Turkey Becomes Partner of China, Russia-led Security Bloc and Declares Its Destiny is Asia

Turkey becomes partner of China, Russia-led security bloc

April 26, 2013

Reuters - NATO member Turkey signed up on Friday to became a "dialogue partner" of a security bloc dominated by China and Russia, and declared that its destiny is in Asia.

"This is really a historic day for us," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty after signing a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev.

"Now, with this choice, Turkey is declaring that our destiny is the same as the destiny of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries."

China, Russia and four Central Asian nations - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - formed the SCO in 2001 as a regional security bloc to fight threats posed by radical Islam and drug trafficking from neighboring Afghanistan.

Since then, Central Asia's former imperial master Russia has watched with unease China's economic expansion in the resource-rich region, with Beijing investing billions of dollars in oil and gas and issuing large loans to local governments.

Turkey has displayed interest in closer ties with the SCO at a time when it is upset by the slow progress of accession talks with the European Union. Ankara began talks on joining the EU in 2005 but has only completed one of the 35 policy areas, or "chapters", every candidate must conclude to be allowed entry due to disagreements largely over the divided island of Cyprus.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has called Turkey's wait to join the bloc "unforgivable" and has accused Brussels of not being a fair or genuine negotiating partner.

While China vies with Russia and the West for access to Central Asia's vast natural resources, some analysts view the SCO as a potential counter-balance to NATO.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan speak Turkic languages, and while pledging to cooperate with the SCO economically and in fighting terrorist threats and drug trade together, Davutoglu stressed common historic roots.

"Turkey will be part of a family, which is composed of the countries which lived together not for centuries - for millennia," he said.

Turkey's "dialogue partner" status, also granted to Sri Lanka and ex-Soviet state Belarus, is below that of observer status held by India, Pakistan, Mongolia, Iran and Afghanistan which participate in SCO meetings but have no right to vote.

Davutoglu, upbeat and smiling, stressed however that this status was "just the beginning".

"I hope at the next summit in (the Kyrgyz capital) Bishkek we will be present, as well as at ministerial meetings," Davutoglu said. "This is the beginning of a long way, walking together, hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder."

Kerry urges Turkey, Israel to take steps to normalizing ties

April 7, 2013

Reuters - Secretary of State John Kerry urged Turkey and Israel on Sunday to restore full relations, calling this vital to regional stability, but said it was not up to Washington to dictate the conditions of rapprochement.

An Israeli-Turkish reconciliation could improve regional coordination to contain spillover from the Syrian civil war and ease Israel's diplomatic isolation in the Middle East as it faces the challenge of Iran's nuclear program.

Kerry said it was imperative for Israel to honor its commitment to pay compensation to the families of those who were killed by Israeli marines aboard a Turkish vessel trying to break a naval blockade on Gaza in 2010, and for both countries to return their ambassadors.

He was speaking in Istanbul some two weeks after President Barack Obama brokered a thaw between Turkey and Israel, whose relations were frozen by the killing of nine Turkish citizens in that raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.

"With respect to the Israel-Turkey track, it is not for the United States to be setting conditions or terms," Kerry told reporters alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"We would like to see this relationship that is important to stability in the Middle East, critical to the peace process itself, we would like to see this relationship get back on track in its full measure," he said.

"To be back on track in its full measure it is imperative that the compensation component of the agreement be fulfilled, that the ambassadors be returned and that full relationship be embraced, but it's not up to us to discuss the timing."

Israel on March 22 bowed to a long-standing demand by Ankara, once its close strategic partner, to apologize formally for the deaths aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara. It was boarded by Israeli marines who had intercepted the flotilla challenging Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had agreed to conclude an agreement on compensation and that he and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan agreed to normalize ties, including re-installing their respective ambassadors.

An Israeli delegation is expected to arrive in Turkey this week to begin discussing the details of the compensation agreement. Neither country has said, however, when their ambassadors would go back.

Despite Obama's having pulled off a diplomatic coup - a three-way telephone call with the Israeli and Turkish prime ministers, who had not spoken since 2011, some officials in Washington are worried Turkey might be backtracking on the deal.

Hours after the Israeli apology, large billboard posters sanctioned by Turkey's ruling party mayor, appeared in the Turkish capital showing a glum-looking Netanyahu next to a glowing picture of Erdogan, suggesting some in Ankara were taking a triumphalist tone.

Erdogan then told a rally broadcast live on television that the apology signaled Turkey's growing regional clout. But Kerry said Turkey had responded "sensitively" and "thoughtfully" to the apology. 

"They have taken steps to try to prevent any sense of triumphalism. It has not come from the government. In fact, there has been limited response by the government itself and I think it's important for everybody to take note of that," Kerry said.

REFUGEE CHALLENGE

Both Kerry and Davutoglu said they had discussed the two-year-old civil war in Syria, including the shared goal for a peaceful transition there. They said a meeting of a core group of the Friends of Syria would take place soon.

One of the underlying motivations for the Israeli-Turkish rapprochement, at least on the Israeli side, has been a desire to secure allies in the region as Syria's conflict next door churns into its third year.

A senior U.S. official told reporters with Kerry that during the visit to Istanbul the secretary of state would also reiterate "the importance of keeping the borders open to Syrians fleeing from violence". The official said this was a reference to reports, which Turkey denied on March 28, that it had rounded up and deported hundreds of Syrian refugees following unrest at a border camp. Witnesses said hundreds of Syrians were bussed to the border after clashes in which refugees in the Suleymansah camp, near the Turkish town of Akcakale, threw rocks at military police, who fired teargas and water cannon.

Turkey's foreign ministry said 130 people, identified as being "involved in the provocations," crossed back into Syria voluntarily, either because they did not want to face judicial proceedings or because of repercussions from other refugees.

The incident highlighted the strain that the exodus from Syria's war is placing on neighboring states.

Since the outset of the Syrian conflagration, more than 1.2 million Syrians fleeing violence and persecution have registered as refugees or have awaited processing in neighboring countries and North Africa, according to U.N. figures. They include 261,635 in Turkey, mostly staying in 17 camps, many of them teeming.