Communication is the key, unless you have the key to communication — like this Şanlıurfa viral sensation who apparently cures speech disorders by placing a key in people’s mouths.
In this week’s recap:
Belgian delegation spotlights Turkey-EU defense talks
Election rumors, CHP mayors join AKP
PKK talks inch forward, Öcalan awaits visitors
Domestic and diplomatic wraps
Sacrificial animals make a run for it
Also from us this week:
Nareg Seferian lays out the regional implications for the Jun. 7 Armenian elections
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Also, Turkey recap is hosting a party in Ankara, and you’re invited!
This week brought incremental developments in Turkish domestic politics, and potentially explosive election rumors that we cannot confirm (details below), so today’s top section focuses on the more concrete and fast-developing discussions regarding Turkey’s role in NATO.
It’s the back burner topic behind all foreign policy debates in Ankara, and it’s moving to center stage as the city prepares to host the alliance summit in July. High-level visits from Belgium this week — led by Queen Mathilde (pictured above) — also spotlighted Turkey’s potential defense partnerships with EU states.
What’s happening: As Washington looks to put more European defense responsibilities on European nations, officials in Ankara are working to underline messages of cohesion and solidarity within NATO while presenting Turkey’s defense industry as a critical manufacturing base to fill defense gaps in European security.
The argument has been made before, but it’s getting louder as the NATO summit approaches, providing Turkey the platform and opportunity to showcase its alliance contributions and defense sector — as it did in the recent SAHA International Expo and will continue to do for local audiences with a new TRT program on Turkey’s military capabilities.
Belçikanka: A snapshot of the current zeitgeist came with a five-day Belgian delegation visit, including more than 400 business leaders, that peaked with a Turkey-Belgium Industry Day event Wednesday.
The trends in Turkey-EU defense were made clear throughout the visit as Baykar chair Selçuk Bayraktar told Queen Mathilde that drones are among the most powerful deterrents, stating “If you produce enough of them, no one can attack you.”
In his meeting with the Queen Monday, Pres. Erdoğan emphasized the need for progress on Turkey’s EU membership, customs union modernization and he also underlined that “Turkey’s participation in the EU’s defense initiatives is in the mutual interest of all sides.”
For Belgium’s part, FM Maxime Prevot said Turkey is “guardian of the southeast flank of the European continent.” Though in an Anadolu Agency interview, Belgian Defense Min. Theo Francken went further by stating Belgium …
Supports customs union modernization
Backs Ankara’s immediate inclusion in the SAFE loan program
Is working on major drone-related projects worth more than $1 billion
AFP reported Turkey and Belgium signed nine defense agreements this week though details remain sparse.
“There are a lot of opportunities also for Turkish companies,” Francken told AA. “You are way ahead, so we have to catch up and we can learn a lot from you.”
Headwinds: As Turkey’s defense industry continues to secure bilateral deals with individual EU nations, bloc-wide defense integration with Turkey is complicated by distrust and varying degrees of perceived threats stemming from Ankara’s foreign policy objectives (mainly from Greece, the Republic of Cyprus and France).
Most concretely, such disagreements have led to Turkey’s exclusion from the initial set of SAFE loans. Supporters of Turkey’s omission often argue the program’s core aim is to encourage weapons manufacturing within the EU, as opposed to the continued outsourcing of key components.
Meanwhile, proponents of Turkey’s integration argue Europe currently lacks production capacity that Turkish defense manufacturers can help fill — at least in the short-term. Or as the music group War put it in 1975: “Why can’t we be friends?”.
Still, amid the debates on Turkey’s exclusion from SAFE, the nation’s role in NATO is deepening following two announcements this spring on the establishment of a Maritime Component Command in Istanbul and Multinational Corps Headquarters in southern Turkey.
When asked to comment on the contrasting trend lines in Ankara’s regional defense role, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said growing instability is creating new openings for Turkey-EU defense integration, but the initiative to advance cooperation comes mostly from Ankara.
“The [NATO] centers are nothing new, they have been planned for years,” the official told Turkey recap. “The issue is that we are pitching many ideas to our European partners, and we’re not receiving similar offers for cooperation from our allies. There is little reciprocity.”
“We are very often initiating the conversations on deepening solidarity and find the outreach to be one-sided, which is problematic for bolstering regional defense in these times.”
Snapchat: Election rumors, CHP mayors join AKP
