, even a coup… Turkey will take sides with the Egyptian people.”
One of the deputy chairmen and the spokesman of the ruling Justice and Development Party [AKP] Huseyin Celik spoke bluntly: “I curse the dirty coup in Egypt. I hope the broad masses who brought Morsi to power, will defend their votes… we have to applaud Morsi’s unyielding stance. Blood will be shed if Morsi supporters clash with the military and anti-Morsi groups… Yet, we do not say Morsi and his supporters should just swallow this coup.”
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself took to the high ground to ridicule the US-EU double standard. He asked, isn’t the West siding with democracy and making efforts to implement democracy in countries? This is a test of sincerity and the West failed the test once again. There is no such thing as a ‘democratic coup’. The European Union disregarded its own values once again by not calling the army’s coup a coup.
PM Erdogan, later refused to meet Junta appointed Vice President, Mohammad Al-Baradei by candidly questioning his democratic standing. He also underlined that his President in Egypt is Mohammad Morsi.
Turkish Deputy P M Bekir Bozdağ has rebuffed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks on Egypt in which he said the military did not take over but instead was “restoring democracy”. “Can you believe or laugh at this?” “Did the army establish democracy in the U.S. and the EU too? Coup do not build democracy, on the contrary, they demolish [and] massacre [people]. Just like in Egypt,”
Turkey’s vehement criticism of Egyptian coup has been heavily influenced by Turkey’s own experience with military rule. The Turkish military has intervened four times since World War II to overthrow democratically elected governments, all before AKP’s rise in power, a decade ago. The second most important factor is, its ruling AK Party which has Islamic roots, has cultivated close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and sought to build a strong strategic relationship with the country.
Writing for Al-monitor (11 July), Mustafa Akyol, a prominent Turkish journalist, acknowledged Erdogan’s stand on Egyptian coup: “AKP and its supporters use the coup in Egypt to defend their view that the Gezi Park protests that shook Turkey in June were in fact a similar “coup scheme.” They view the entire Gezi Park story as a made-in-the-West plot to topple Erdogan. So, when the same West exhibits a double standard regarding Egypt, shying away from calling the coup a coup, it becomes proof of the conspiracy. They see the West, through its secular puppets, as attacking elected Islamists on both sides of the Mediterranean.”
Writing for Al-Arabia English (27 July), Ceylan Ozbudak, an eminent Turkish political analyst, said: “Is Turkey perfect in how it is dealing with this coup and its outcomes in Egypt? Calling a spade a spade makes you reliable, whether or not we want to admit it. Calling it a coup was the right thing to do.”
The entrenched intrigue of U.S.-EU-Israel and members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that ousted Morsi has alarmed Erdoğan. The monarchies of the GCC can go to any level to save their own thrones. They feared the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region after the wave of the Arab Spring, uprooted decades old despots. Getting rid of the “Muslim Brotherhood,” the biggest democratic, Islamist force from the most populous country of the region, was their prime objective.
Erdoğan and his AK Party government officials have spent much of the last couple of years branding Turkey as a model for Egypt and other Arab Spring countries; the reverse is now taking place. Egyptian political developments have become nightmare scenario for Erdogan and Davutoğlu.
The coup in Egypt has sharply weakened the ‘pro-change’ bloc comprising Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and Tunisia. The transfer of power in Qatar has created deep uncertainties and the En-Nahda rule in Tunisia is now, very fragile. The coup in Egypt has profoundly impacted Erdogan’s post-Arab Spring strategy in the Middle East and North Africa.
Suffice it to say here that Turkey’s open condemnation of Egyptian coup, where the West with its ‘double standards’ is not calling coup a coup; and Arab monarchies are subsidising the Egyptian Junta may result in losses of Turkish business, political and strategic investment in those countries. Yet the moral high ground taken by the Turkish nation and its leadership will pave the way for more ethical, moral and democratic Middle East.
http://radianceweekly.in/portal/issue/political-implications-of-ban-on-bangladesh-jamaat-e-islami/article/turkey-lone-voice-in-condemning-egyptian-coup-2/#sthash.1ubDpjDh.dpuf
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