Turkey’s playing a double game with Iran

Dr. Harold Rhode reasons, that Turkey is trying to steal the 'Israel' agenda from Iran.

By AARON HECHT
Turkey's PM 521 (photo credit: Associated Press)
Turkey's PM 521
(photo credit: Associated Press)
There is little doubt that under the Islamist AKP party, Turkey has taken a deliberate turn to the east, particularly in its rapprochement with Iran. As regional experts seek to assess the ramifications of this radical shift, at least one notable analyst believes Ankara is playing a double game, cozying up to Tehran while trying to supplant it as the perceived leader of the Muslim world.
Dr. Harold Rhode is a former US undersecretary of defense who was a student in Tehran when the Islamic Revolution took place in 1979, and later served at the US Embassy in Turkey. He speaks both Persian and Turkish, as well as being familiar with their respective histories and cultural mindsets.
At a recent briefing in Jerusalem, Rhode described Turkey and Iran as participants in a subtle but determined “contest” to win the loyalties of the Sunni Arab street, in order to be seen as the global vanguard of Islam.
Although stressing that both Iran and Turkey have highly problematic histories with their Arab neighbors, he assessed that Turkey has an edge because it is a Sunni Muslim country (like the vast majority of Arabs), whereas Iran is Shi’ite.
As far as their common agendas, Rhode stressed that the two countries are working together to undermine the West and promote the Islamist cause. This has involved both countries in agitating vociferously against Israel to compete for popularity in the Arab bloc, which holds a privileged place in Islam.
Rhode insists that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was never truly interested in destroying Israel when he rode the Islamic Revolution to power in Iran, and instead had one main focus – leading the Shi’ites back to what he felt was their rightful dominance over their Sunni rivals as a key step in conquering the world for Allah. He realized that playing the “Israel card” could rally support for his regime and revolution among Muslims worldwide, at the expense of the region’s pro- Western Arab rulers.
Today, Rhode reasons, Turkey is trying to steal the “Israel” agenda from Iran, and Ankara is being quietly encouraged in this quest by Saudi Arabia, which sees the Turks as a counterweight to Tehran’s ascendance. In this regard, he notes that the current Islamist revival in Turkey is not necessarily a return to the fairly tolerant Islam practiced in the Ottoman period, but a move to the more radical Wahhabi version, thanks largely to Saudi financing of mosques and religious schools throughout the country.
The Saudis have also been bankrolling the AKP’s political rise over the past decade, according to Rhode. [Interestingly, the recent Wikileaks revelations included a secret US diplomatic cable which claimed Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan maintains eight secret Swiss bank accounts.] Rhode also noted that the Saudis view the Turkish army as having proven themselves to be the best “soldiers of Islam” in recent centuries, and thus Riyadh is willing to cooperate with the AKP in its vision of reviving the caliphate that once controlled Islam from Istanbul.
In order to truly reconstitute the Ottoman sultanate, Erdogan and other Turkish leaders also need backing from the Arab street, and this is best gained by stealing the initiative from Iran with regards to championing the Palestinian cause and fomenting hostility toward Israel.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had mastered this game in recent years, going over the heads of the US-allied Arab regimes and appealing directly to the masses. But Erdogan has stolen the show during the past year, first by accusing Israeli President Shimon Peres of “killing babies” at the Davos summit, and then by sponsoring the ill-fated Gaza aid flotilla in late May and badgering Israel about it at every opportunity since.
A recent survey of pan-Arab public opinion indicated the strategy has worked, with Erdogan replacing Ahmadinejad as the most popular political figure in the Arab world.
“The Muslims feel like their honor has been besmirched,” Rhode explained, “and they’re looking for someone to save it.”
Starting with the taking of the US embassy staff as hostages in 1979 and continuing with the Hizbullah bombing of the US Marines barracks in Beirut in 1982 and the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000, Rhode reckons the Iranians and their proxies have racked up an impressive list of victories against Israel and the West, leading to broad support for their agenda. During that same period, the Arabs have suffered numerous military, political, economic and diplomatic humiliations, including Israel’s chasing of the PLO out of Beirut, and Saddam Hussein’s defeat at the hands of US-led coalitions.
“Who is standing up against Israel and America?” Rhode asked rhetorically. “Who is getting the Bomb? Who is the one that America and the West isn’t doing anything about? It is Iran! If you’re a little person on the Muslim street, you think ‘The Iranians are standing up for me! What are my own rulers doing? Nothing!’” Rhode insists the Turks are now engaged in this charade by proclaiming they will stand up for Islam. “And the Turks have a huge advantage because they are Sunni, and there is a cultural identification with the Sunni world. There’s a similar mentality.”
The Mavi Marmara flotilla incident last May was a huge victory for Turkey in its propaganda struggle with Iran because it demonstrated that Turks are also willing to fight on behalf of Muslims against Israel and the West.
“The battle between Iran and Turkey for influence on the Arab street is raging,” Rhode concluded. “And both governments are working against America and Israel.”
Several recent reports seem to lend credence to this analysis. For instance, the Wikileaks disclosures included secret US documents revealing deep fears among Arab governments of a nuclear Iran, highlighted most prominently by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia urging US commanders to “cut off the head of the snake” and “put an end to [Iran’s] nuclear program.”
According to other leaked documents, the Saudi monarch also told Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to “spare us your evil… You as Persians have no business meddling in Arab matters.”
Other officials in Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates are quoted in the leaked documents as expressing similar sentiments.
Meantime, as a member of NATO, Turkey has vehemently opposed the alliance sharing radar and intelligence for a proposed new missile defense system with Israel.
“This position suggests an ill intention against the security of Israel,” said analyst Stephen Cohen of the Heritage Foundation in Washington. “This position can be perceived as potential support for those who’d like to attack Israel.”
Evidence of Turkey’s increasing outreach to the Sunni Arab world could also be found in an article published by the Jordan Times in October, which reported on the growing numbers of Arab tourists visiting Turkey, and growing trade volume between Turkey and the Arab countries. In response, Turkish Ambassador to Jordan Ali Koprulu noted the “deep-rooted historical and cultural bonds” between Turkey and the Arabs.
Perhaps most telling, Turkey’s new National Security Council document, the 2010 “Red Book” which sets the nation’s guiding security policy for the next five years, for the first time lists Israel as a state “undermining the stability of the region,” but excludes Syria from the list of threats, and makes only a passing reference to Iran’s renegade nuclear program.