Turkey aims to repair image
ANKARA, TURKEY >> On a mission to rehabilitate its image, Turkey is instead inching closer to being an outcast among Western nations that seem to understand their NATO ally less and less each day.
Eight months after a failed coup shattered its delicate status quo, Turkey is mounting a concerted but thus-far futile campaign to persuade the outside world that the horrors of that day justify both its post-coup crackdown and plans for a referendum on strengthening presidential powers. So too has Turkey been unable to convince the U.S. that the shadowy, exiled cleric it blames for the coup attempt is culpable and must be extradited.
Squeezed between Europe and the Middle East, Turkey has sought to project an image of a modern democracy that serves as a bulwark against the extremism menacing so many of its Mideast neighbors. Yet a series of self-defeating steps are telling reminders of how wide a gulf still separates Turkey from the Western world.
“I’m not saying that we’re perfect. We’re not. I’m not saying that mistakes aren’t being made,” said Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek. But he said the outside world must “at least try to understand the traumatic experience that Turkey has been going through.”
This week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seemed to aggravate concerns when he accused Germany of “Nazi practices” after Turkish leaders had been prevented from rallying expats in several Germany cities in support of the referendum. Many in Europe worry that Erdogan is capitalizing on post-coup fears to push through a more authoritarian system with few checks on his power.
For Europe, there are real risks if Turkey feels estranged and mistreated. The country is pivotal to resolving the unrelenting civil war in neighboring Syria, where Turkey and the U.S. are at a logjam over Turkey’s distrust of the Syrian Kurdish fighters the U.S. is relying on to fight the Islamic State group. And though Turkey’s bid to join the European Union has lost momentum, Turkey holds major leverage by way of its deal with the EU to stem the flow of refugees into Europe, which Turkey has threatened to scuttle.
Turkey’s inability to make its case to the West effectively was displayed this week in the capital, Ankara, whose mayor invited a group of American journalists to interview Erdogan and other top officials, including Turkey’s foreign minister, intelligence chief and military commander.