Turkey Tilting Away From NATO And Toward Russia, Iran and Syria

Obama Removed Shoes before entering Turkish Mosque

A report by the Washington Institute says Turkey, a largely Muslim country,  has a new foreign policy, led by the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has come at the expense of Ankara’s relations with Israel, the European Union and the United States, according to the report authored by senior researcher Soner Cagaptay.

“Ankara will likely opt out of a NATO consensus on Iran, clash with the United States on how to handle Hamas and Hizbullah, and disagree with the EU and the U.S. on Russia,” the report, titled “The AKP’s Foreign Policy: The Misnomer of Neo-Ottomanism,” said.

The report said Turkey has developed friendlier relations with Russia and the Islamic world than with the West. Cagaptay cited Hamas, Hizbullah, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Syria.

“The AKP’s foreign policy has a weakness for Arab Islamists and their causes,” the report said. “The policy shows empathy towards Middle East Muslims and Islamists, though the same empathy is missing towards non-Muslims and non-Middle Eastern issues. Business deals play an important role in sustaining the stronger ties that Turkey is developing with Russia, the Persian Gulf states, Sudan, and Iran.”

At the same time, Turkey refused to support Georgia during its brief war with Russia in 2008. The report said Turkey has also ignored its Central Asian neighbors, such as Azerbaijan and Georgia, to focus on relations with Russia.

Cagaptay said AKP, most of whose leaders speak Arabic and were educated in Muslim schools, has divided the world in religious blocs - either Christian or Muslim. AKP, which won power in 2002 and dominates parliament, has avoided criticism of Iran’s nuclear progam while maintaining ties with Teheran’s proxies, Hamas and Hizbullah.

In a related story the Kremlin has lobbied for an award for a Russian-led consortium, the only competitor in Turkey’s nuclear power tender. Russia’s Atomstroyexport has led Turkish and Russian partners in the bid to construct a nuclear energy reactor along the Black Sea coast.

“We are speaking about possible participation of our companies in building four large [nuclear] units,” Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said. As deigned the reactor is not suitable to produce plutonium that could be used for nuclear weapons.