CNN - Meanwhile In The Middle East June 7, 2023 : What Turkey's new cabinet says about where the country is headed and more

 

June 7, 2023     What Turkey’s new cabinet says about where the country is headed      Gul Tuysuz

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his cabinet members in Ankara, Turkey on Tuesday. (Photo by Yavuz Ozden/ dia images via Getty Images)  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan swore in a new cabinet over the weekend, ushering in what he has called “a new period of glory” for the Turkish Republic as it begins its second century, and one that he hopes will cement his rule over the nation of 85 million.     The cabinet appointments hint at a return to orthodox economic policy while holding course on foreign policy as the president heads into his third decade in power.     On the economic front, the return of Mehmet Simsek as finance minister -- a post he previously held between 2009 and 2015 before going on to become Erdogan’s deputy prime minister -- has been eagerly anticipated in business circles at home and abroad.     Erdogan’s unorthodox economic policies over the past few years have led to a cost-of-living crisis and a plummeting Turkish lira. Efforts to defend the battered currency have resulted in Turkish central bank reserves dropping to record lows. The lira plunged 7% on Wednesday, hitting 22.98 against the US dollar, Reuters reported. That’s what Simsek is up against as he takes office.   With that message Simsek may be able to convince foreign investors and instill enough hope domestically to keep the G20 economy afloat.     But his real uphill battle might be in convincing Erdogan himself. While Simsek will likely be the chief architect of a new economic policy, the president’s other appointments suggest he may be leveraging different economic visions, according to Mehmet Celik, editorial coordinator at the pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper. Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz is a career bureaucrat and economist, and Trade Minister Omer Bolat comes from a business background. “The picks were strategic so that there will be a new balance,” Celik told CNN.     Shadow diplomat    The new foreign minister is a well-known figure to Turks and international players who have negotiated with Turkey of late. Hakan Fidan, who had served as head of Turkish Intelligence Agency (MIT) since 2010, has been in every room and every discussion that has been pivotal to Turkish foreign policy over the last few years. He’s been ever-present but rarely heard -- a shadow diplomat in Erdogan’s foreign policy arsenal who has charted rough waters in Syria, Libya and beyond.     Fidan has played a central role in shaping and carrying out foreign policy along with former chief spokesperson and de facto national security adviser Ibrahim Kalin, who has now taken his old job as intelligence chief.    Ankara’s foreign policy has put it on a collision course with neighbors, allies and partners including Greece, with which it has tense relations in the eastern Mediterranean, and Western countries, over the perceived threat from Kurdish groups backed by the US in northern Syria.    Those strained relations will not be easy to mend but Fidan has been masterful in his previous role as spymaster in finding ways to negotiate breakthroughs in difficult relations. He has stepped in to mend frayed ties with Gulf Arab states, and has been a driving force behind the slow rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara. The shadow diplomat now enters an era where he is the main voice for Turkey abroad.     All eyes will be on him as he navigates Sweden’s attempt to join NATO, which Turkey has held up due to what Ankara says is the country’s harboring of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).   Softer-spoken interior minister    At the interior ministry, Suleyman Soylu, a self-styled tough guy, is being replaced by career bureaucrat and former governor of Istanbul Ali Yerlikaya. Its portfolio is one of the country’s largest. Yerlikaya’s main areas of focus will be the ongoing response to the earthquake which killed more than 50,000 people in southern Turkey, the 3.5 million Syrian refugees in the country and the continued counter-terrorism efforts against the PKK.     The fight against terrorism, which has broad support across the political spectrum in Turkey, is likely to remain the same but the tone of the ministry is likely to change, according to Celik.   The outgoing cabinet members are, however, far from retired. Soylu, former Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and ex-Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu are all lawmakers from Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). They’ve just been sworn in for their new terms in parliament, highlighting the party’s tremendous strength there. Their voices will likely echo louder than those of opposition MPs, who now will face an even tougher time convincing voters of their chops in the legislature.    Overall, the new cabinet is a departure from the political appointments that have defined the era in Turkey following the attempted coup in 2015, instead drawing on a strong pool of technocrats.

The digest Blinken meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, a State Department spokesperson told CNN, the latest step toward rapprochement between the US government and the de facto leader of a key US ally. The two men “affirmed their shared commitment to advance stability, security, and prosperity across the Middle East and beyond” during the meeting, spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement Tuesday. The meeting lasted an hour and 40 minutes, a US official told the traveling press, during which they also touched on the potential for normalization of relations with Israel and agreed to continued dialogue on the issue.  Background: Relations between the two countries have been strained in recent years following the torture and murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, for which a US intelligence report held the crown prince responsible. But in the wake of fluctuating oil prices over the past year – Saudi Arabia said over the weekend it will slash oil output starting in July as part of an effort by producers to shore up crude prices – the Biden administration has sought to reengage with the kingdom. Why it matters: Blinken’s visit comes days after the oil production cut announced by Saudi Arabia, its biggest in years, which will depress its output to 9 million barrels per day.     Iran unveils hypersonic missile capable of targeting defense systems    Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday unveiled its first hypersonic missile, state-run news agency IRNA reported. Dubbed “Fattah,” the locally-made missile is capable of “targeting missile defense systems” and “important defense elements of the enemy,” IRNA said. Pictures and videos of the missile were published on state media after a ceremony attended by IRGC commanders and the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.  Background: The precision-guided missile has an 870-mile range (1,400 km) and is capable of reaching speeds between 10,000 and 11,500 mph. Few countries have such missiles. Last year, Russia deployed its own hypersonic “Kinzhal” missiles in Ukraine, marking perhaps the first time such weapons have been used in war. And during a test in 2021, a Chinese hypersonic missile flew around the world before hitting its target. Why it matters: For years Iran has invested in expanding its missile and drone program, one of the largest and most diverse in the Middle East, creating a thorn in now-stalled nuclear negotiations with Western countries. The Islamic Republic is already supplying Russia with drones amid the war in Ukraine, which has alarmed the West.     Egypt's Sisi speaks with Netanyahu after rare border incident    Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, days after a shooting incident that killed three Israeli soldiers and an Egyptian policeman at the countries’ shared border. In two separate statements, Egypt said that Sisi spoke with Netanyahu on continuing cooperation in the investigation into the incident, and Israel said that Sisi offered his “deepest condolences” to Netanyahu.  Background: The two states had different accounts of the incident, which took place on Saturday. Egypt claimed its policeman crossed the border in pursuit of drug smugglers on Saturday and that he was then killed alongside the three Israelis in an ensuing gun battle. But the Israel Defense Forces said the Egyptian policeman shot two Israeli border guards – and that when Israeli back-up arrived later, a firefight ensued that killed both the policeman and a third Israeli. Why it matters: The incident is the first of its kind in more than a decade. Egypt was the first Arab country to normalize ties with Israel, and the two states coordinate security on their shared border.

What to watch The Bonn Climate Change Conference kicked off on Monday in Germany, laying down the groundwork ahead of what may be the most important UN climate conference since the 2015 Paris Agreement.     The conference is meant to prepare member states for this year’s UN climate conference COP28, which will take place in the UAE’s business and financial hub Dubai between November 30 and December 12.    “Bonn is a very, very important session,” Director-General of COP28 Majid Al-Suwaidi told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Tuesday.    “It is very important that the negotiators make progress this week, and we are here encouraging them to really get down to work and help us to deliver the COP28 that will make a huge difference,” he said.     The Bonn talks are held every year as the world gears up for the annual UN conference. They are crucial to reflecting on previous summits as well as setting the next one’s agenda. Among the issues being discussed this year is the so-called “global stocktake,” a UN assessment of nations’ progress in their efforts to tackle climate change. The first global stocktake will be published this year ahead of COP28 in Dubai.     This year’s UN climate conference is also mired in controversy, with one of the most prominent faces in the UAE’s oil industry, Sultan Al Jaber, taking up the presidency. While many criticized Al Jaber’s appointment, others argued that climate talks may benefit from giving oil executives a seat at the table.   “I think what's important is to focus on how we solve the problem, and that is the problem of emissions,” Al-Suwaidi told CNN. “And we can’t do that by being exclusive.”    “We need to do that by being inclusive, and that means bringing everybody to the table,” he said, adding that this includes everyone from NGOs and civil society to government and the oil and gas industry.     Watch the report here.

Around the region National Museum of Antiquities Leiden A team of archaeologists from a Dutch museum has been banned from carrying out excavations in Egypt’s rich Saqqara necropolis, after the museum mounted an exhibition that drew condemnation from Egyptian authorities.   After the opening of “Kemet: Egypt in Hip Hop, Jazz, Soul & Funk,” the National Museum of Antiquities (RMO) in Leiden received an email from the head of foreign missions of the Egyptian Antiquities Service saying that the museum is “falsifying history” with its “Afrocentric” approach, Dutch newspaper NRC reported on Monday.   Wim Weijland, the museum’s managing director, confirmed to CNN via email that the Egyptian authorities have denied the institution a permit for the next excavation season at Saqqara. He also confirmed that the journalist who wrote the NRC article had seen the email from the Egyptian authorities.   A vast burial ground that sits nearly 20 miles south of the capital Cairo, Saqqara is home to Egypt’s oldest pyramid, the pyramid of Djoser, and has been the site of multiple important discoveries in recent years.   The museum has been carrying out annual excavations there for more than 40 years. Its most recent excavation campaign took place earlier this year, between February 19 and March 23.   “The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden has been working at Saqqara since 1975,” Weijland told CNN. “For the upcoming season, the museum has been denied the permit to excavate here.”   Weijland said the reason for the permit’s denial is the “presumed ‘falsifying history’ in the current exhibition,” adding that the museum is trying to “open the dialogue” with the Egyptian authorities about the matter.   Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.   Weijland went on to say that the aim of the “Kemet” exhibition is “to show and understand the depiction of ancient Egypt and the messages in music by black artists,” as well as to “show what scientific, Egyptological research can tell us about ancient Egypt and Nubia.”   Nubia is an ancient region in northeast Africa that extends from the Nile River valley in Egypt, all the way down to Khartoum in modern-day Sudan. The area was once home to the Nubian Kingdom of Kush, or the “Black Pharaohs.”   According to its web page, the exhibition, which opened in April and runs until September 3, “embarks on a journey through music history” and looks at “the influence of ancient Egypt and Nubia…in the works of a multitude of musicians of African descent, including icons of jazz such as Miles Davis and Sun Ra and contemporary artists such as Beyoncé and Rihanna.”   In recent days, the museum’s social media posts about the exhibition were flooded with comments, mostly by Egyptians who deemed it disrespectful. Some commented with photos showing light-skinned ancient Egyptian drawings, next to ones with darker skin tones, which they say the museum is propagating.   In response to the controversy, the museum added a note on its website with further information about the show’s content, background and goals. It also said it would remove offensive or racist comments from its social media platforms.   The museum encouraged visitors to “visit the exhibition and form their own opinions,” saying it “welcomes respectful dialogue on the cultural heritage of Egypt and Nubia.”   This isn’t the first time Egypt has objected to the depiction of its ancient ancestors. It recently criticized the Netflix docuseries “Queen Cleopatra,” which portrays the ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt as a woman of color.   Zahi Hawass, an Egyptologist and former Egyptian minister of antiquities, wrote last month that “no one with even a little education could make a film showing Cleopatra as black.”

Photo of the day French soccer star Karim Benzema (center) holds a jersey of Al-Ittihad, after signing a three-year contract with the Saudi Arabian soccer team this week. Benzema played his final game for Real Madrid on Sunday having spent 14 years with the Spanish giant. (Photo by Al Ittihad Football Club / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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