Rasmussen, Gül and Erdoğan

Back in Ankara the same evening, however, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told newsmen that “A very serious reaction emerged in countries with Muslim populations during the cartoon crisis. Now these countries have started to call us and tell us not to allow it.” What Erdoğan was referring to was the 2005 publication by Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper of a set of cartoons of a man said to be Islam’s Prophet Mohammed, including one wearing a bomb-shaped turban and another showing him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women. At the time, Rasmussen had refused to meet the ambassadors of several Muslim countries, including Turkey, to discuss the crisis, defending the blasphemous drawings as freedom of expression and that it was up to the newspaper that published the cartoons not the Danish state to evaluate whether or not there was a need to make an apology to the Muslim people. Consequently violent demonstrations took place in many Islamic countries. Thank God, at the time protests in Turkey were non-violent. Erdoğan also disclosed that recently he spoke on the phone with Rasmussen and during the lengthy conversation: “I told him about the annoyance of the public... I told him he can appreciate what that means.”

Which of these statements was reflective of Turkey’s position on the possible candidacy of Rasmussen for the top NATO post, which will be vacated at the end of July by Holland’s Jaap de Hoop Scheffer? Was Gül indeed saying that Turkey has dropped its objection to the possible candidacy of Rasmussen? Or, was Erdoğan sending a message to Washington and NATO heavyweights Britain, France and Germany, who are believed to be favoring Rasmussen as the next NATO secretary-general, that Ankara continued its opposition and perhaps would use its veto right for the first time in the history of the alliance by any member state, should the Danish premier run for the post?

Roj TV issue
In private, however, Turkish senior officials were stressing in private talks with journalists that Rasmussen’s candidacy would be unwelcome for Turkey because of a far more important reason than the attitude of the Danish premier during the 2005 cartoons crisis. “How would a premier who despite all Turkish requests did not cooperate with Turkey in the fight against terrorism can become the secretary-general of an alliance which apart from other duties is involved in the fight against terrorism?” asked one official reflecting Ankara’s real concern about the possible candidacy of Rasmussen.

Indeed in the Friday evening talk with newsmen, Erdoğan clearly stressed that dimension as well saying for the past four years Rasmussen did nothing tangible to bring an end to the broadcasts of the Denmark-based Roj TV that Ankara complains has been making propaganda of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK gang which is as well on the European Union’s terrorist organizations list. “We are seriously disturbed,” Erdoğan underlined. Denmark, however, has been stressing that it could close down the Roj TV only if rather than making complaints Ankara provided “concrete evidence” of the link between PKK and the TV station. Still, perhaps to soothe Turkey’s concerns that as NATO secretary-general Rasmussen would not cooperate sufficiently in the fight against terrorism, the Danish premier is reportedly dispatching to Ankara nowadays a team of prosecutors for talks with their Turkish colleagues. Will that move satisfy Ankara? Most probably not unless Rasmussen gives in to Turkish demands and close down the Roj TV. That appears unrealistic either.

Thus, Ankara may come under pressure of the U.S. and some other allies, Gül might be willing to accept Rasmussen’s candidacy but Erdoğan will not budge on this issue and if needed will not hesitate vetoing Rasmussen and winning some more allies in the Muslim world.
Just a matter of mentality!