Pastor Freed After Presssures but US-Turkey Rift Widens Over Syria
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Issue 177, Year 4 October 14, 2018 UK £2 www.thearabweekly.com EU €2.50 Interview Promoting China’s Former president tolerance in ambitions of South Yemen the Maghreb in MENA Page 8 Page 20 Page 17 Pastor freed after presssures but US-Turkey rift widens over Syria ► Even while Turkish diplomats were hoping for better days in relations with the United States because of the resolution of the Brunson case, the spat over Syria worsened. Thomas Seibert but the tone of Turkish statements about Brunson changed consider- Istanbul ably in the days before the verdict. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Er- urkey has solved a ma- dogan, who had verbally attacked jor political row with the Brunson publicly, distanced himself United States by freeing an from the trial by saying he had to re- T evangelical pastor but is spect the court’s decision. facing mounting differences with Details of a suspected deal be- Washington over Syria. tween the two governments were A court in Aliaga, near the Ae- unclear. Eissenstat wrote: “Did the gean city of Izmir, sentenced Pas- Trump administration give any- tor Andrew Brunson, a missionary thing away to win Brunson’s release from North Carolina, to more than and, if so, what?” 3 years in prison on October 12 but The Brunson verdict strength- also ruled that the 50-year-old cleric ened hopes in Turkey that the Unit- could return home because he had ed States would cancel its sanctions served 2 years in pre-trial detention. and thereby provide a shot in the Brunson left Turkey on a US military arm for Ankara’s ailing economy. plane only hours after the verdict. The Turkish lira firmed against the The ruling ended a trial that in- US dollar even before the decision. volved bizarre accusations that Gonul Tol, director of the Cen- New chapter. US pastor Andrew Brunson and his wife Norine arrive at the airport in Izmir, on Brunson helped coup plotters and tre for Turkish Studies at the Mid- October 12. (Reuters) Kurdish rebels through his little dle East Institute in Washington, church in Izmir and saw an extraor- said Brunson’s release showed that dinary final day of proceedings, in “playing hardball with Erdogan ers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish rebel YPG fighters were ignoring a US- ror nests east of the Euphrates,” Er- which one witness after another pays off.” The decision “will clear group that has been fighting against Turkish agreement that calls for dogan suggested that the Turkish withdrew his statements against [the] air between Trump and Er- Ankara since 1984 and is seen as a Kurdish troops to leave the north- Army could start another incursion the American. dogan, which might help negotia- terrorist organisation by both Tur- ern Syrian town of Manbij. into northern Syria. Turkish troops Analysts said the court acted on tions on other issues,” Tol wrote in key and the United States. “They are now digging trenches have been deployed in Jarabulus, the wishes of the Turkish leader- an e-mail. The rift over the YPG has poi- in Manbij. What does this mean? It Afrin and Idlib. ship that wanted the row with the She warned, however, that Tur- soned Turkish-US relations and is means ‘We’ve prepared the graves, The pro-government media in United States to end. key had less room to manoeuvre in one reason Turkey has been seek- come and bury us’,” Erdogan said Turkey reported that preparations Howard Eissenstat, an associate other areas. ing closer ties with Russia, the main at a rally in southern Turkey. “They were underway to drive the YPG professor of Middle East history at One issue that is likely to be more military power in Syria. US officials said they would abandon the area from the border in the towns of St Lawrence University and non- difficult is Syria. Turkey is angry warned Turkey against following in 90 days but they haven’t. We will Kobane, Tal Abyad, Ras al-Ayn and resident senior fellow at the non- about US support for the Peoples’ through with a plan to buy a Rus- do what is necessary.” Qamishli. One pro-Erdogan news- partisan Project on Middle East De- Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian- sian missile defence system. The Turkish leader repeated paper reported that Turkish sol- mocracy, said the Brunson case had Kurdish militia that is Washington’s Even while Turkish diplomats warnings that Turkey would send diers would establish a “safe zone” been “hostage diplomacy from start most important on-the-ground ally were hoping for better days in soldiers into Syria to drive the YPG stretching east of the Euphrates to to finish.” in the fight against the Islamic State. relations with the United States out of areas east of the Euphrates the Iraqi border 50-60km into Syria The Trump administration With the help of US backing, Syr- because of the resolution of the River, a region that has been off from Turkish territory. strongly pushed for Brunson’s re- ian Kurds have established a region Brunson case, the spat over Syria limits for the Turks because of the lease amid reports of a deal between of self-rule close to the Turkish bor- worsened. presence of about 2,000 US military Thomas Seibert is an Arab Weekly Ankara and Washington. Trump de- der. Turkey says the YPG is the Syr- Erdogan, on the day of the Brun- personnel there. correspondent. nied there was such an agreement ian affiliate of the Kurdistan Work- son verdict, told an audience that By promising action against “ter- P14 Viewpoint Social media projects soft power in the Arab world strategy is working to the leaders’ ing them in the conversation,” eration. However, as some astute individual benefit and that of their said Tamirace Fakhoury, associate millennials note, there isn’t much Khadija countries. professor of political science at the interactive messaging between ac- Hamouchi Consider what government mes- Lebanese American University. count holders and their followers. saging is meant to do, said Ralph “This is the kind of positive soft Nourhan, a 25-year-old Jordani- Sfeir, the Beirut-based founder of power that uses social media as a an job seeker in Lebanon, said that, ordanian Queen Rania Barb Marketing and Communica- vector of inclusiveness.” despite all the social media activity al-Abdullah has 4.8 million tions. It’s meant to shape public That said, social media are by regional leaders, she hardly ever active followers on Insta- opinion “and to produce emotional increasingly seen as another tool knows the truth of what’s happen- gram. Egyptian President rather than rational reactions.” for governments to advance their ing. “I have to say I have not learnt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is fol- Sfeir explained some of the tac- political agenda and grow soft so much of what exactly happens lowed by little more than 7 tics commonly used by leaders to power. This is hardly surprising when the law changes. What I hear Jmillion people on Facebook. project soft power. These include considering social media’s grow- is more of a political discourse that When public figures in the Arab the “high-frequency” use of social ing prominence in the Middle East reaffirms who has power,” she said. world don’t have active individual media, “an emotional rather than and North Africa. The “Arab Social And that power, for all its fuzzy social media accounts, they feature a rational tone in messaging (as Media Report 2017” stated there projection as soft, may really have on social media by letting people well as) simple and repetitive mes- are 156 million Facebook accounts, a hardcore. take selfies with them, which sages” and allowing breaking news 11.1 million Twitter accounts and subsequently get posted. King Mo- “to divert attention from internal 7.1 million Instagrammers in the Khadija Hamouchi is a hammed VI of Morocco frequently issues.” Arab world. Belgian-Moroccan social poses with fans. Gaining soft power through so- In the MENA region, social me- entrepreneur and founder of With the viral selfie, the pithy cial media is not all about manipu- dia appears to generate immediate SEJAAL, an initiative that is hashtag and the endlessly retweet- lation, however. public reaction to developments, building an app for young people. ed tweet, Arab leaders are visibly “Governments also communi- creating “for” and “against” camps engaged in a new public relations cate messages and share informa- Between the lines. A woman and reaching millions of people, Soft Power in MENA strategy. PR professionals say the tion with citizens (thereby) includ- uses her laptop in Istanbul. (AFP) particularly the millennial gen- P12-13 2 October 14, 2018 News & Analysis Syria Assad likely to survive Syria’s brutal war Simon Speakman Cordall tive to the current Syrian govern- ment and that retaining it, if not President Assad himself, is the least Tunis bad option,” Columb Strack, princi- pal analyst at IHS Markit, said. “Re- ussian Deputy Foreign gime change is most likely off the Minister Sergei Vershinin’s table for the US.” comments to the state-run From the West, ostensibly led R Sputnik news agency dur- by the United States, to the Gulf ing the UN General Assembly were backers of Syria’s rebel insurgency, unequivocal: “No one raised the which have seen their proxies de- question of the Syrian president’s feated and subsumed by a combina- resignation.” tion of the regime and the region’s That no foreign minister thought jihadist groups, there appears little to bring up an issue that just a few stomach to maintain the fight.