Throughout the long trance of the presidential campaign, the earthquake of an election, and the aftershocks since, America kind of lost focus on the rest of the world. Nevertheless, the planet has continued to spin, and much of it not in a good way.
The heartbreak of Syria continues. The demolition of Syria by its own leadership, together with their allies Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, continues. Reports from Aleppo say that the last functional hospital in that city has been completely destroyed.
Refugees drown in the Mediterranean or land in a reluctant Europe, whose countries try to cope with the human flood, using methods that range from supportive to defensive.
ISIS, the most brutal and loathsome of terrorist jihadist groups, is still fighting in Iraq and Syria. Each time it retreats, it leaves behind evidence of a nightmare “caliphate”. The ISIS legacy is measured in mass graves, beheaded corpses, and broken shards of irreplaceable ancient ruins of human civilization. ISIS-supported Bedouins in the Sinai are now at war with Egypt, too.
Perhaps the saddest of the underreported Middle East stories is Turkey. Once the model of a Muslim country both democratic and secular, Turkish democracy slowly declined under the leadership of President Tayip Erdogan. The slow decline became a deep dive after an attempted coup in July of this year. Under the state of emergency that followed – and continues – many thousands of people have been arrested; academics and journalists, civil servants and professionals.
Turkish media have been muzzled and intimidated. According to Al Jazeera, 160 media outlets have been shut down so far, and 133 journalists are currently in jail. The editor and a dozen staff members of one of Turkey’s oldest newspapers, Cumhuriyet, have recently been taken into custody.
Absent a free press, Turkey may be giving up entirely on joining the family of democratic nations. Having negotiated for membership in the EU for 11 years, with European leaders who are critical of its record on democratic freedoms, Turkey may be turning away from the West completely. Reuters reports Erdogan quoted by the Hurriyet newspapers on his way back from a visit to Pakistan and Uzbekistan, as having said, “Why shouldn’t Turkey be in the Shanghai Five? “
The Shanghai Five are China, Russia and 4 central Asian nations, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan (and Uzbekistan, which joined later) that formed the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2001 to fight threats of radical Islam and drug trafficking from nearby Afghanistan.
NATO members and others in the West will be alarmed about a shift in Turkey’s focus. It is one of the pivotal countries in the Middle East, along with Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and it is an essential player in curbing the flow of migrants to Europe.
Just as President Obama began his first term facing the Bush fiscal debacle, so will President Trump begin his term facing the Obama foreign policy debacle.
These are just some of the challenges awaiting the Trump administration come January.
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