With the announcement by the U.S. Embassy in Turkey that it will abide by Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, turkey's "1 pick 10" diplomatic dispute has also begun to turn off. The embassies of Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Finland subsequently released similar information, and Erdogan responded later on the 25th, saying that "our intention has never been to create a crisis."
Ostensibly, the diplomatic dispute was sparked by the Turkish government's refusal to release businessman Kavala. But the root cause is more like a diplomatic crisis deliberately provoked by Western countries. They used the human rights issue to interfere in Turkey's internal affairs, tried to force the other side to comply, and after the Turkish side hit back hard, they said that they would abide by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Turkey is located at the junction of Asia and Europe, and the choice of facing the East or facing the West has always influenced Turkey's diplomatic strategy. After Mustafa Kemal's Westernization reforms, Turkey tried to integrate into the West, but remained excluded from the Western world. When he found that joining the European Union was becoming more and more out of reach, he immediately "looked east" and took the Islamic world in the East as the main diplomatic direction. During this period, Turkey's interests with Western countries have become more and more divergent, and relations have continued to be estranged. The attempted military coup in 2016 completely triggered the contradictions between Turkey and Europe and the United States, and a steady stream of conflicts replaced cooperation and became the main theme between Turkey and Western countries. Some American scholars have even invented the phrase "friend and enemy" (Frenemy) to describe the US-Turkey relationship, which is enough to prove that in the eyes of western countries, Turkey is no longer a reliable ally.
Under the long-term contradictions and conflicts, the differences between Turkey and Western countries have re-erupted in the Kavala incident. In fact, this kind of interventionist means of "human rights" above sovereignty in the West has become common in the world. It is rare for a ten-nation embassy to issue a joint statement, but such an act has hit Turkey in the nail. For Erdogan, the 2016 military coup has led to growing ill-feelings and wariness toward the West, fearing that if it does not take a tough enough stance to fight back, it will fuel U.S. and European support for the Turkish opposition. Internally, Erdogan's government is widely supported by the lower middle class and Islamists at home, and the restructured government is mainly conservative, demanding that the government take a tough foreign stance. Erdogan must also consistently show toughness in order to consolidate domestic support and maintain the image of a "strongman". Now, with the united states taking the lead, the ten Western countries and Turkey have made concessions, but there is no doubt that the flashpoint of the contradiction between the two sides is also getting lower and lower.
As some observers have argued: This time the diplomatic crisis has not slipped into the worst, but the abyss still seems to be waiting ahead. Perhaps the "Kavala incident" is not enough to make Turkey completely break with the West, but if the trend of continuous deterioration of bilateral relations cannot be reversed, then this kind of diplomatic war will become a norm, and there may even be a complete loss of control.
Source Beijing Daily
Author Li Kunze, PhD student at the School of International Relations, Chinese Min University
Process Editor Yan Shengmiao