{"id":28809,"date":"2016-11-10T00:48:49","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T00:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/?p=28809"},"modified":"2016-11-10T00:48:49","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T00:48:49","slug":"turkeys-delight-with-trump-likely-to-be-short-lived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/turkeys-delight-with-trump-likely-to-be-short-lived\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s delight with Trump likely to be short-lived"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turkey\u2019s increasing unpredictability was worrying enough. The new uncertainty that comes with the U.S. election victory of Donald Trump has exacerbated those worries.<\/p>\n

The world order as we know it is crumbling before our eyes, and there is little doubt that Turkey will be feeling the aftershocks stronger than most.<\/p>\n

Turkey was quick to congratulate Mr Trump. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his hope that the choice of the American people would be auspicious for the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim saw it as an opportunity to open a new page in US-Turkey relations.<\/p>\n

Presidential advisor Yigit Bulut was confident that Mr Trump would support Turkey\u2019s Middle East leadership and claimed<\/a> Hillary Clinton was too close to the Gulen movement, which is accused of masterminding the failed July coup in Turkey.<\/p>\n

The pro-government media reacted positively too. The Daily Sabah editorial<\/a> called it an encouraging sign for improvement in bilateral signs. Yeni Safak expected<\/a> a new phase in relations.<\/p>\n

This is not entirely surprising, considering Mr. Trump\u2019s affinity for \u201cstrong leaders\u201d and his declared<\/a> intention to withhold judgement on violations of civil liberties in other countries.<\/p>\n

Faced with growing criticism for its post-coup clamp-down on civil rights, press freedoms and the judiciary, this is music to Turkish leaders\u2019 ears.<\/p>\n

The latest progress report<\/a> by the European Commission on Turkey, has pointed to \u201cserious backsliding” in rights and the rule of law since a failed coup on 15 July.<\/p>\n

Turkey has rejected the EU criticism as \u201cnot objective\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yet, similar concerns are now voiced by many others.<\/p>\n

Even in Britain, where there is much more sympathy and support for Turkey\u2019s EU ambitions, this week, I heard of a senior diplomat saying \u201cTurkey was going in absolutely the wrong direction\u201d.<\/p>\n

Compared to \u201ctroublesome\u201d Europeans and a \u201cnot loyal enough\u201d Obama presidency, the American president-elect may seem more promising, but Ankara needs to look beyond comforting similarities of its populist and volatile leader with Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump, who had described NATO as \u201cobsolete\u201d, threatened to tear up international accords, overturn agreements and engagements, is not good news for Turkey.<\/p>\n

Despite their rampant anti-Americanism and the rekindled courtship with Russia, President Erdogan and his government are not about to turn their back to solidarity and support of NATO.<\/p>\n

Neither are they likely to happily go along with Mr Trump\u2019s stated intentions of leaving Assad in Syria, accepting the Russian annexation of Crimea, dropping the two-state solution for Palestine and restoring friendly relations with Egypt\u2019s president Sisi. The prospect of the United States pulling out of the nuclear pact it signed last year with Iran, would not please Turkey, either.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump\u2019s possible policy shake-ups concerning US security commitments will do nothing but complicate matters, especially at a time that Turkey is actively involved in conflicts in Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n

The Trump presidency promises a totally changed geopolitical landscape.<\/p>\n

Before celebrating the demise of the old-world order, Turkey would do well to stop and think what the new one may herald.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turkey\u2019s increasing unpredictability was worrying enough. The new uncertainty that comes with the U.S. election victory of Donald Trump has exacerbated those worries. The world order as we know it is crumbling before our eyes, and there is little doubt that Turkey will be feeling the aftershocks stronger than most. Turkey was quick to congratulate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28812,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28809\/revisions\/28812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}