Matt Broomfield – Aidan Simardone
Following a dramatic year in US politics amid the growing global crisis occasioned by Israel’s invasion of Gaza, voters went to the polls on 5 November to elect a new President, with US foreign policy a key issue for many voters. Whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump ultimately take control of the White House, urgent questions will remain over the West’s policy in the Middle East and relationship with authoritarian leaders including Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Aidan Simardone is a human rights lawyer who has also published extensive analysis on Turkey and Azerbaijan’s prominent role in the Middle Eastern crisis. He spoke to Medya News to share his perspective on Turkish President Erdoğan’s exploitation of the catastrophe in Gaza; whether Kurds, Palestinians and people worldwide can expect significant foreign policy shifts should either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump take control of the White House; and the dim prospects for the region whatever the final outcome.
Highlights follow, and the full interview can be watched in full above.
Matt Broomfield: President Erdoğan styles himself the defender of the Palestinians. What’s the real story here?
Aidan Simardone: What Erdoğan says, and what Erdoğan does, are two completely different things. Erdoğan says he is a friend of Palestinians – he actually says some quite bold things… The thing is, Turkey continues to covertly maintain relations with Israel through trade. Turkey, and even Erdoğan’s inner circle own shipping countries and so on, that are directly benefiting from the trade that’s continuing to happen with Israel. When we find these contradictions, they need to be exposed, and we need to be aware of what we’re dealing with.
What impact does that have on the Palestinian cause?
Erdoğan pretends to be the friend of Palestinians, and in doing so, he gives the impression that Turkey is on the side of Palestine. In a weird way, it would be better if he was blunt, and said he didn’t care, as that would ultimately lead to more action. Thankfully, some people are seeing through that; your viewers might be aware, there was this week an incident at Istanbul where pro-Palestinian Turkish citizens protested against shipments heading toward Israel. Palestinians don’t need words of encouragement; they have enough encouragement, and you see the resistance they’re putting up. What they need is a change in material circumstances.
Where might we see a difference in Trump and Harris’ potential Turkey policy?
One of the few foreign policy differences between Harris and Trump is that Trump is quite against continuing to support Ukraine in the ongoing war. The reason this matters with Turkey is because Turkey does seem to have some interest in cosying up to Russia. If Trump did decide to bring a ceasefire in Ukraine – and I don’t think that’s going to happen, but should it happen – you might see a detente between West and Russia. Again, this is all very hypothetical, since a year after Trump was elected [in 2016], there were already sanctions on Russian military equipment… One more thing that’s critical about Trump – and again, this is all hypothetical, so we have to rely on his prior presidency – is that there seemed to be a lot of paranoia in the administration regarding the Gulen movement.
But broadly, you expect similar approach to Turkey and the wider Middle East regardless of who takes office?
I think so. Look at the Biden-Harris administration. On the one hand, we have the expansion of NATO; we’re all familiar with that. Sweden and Finland joined; as your viewers know, there’s a big Kurdish population in Sweden, and part of the reason why Sweden was able to join NATO was as part of an agreement with Turkey to, quote unquote, extradite potential “terrorists” – I’d call them freedom fighters, but that’s the language they use. We see Turkey conducting air strikes across Syria, this is occurring during the Biden-Harris administration. So I don’t think there is a significant foreign policy difference between the two candidates.
