Corker, DeFrancisco cite challenges in U.S. response to failed Turkey coup
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was the featured speaker at a Monday morning gathering of New York’s delegation to the Republican National Convention, but many of the delegates stuck around for another speech on international affairs by U.S. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.
For New York state Sen. John DeFrancisco, the appearance by the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations was a chance to learn more about the failed coup attempt in Turkey over the weekend.
“I was glued to the TV during the problems in Turkey,” DeFrancisco, the state Senate deputy majority leader, said during a Q&A session with Corker. “I’m trying to sort out in my own mind what it means now that the coup is effectively thwarted.”
Corker first responded that Turkey remains a NATO ally and had served as a model of prosperity for countries in the region just five or six years ago. The Tennessee senator said that the plotters behind the coup had poorly planned it, and that the outcome instead strengthened the hand of country’s leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has tried to shift Turkey away from its secular history toward a more Islamist society.
“He’s going to become even more autocratic than he has been. He was successful, he was savvy in using social media, and the one thing it creates is a dilemma for us in that the way he approaches things in the region exacerbates problems,” Corker said, such as favoring Muslims over other religious groups. “And yet we’re an ally. We have Incirlik Air Base, which is where we’re prosecuting our efforts in Syria.”
Corker, who declined to be considered as a vice presidential candidate and also chose not to speak to the full convention this week, argued that the U.S. has made several poor decisions in the broader region since 2011, including leaving Iraq “precipitously” and failing to intervene in Syria with moderate opposition groups, making the situation in the region more complex. That, in turn, has made it “very difficult to counter” ISIS, or the Islamic State.
“Hopefully, we will continue to send strong signals against what he’s doing,” Corker said of Erdogan.
Afterward, DeFrancisco said he agreed with Corker’s assessment, especially the risks posed by Turkey and the challenges faced by the U.S. government.
“I’ve been in elected office for 39 years, from school board up to 24 years of the Senate, and I don’t think anything has captured my imagination more than what was being talked about in the media during the attempted coup in Turkey,” DeFrancisco said. “To me, it’s extremely scary, it’s a game changer.”
DeFrancisco said he could understand the Obama administration’s reluctance to get involved with the coup conspirators, since Turkey is a critical ally, especially in the fight against ISIS.
The New York lawmaker said he appreciated hearing directly about international issues while in Cleveland, but that he’s not interested in running for Congress, where he could deal with such matters directly.
“I’m fine in New York state, thank you,” he said.