Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan Has a Political Mess on His Hands

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made a much-publicized visit to Egypt and other Arab Spring countries, pressing his case that it will be Turkey that leads the Arab world toward economic success and democratic reform.

He even stopped off in Palestine to support their demand to be recognized as a nation by the United Nations later this month. While in Palestine, Erdogan took time to make the rather absurd comment that it is Israel that is preventing peace in the Middle East.

While in Cairo, Arab Spring protesters confronted Erdogan. Why? Because Syrian Lt. Col. Hussein al-Harmoush, who had been in a Turkish refugee camp, has inexplicably been captured by al-Assad’s forces and shown on Syrian state TV. The military officer had fled to Turkey as a refugee seeking political asylum after deserting the Syrian army and calling for others to do the same and join the freedom marchers in ousting al-Assad.

CNN has talked to a man who confirms the story - Omar al-Muqdad, a prominent Syrian opposition activist, who last spoke to Harmoush by phone while Harmoush was in a Turkish refugee camp.

"I talked to him on the morning of August 29th," al-Muqdad told CNN.

"He said 'I have a meeting with a Turkish security man. When I finish I will call you.' I waited for three days and didn't hear from him. Then we discovered that the security man took him and didn't send him back to the camp. They sent him to Syria directly. The Turks made a trick with Harmoush. They caught him in Turkey and sent him to Syria."

Another Syrian activist, Omar Idilbi of the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, said that from what is being shown on Syrian TV, there are signs that al-Harmoush has been tortured.

Turkish Foreign Ministry officials with Erdogan in Cairo said that Turkey never turns over refugees who enter the country on humanitarian grounds.

CNN reported that the importance of al-Harmoush to the Syrian regime became evident September 8, when opposition activists and residents inside Syria called CNN to report Syrian security forces had attacked the village of Ibleen, where al-Harmoush's brother Mohammed lived.

According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a number of Syrian army defectors had taken shelter in Ibleen, awaiting the chance to flee across the nearby border to Turkey.

Video filmed of the aftermath of the Syrian government raid showed blood-spattered houses, burned-out cars and trucks, and a ransacked home.

At least five people were killed in the raid, including al-Harmoush's brother. His corpse was shown in another video released by opposition activists. Thousands of people attended his funeral.

Syria's state news agency claimed responsibility for the raid on Ibleen, saying Syrian security forces had killed a number of "armed terrorists" who had been residing there.

Last month, al-Assad told U.N. Secretary General Ban-ki-Moon that military operations in the country had been halted. The regime has indicated that it wanted to end the fighting and foster stability.

"These promises have been broken promises," Ban-ki-Moon recently said.

As for Erdogan, it seems he has a mixed agenda, to say the least.

Either he wants to lead the Arab Spring into full summer, economically and politically, or he wants to maintain ties with al-Assad’s regime in Syria. My guess is that siding with al-Assad is dangerous because sooner or later, he will be gone.

Erdogan’s motives in jumping on the Arab Spring bandwagon could be multiple. First, he is very angry with Israel for killing Turkish citizens on board a ship that tried to break the sea blockade hemming in Gaza. His recent rhetoric and withdrawal of Turkish diplomats from Tel-Aviv are evidence of that. Second, Turkey stands to gain greatly if the Arab world looks to it for economic leadership.

But, perhaps Erdogan is sending a message to the European Union. The EU has consistently refused to discuss Turkey’s entry into the Union, despite American urging to do it in an effort to keep Turkey, a key regional ally of the West, on their side. Turkey’s open EU wound is festering. But, no amount of Arab world pre-eminence could replace entry into the EU for Turkey.

Finally, there is the Syrian officer Hamoush. Did Erdogan return him? Was he kidnapped on Turkish soil without Turkey knowing it? Did he try to re-enter Syria and was then captured? Was the security agent who talked to him a secret al-Assad agent?

It is in Turkey’s best interests to get to the bottom of the question and show the world that it is not a country that returns dissidents to a future of torture and a sure death.