International Relations / Ambassador Nabi Sensoy Turkey Turns to Middle East In Bid to Become Global Player by Michael Coleman Perhaps no other country in the world exists at the nexus of as many different geopolitical interests as Turkey. Nabi Sensoy, the Turkish ambassador to the United States, said his nation would not have it any other way. The career envoy — now on his third tour of diplomatic duty in the United States — will retire at the end of 2010, but in a recent interview with The Washington Diplomat, he was brimming with thoughts on Turkey’s increasingly vital role in shaping the post-Cold War era. A longtime ally of Europe and the United States, Turkey has in recent years looked to become a more prominent player in the Middle East. While some U.S. analysts view that with trepidation, Sensoy insists it will not jeopardize Turkey’s embrace of pro-democratic Western ideals. “There is no reason why Turkey should change its course,” Sensoy said matter-of-factly. Although Turkey’s population is more than 99 percent Muslim, the nation is a secular democracy, despite lingering fears that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), in power since late 2002, would impose an Islamist agenda on the country. But Sensoy says Turkey’s mix of secularism and Islamic underpinnings is what makes it uniquely positioned to broker understandings between Muslim and non-Muslim states. Historically a crossroads between the East and West, Turkey maintains important economic and political relationships with the United States, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan, many countries in Africa, the southern Caucuses, Russia and more. In recent years for example, Ankara has facilitated talks between Syria and Israel, tried to negotiate with Hamas to recognize Israel, and at the same time built stronger relations with Iran and Syria. That global reach is a far cry from just a few years ago, when Turkey “was a marginal player at best in the Middle East,” according to Steven A. Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations. “The AKP governments, first under Prime Minister Abdullah Gul and since early 2003 under [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, embarked on an ambitious foreign policy — concomitant with their equally bold domestic political and reform program — that sought to secure Turkey’s bid to become a member of the European Union while simultaneously cultivating relationships with Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Riyadh, and Tehran,” Cook wrote in “The Evolving Turkish Role in Mideast Peace Diplomacy” earlier this year. “Turkey’s effort to draw closer to both Europe and the Middle East reflected a belief within the AKP that its foreign policy needed to be normalized.” The ambassador told The Washington Diplomat that Turkey’s growing involvement in Middle Eastern affairs doesn’t threaten its relations with the West, which could even benefit from that involvement. “If Turkey is successful and contributes to peace and stability, that is going to be a big help to what the West is trying to achieve in this part of he world,” Sensoy said. “The fact that some analysts might say Turkey is becoming more inclined to the Islamic world takes nothing away from the fact that Turkey is democratic, respects human rights and freedoms and the rule of law,” he added. “Our president once said, ‘We are not turning our face toward any other group of countries or part of the world — we hope those countries are going to turn their face to us.” That even includes Turkey’s longtime nemesis, Armenia. In October, the two neighbors and adversaries signed historic accords in Zurich to establish diplomatic relations and reopen their borders. The pact — though still tenuous — marked the first major thaw in Turkish-Armenian relations in 100 years. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly scrambled to allay last-minute tensions over the wording of statements that Armenian and Turkish officials planned to make at the ceremony. The solution? No statements were made by either side. Sensoy downplayed the significance of the last-minute wrangling over wording in the statements and focused on the fact that an agreement was ultimately reached. “It has not been easy to come to this point, let’s be frank about it,” he said. “A lot has been said about the last-minute delay. It wasn’t an easy ride and the developments at the last minute have shown that. But what isn’t important is the three-hour delay — it’s the 100 years it took to get here.” The reconciliation, which ends decades of conflict stemming from the Ottoman slaying of thousands of Armenians, still needs parliamentary ratification by both nations before it becomes official — a major hurdle. Turkey seems to be conditioning ratification on progress with Armenia’s territorial dispute with Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, while many Armenians — including the powerful American-Armenian lobby — oppose a normalization of relations until Turkey acknowledges that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in 1915. The new agreement doesn’t solve that longstanding disagreement, but rather would establish an independent commission to examine historical documents on the matter. “There are claims about the numbers of lives lost during that period,” Sensoy said. “The numbers might be exaggerated but the important thing is hundreds of thousands of people were killed on both sides. The fact remains that even one loss of life is too many and we mourn the loss of every person, whether they are Armenian, Turks, Muslims — it doesn’t really matter.” Next Page

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