Erdogan’s latest Turkish stuff with China and Russia
Erdogan blew Turkey into China's sphere of influence. Here's how and why. While with Russia… The article by Marco Orioles
Erdogan makes Turkey take not one but two steps within the Chinese sphere of influence, having expressed his intention to ask for his country to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Eurasian Dialogue Forum created in 2001 from Beijing which currently sees Turkey enjoying the status of dialogue partner.
Erdogan's statements
The turning point came precisely during the twenty-second SCO summit , held in Samarkand on 15 and 16 September in the presence of Erdogan himself, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and the leaders of the other seven members of the body (India, Pakistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan).
As reported by Reuters , while speaking with reporters the Turkish President revealed that, "with this step, our relations with these countries will be taken to a very different level". When the reporters asked him if with those words he meant the imminent accession of Turkey to the SCO, Erdogan replied "certainly, this is the goal".
Speaking again with members of the press embarked on the flight that brought him back to Ankara from Uzbekistan, Erdogan, as reported by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News , added that his country intends to take "a step towards the most advanced level" of work of the SCO. He then specified that the issue of Turkey's accession to the Forum will be discussed next year during the organization's Indian presidency.
The meeting with Xi
Erdogan was able to seal the agreement directly with Xi Jinping in a bilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the Samarkand forum. In this regard, we have the report provided in an official statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry .
Xi told his new partner that China "is ready to work with Turkey to elevate the strategic cooperative relationship to a higher level." To clarify what he meant by strategic cooperation, the Chinese President underlined, among other issues, the opportunity to "work to reap more fruits of the high-quality cooperation of the Belt and Road" and the need to strengthen dialogue "in multilateral organizations" including the SCO.
Also according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Erdogan replied by highlighting the "strong complementarity" between the Turkish Middle Corridor project and the Belt and Road Initiative ", hoping for" the construction of synergies ".
The opinion of Erdogan's adviser
But what is the meaning of this new round of waltz by Erdogan, which proposes to bring his country into an organization conceived as a counterpart to the institutions led by Washington and which even aims to replace the dollar with the yuan ?
According to Cagri Erhan , professor of International Relations but above all a member of the Board of Security Advisers of the Turkish President, "what Ankara is doing is not pursuing alternatives to the West, but establishing balanced relations throughout the world".
In interweaving relations with antagonistic powers, adds Ehran, Erdogan would also paradoxically aim at "helping the West to understand more clearly who its interlocutor is", that is, a Turkey open to dialogue in all directions.
The point of view of the Global Times
But the reassuring statements made by Erdogan are blatantly denied by an editorial in the Global Times – a semi-official organ of the Chinese Communist Party – signed by his reporter Lu Xue. Here the narration of a country, Turkey, which harmoniously dialogues with the rest of the world is transformed into the story of a nation which, "frustrated" by the failure of the integration process in the Western community, resolutely decides to "look to the East".
The Turkey that today looks to China, adds the Global Times , is a country irritated by the limbo in which the EU has placed it with an endless accession negotiation, and humiliated by the rapid procedure guaranteed to Ukraine in recent months.
If Turkey shows interest in joining the SCO it is because it constitutes a valid alternative to blocs such as the EU which, comments the Global Times , "seeks to dominate other countries with a single system of values and to force the candidate countries to make significant changes in order to join the group ”. Unlike the EU, observes the reporter, "the SCO is very inclusive".
Turkey is therefore right to distance itself from the "international system dominated by the West (which) is characterized by the creation of conflicts and wars".
Finally, noting how some US partners, such as Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are showing interest in participating in the work of the SCO and noting that "twenty years of US counter-terrorism in the Middle East (have been) more destructive than constructive for the region ”, the reporter concludes that“ the appeal of the US governance model is waning all over the world ”.
Tactical move or face reversal?
Is Erdogan's one therefore a tactical move or the principle of overturning a system of alliances that still sees Turkey as an integral part of NATO?
What, according to the Turkish President's advisor, is a harmless enlargement of relations, according to the Global Times is a necessary step to free Turkey from unreliable and despotic partners and allies.
The time of the West is over, writes the communist daily, and Erdogan's Turkey is only responding to the call of history.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/erdogan-turchia-cina/ on Tue, 20 Sep 2022 08:33:56 +0000.