Turkey’s Preparation for NATO Summit

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was invited to the G-8 to be held in the US as a ‘democratic ally.’ Washington also sent a list to Turkey before the summit, asking it to look at the list and what it can do about each item. The list constitutes the smiling face of the Greater Middle East (GME) Initiative. The US wants to change the nations extending from Jordan to Afghanistan and create new political weaknesses, sorry, political powers through weapons of mass destruction. Among its aims are restructuring the media, expanding women’s rights, turning the economic structure into free markets and making parliaments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) more influential in the countries within the GME. The G-8 countries want to keep Erdogan with them as a witness and announce that they hold up Turkey as a ‘model’ to reach their aims. Erdogan will see everything as it is and maybe have new homework. Will the Middle Eastern countries take Turkey as a model and want to copy it? As we see from Egypt, very few are likely to.

During the EU summit to be held in Dublin on June 17-18, internal Union issues will be discussed. Following that, during the EU-US summit also in Dublin, the role to be given to Turkey will take on more shape. The US’ ‘Greater Europe’ plans cover the GME countries to some extent. At the end of this summit, the US and the EU might have the same stance towards the region.

US President George W. Bush will pay an official visit to Ankara before the month-end NATO summit in Istanbul. The agenda of his visit is as follows:

1. Turkey’s support for the GME.

2. Privileges to be granted by Ankara for the US on its own soil.

3. What Turkey can do in Afghanistan under the NATO umbrella and in Iraq under the UN umbrella.

We have been dealing with number two since mid-May. It’s expected that the US requests will be met before Bush’s visit. These requests, which caused disagreement between Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, are on Turkey’s agenda, and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) doesn’t like that at all. So it said this: ‘Yes, the US requested certain things from us, which depend on the 1980’s Defense and Economic Cooperation Agreement. However, we haven’t agreed to anything yet.’ But the US expects that its requests will be fulfilled by Bush’s visit. Bush will end his visit with the NATO summit, which will be important for NATO’s role as well. How to implement the GME will be decided there. It seems Turkey favors boosting the importance of the alliance.”