ANALYSIS: Cancelled Turkey visit by Sudan leader raises questions

By Yigal Schleifer Nov 9, 2009, 12:18 GMT

Istanbul - The aborted visit to Turkey by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has renewed questions whether Ankara's push to reengage with the Middle East is coming at the expense of its traditional alliance with the west.

'For a country like Turkey, whose international institutional affiliation is overwhelmingly in the West and which is a negotiating partner with the European Union, (the al-Bashir visit) has proven to be a severe test of consistency and credibility,' Yavuz Baydar, a columnist for the English-language Today's Zaman, wrote on Monday.

'There is no doubt that inconsistency in the al-Bashir case put Turkey in the spotlight and fueled further speculation of its reliability and its 'direction in foreign policy.''

Al-Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Western Sudanese region of Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed in clashes between rebels and Arab militias since 2003. An arrest warrant has been issued for him by the ICC.

The Sudanese president had intended to attend an economic summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Istanbul, but cancelled his visit at the last minute, citing the need to attend to political problems at home.

Monday's visit would have been al-Bashir's third to Turkey in the last 18 months, although the first since the arrest warrant for him was issued.

NATO member Turkey has been working over the last few years to establish itself as a regional political and economic power to develop stronger ties with its Arab and Muslim neighbors. Relations between Ankara and Damascus and Tehran, for example, have deepened significantly in recent years.

Ankara has also been active in Africa, where trade volume with the continent has tripled to 18 billion dollars from 6 billion dollars since 2006.

The trade volume between Turkey and Sudan has quadrupled in the last three years, with Turkish companies involved in a number of major construction projects in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

'Turkey should become a strategic partner for Sudan. Turkey can undertake this role,' Agriculture Minister Mehmet Mehdi Eker said during an October visit to Sudan.

'This government has a very active Africa policy and Sudan is one of the government's main targets. But they are on the wrong side of the morality divide on this one,' says foreign policy analyst Soli Ozel.

Ankara's Sudan policy also appears to be putting it on the wrong side of its European allies. In a diplomatic note delivered on Friday, Brussels asked Turkey to reconsider its invitation to Bashir.

'There are quite a few doubts in Europe about Turkey's orientation already,' Katinka Barysch, an analyst with the London-based Centre for European Reform, says

'Turkey would like its growing regional role to be seen as a positive thing for the European Union, but the way they are going about it plays into the hands of those who oppose Turkey's joining the European Union,' she says.

Turkish officials reject the claim that their efforts to diversify their foreign policy options are in opposition to Ankara's traditional orientation.

'Turkey's foreign policy is not shifting its direction or its axis. But it is normalizing and telling what is fair,' Erdogan said at a Sunday meeting of party members. 'Our foreign policy seeks to embrace everyone.'

But critics have been dismayed by Erdogan's defence of the Sudanese president's visit.

'It's not possible for a Muslim to commit genocide,' Erdogan said Sunday in an address to party members. 'That's why we are comfortable (with the visit of al-Bashir).'

Although Erdogan has previously been harshly critical of Israel and its actions in Gaza, he said the situation in Darfur is different

'Gaza and Darfur should not be confused with each other. Fifteen hundred people were killed in Gaza. If there was something like this in Darfur, we would follow that to the end as well,' Erdogan said on Sunday.

'It's pretty worrying to find Turkey, as an elected member of the security council, defying the security council's own view of what is happening in Darfur,' says Emma Sinclair Webb, Turkey researcher for Human Rights Watch.

'You can't both be courting an internationally condemned war criminal and be promoting the rule of law and democracy at home and abroad. You can't have it both ways.'