The Missile Deal with China
“"This is treason!" NATO officers are shocked because Turkey
wants to buy anti-aircraft missiles from China. But the Turks for the model
from the Far East would be cheaper - and it would have other advantages.” wrote
the German magazine, Der Spiegel, on October 16, 20131. The deal has created vibrant
reactions among the NATO allies. One officer from the UK stated that it would
open the security gates that will be difficult to close again, a general from
the US said that a NATO partner should not make such an important,
safety-related sourcing from China.
This entire ruction may be understood historically, since Turkey’s /
Ottoman Empire’s foreign relationships with the eastern hemisphere have always had its ups and downs. Even when
the negotiations were being held and Ottoman Empire had declared its
neutrality, Churchill ordered2 the seizure of the two Turkish battleships on 1914, a day after the
declarations of war to Germany, which had helped propel Turkey into an
alliance with Germany. Later on, the two replacement ships given by Germany to
the Ottoman Naval forces ended up carrying out surprise raids on Theodosia,
Novorossisk, Odessa and Sevastopol, sinking a Russian minelayer, a gunboat and
14 civilian ships3. A Russian alliance for Turks has always been an improbable case, and
unwanted block for the western hemisphere, regardless of which side of the
politic balance they are on.
After decades of wars, risings and fallings of the emperors, governments
and countries; the world is yet to witness another term of multipolar politics.
Although China has never played a significant role on the world’s history as a
major player since the invention of the gun powder, and is not likely to be
able to perform such an achievement in the near future; it has both the
intentions and the efforts to reach that innovative point once again. Turkey
has joined NATO in 1952 and even though her current government fights the
foundation and the basic principles of the Republic, and the generations who
she has raised with global personalities (respecting the basic human rights,
believing the justice, equality, and freedom of speech, and secular) with
Western values; Turkey has become inseparable from the Western hemisphere,
maybe a part of it. Chinese Missile Deal is only a useful tool, probably an
overused card at the moment. Both economically and politically, Turkey lacks
the ability to stand alone.
Naively enough, without knowing how it might be perceived at this side
of the Atlantic, in a particular country, Jackson Diehl wrote to Washington
Post4. His point was obviously to criticize President Obama’s foreign policies,
but it really touched a point unintentionally. But the exact words are “Let’s
suppose for the moment that al-Qaeda’s new base in eastern Syria, Hezbollah’s
deployment of tens of thousands of missiles in Lebanon and the crumbling of the
U.S.-fostered Iraqi political system pose no particular threat to America. That
still leaves U.S. allies in the region — Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and
Turkey — marooned in a scary new world where their vital interests are no
longer under U.S. protection”. It should also be stated after this quotation, what
Turkey needs is not protection but a reliable alliance.
- http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/ruestungsdeal-tuerkei-provoziert-nato-mit-waffenkauf-aus-china-a-928140.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill_in_politics:_1900%E2%80%931939
- http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/ottoman-empire/enters-the-war
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jackson-diehl-foreign-policy-based-on-fantasy/2013/10/27/cfd74b06-3cc2-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html
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