From Latin America to Europe, from Asia to Africa, most of the world had been waiting the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House with some apprehension.
After his divisive, churlish and protectionist inauguration speech, many are bracing for trouble ahead; but not everyone is fretting and protesting.
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte welcomed President Trump’s foreign policy direction. He expressed his delight about the US “not seeking to impose their way of life on anyone else” anymore.
There were celebrations in Moscow, too. The Russian media hailed Mr. Trump as “a man of his word”.
In Europe, it was mainly the far-right that was euphoric.
Gathering in Koblenz, Germany on Saturday, populist leaders from France, Germany, Italy and Netherlands echoed Donald Trump by declaring that they would make their countries “great again”.
In Turkey, too, expectations from the Trump administration were high.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has wished the new President success and hoped the mistakes of the previous administration would not continue.
Turkey had sent its Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to the inauguration. Mr. Cavusoglu met the designated Secretaries of State and Defence and lobbied in Washington.
Turkey’s number one priority, as underlined by the Prime Minister, is the extradition of the exiled leader of the shadowy group blamed for the July 15th coup attempt in Turkey, Fethullah Gulen. Turkey is also demanding that the US should stop its alliance with Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), closely linked to Turkey’s own insurgent Kurdish organization the PKK.
Within hours of the handover in Washington, Ankara had already extended a hand to the new administration.
President Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters that they were seeking “rapid and intense” contacts with the Trump administration, focusing on the upcoming Syria meeting in Astana and other key bilateral issues.
The Syrian peace talks in the Kazakh capital next week are facilitated by Turkey and Russia. The US participation, even if they were invited more as an observer, was important for Turkey’s prestige.
The Trump administration said no delegation from Washington would be attending the Astana talks on the 23rd January. Instead, the U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan, George Krol would represent them.
The US State Department’s statement, the day after the inauguration, must have caused considerable disappointment for Ankara.
In Russia and Turkey, where presidents shape and direct foreign and security policies and do not shy away from giving instructions to their judiciaries, the expectation might have been for Mr. Trump to make a difference right away.
But unlike Turkey and Russia, in the USA, even with a Republican Congress, the checks and balances on the White House are still strong.
Just as Trump’s combative speeches undermining the NATO do not mean an immediate and radical rethink of America’s alliances and security policies, it would be more than naive to expect Mr. Trump to instruct the US courts to extradite Fethullah Gulen to Turkey.
If anything, a political attempt to interfere, may end up delaying the judicial process for many more years.
As for Turkey’s other demand, concerning the US-PYD cooperation, President Trump’s decision to keep Brett McGurk as his envoy to the coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, should be enough to put a dampener on Turkey’s expectations for a rapid change.
There are a lot of uncertainties surrounding the administration in Washington.
We already know how unpredictable Mr. Trump can be.
Now, we need to discover how robust the American democracy really is and what constraints will be put on Mr. Trump.
This post is also available in: Turkish
krmcn says
Two impetuous, thin-skinned leaders who have no sense of their massive limitations. What could possibly go wrong?