PDF Dosyası - Ankara Üniversitesi Kitaplar Veritabanı

TURKEY'S CHALLENGES IN THE ARAB WORLDDan TSCHIRGI*Kemal Atatürk's dictum to the effect that Turkey's foreign policyTurkey should seek "peace at home and peace abroad" carried farreachingand clear implications. In the fırst place, those few words left nodoubt as to Kemalist political priorities: pride of place was given to domesticgoals. Foreign policy was, therefore, the handmaiden of domesticpolicy, the latter's instrument for national objectives seen as enhancingthe internal vvellbeing of the Turkish state. A second majör implicationemerged as a necessary corollary to the fırst. If Turkey's approach to foreignaffairs was to remain steadfast as a tool for promoting interests thatwere ultimately of a domestic nature, pragmatism and flexibility in theconduct of international relations must be preserved. In this, Atatürk'soutlook paralleled that of the founding father of another republie, GeorgeWashington, who cautioned his countrymen to retain an unswerving commitmentto their state's own "interest and duty" and shun "habitual hatredor ...habitual fondness" for other countries in the conduct of foreign affairs.In the years since the establishment of the Republie of Turkey, theKemalist approach to foreign policy has generally been maintained. Nowherehas this trait been more evident than in the modern history of Turkishrelations with the Arab World. Although Turkey has not infrequentlybeen accused of having maintained an unhealthy "aloofness" from theArab World, the record demonstrates varying and seleetive levels of interactionbetween Ankara and Arab capitals, particularly in the decadessince World War II. Economic, political and social ties neitiıer vvitherednor were placed in abeyance during this period, although they were visiblycalculated, in keeping with Turkey's concepts of its own interests.On the whole, Ankara has reason to be satisfıed vvith the outeome ofits approach to Turkey's Arab neighbors. This is not, hovvever, to say thatTurco-Arab relations have been free of friction. On the one hand, a degreeof tension arose in the 1950s as Arab Nationalist currents grew bothsuspicious and resentful of Turkey's role as a pro-Western bastion duringThe American University, Cairo.589