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  • ANKARA: Turkish - American Relations In Obama Presidency

    TURKISH - AMERICAN RELATIONS IN OBAMA PRESIDENCY
    By Sedat Laciner

    Journal of Turkish Weekly
    April 1 2009

    During the Bush presidency, the relations between Turkey and
    US were severely damaged. The Washington administration has an
    immense responsibility in this case. Turkey gave full support to
    the US' combat against terror. In this regard, Ankara sent Turkish
    soldiers to Afghanistan and acted in accordance with its Western
    allies in order to capture the militants of Al-Qaeda in Turkey
    or anywhere. Meanwhile, Turkey undertook a constructive role in
    the Middle East problems. However, when the Turkish Grand National
    Assembly (TBMM) rejected the US' request to base US troops in Turkey
    for an assault on Iraq on March 1, 2003, the US' Turkey policy was
    completely changed. As a result, Washington started to implement a
    "punishment strategy' against Turkey. Turkey is a democratic country
    and the government must implement its policies in line with the
    decisions of the parliament. The Turkish Government sincerely wanted
    to pass the 1 March Parliament Note (tezkere) to allow the US troops
    to use Turkish territories, yet the Government had no option but to
    implement the taken decision.

    The rejection decision of the Turkish Parliament cost Turkey
    a lot. Turkey lost billions of dollars in an economic crisis
    environment. However the US lost very little. Of course, if it
    were possible for the US troops to use Turkey's territory, it
    would definitely become easier for US to invade Iraq. But, the
    US administration made a fatal mistake. They did not pay enough
    attention to the Turkish parliament, Turkish people and did not
    respect Turkish pluralism. In this period, the US promised to provide
    a huge credit at an amount of about 30 billion dollars and thought
    that Turkey could not reject its request to use Turkey's territory
    (because, Turkey was trying to recover its economy after the 2001
    great economic crisis). The US expected to exploit from Turkey's
    difficult situation. The sarcastic expressions of some American
    politicians including President Bush caused a negative impact on
    Turkish parliamentarians and Turkish people. By the way, the Turkish
    Army, which makes declarations on almost everything, did not make
    any statement regarding the US-Turkey military co-operation on Iraqi
    operation. So, thanks to the Army's impartial position, many Turkish
    politicians thought that the US operation against Iraq was not vital
    for Turkish interests. As a result Turkish democracy decided and
    it said "no' to the US soldiers. If the US could use Turkish route,
    of course the risks in the operation would have been decreased a lot.

    Although the US could not enter Iraq from Northern part of Turkey,
    the US was surprisingly not seriously affected in terms of military
    bases from Turkish decision. One of the most important reasons for
    this was the errant strategy of Saddam Hussein. Saddam did not presume
    that Turkey would refuse permission for US troops and deployed a large
    amount of soldiers in the northern part of the country. Meanwhile, the
    Iraqi Kurdish collaborators (Barzani and Talabani) with the US in the
    North also prevented the passage of Saddam's soldiers. Thanks to these
    developments, Iraq was occupied by US troops in a very short time and
    it was brought under the control of US with very few casualties. In
    this regard, it is not possible to say that the Turkey's rejection
    of the US paved the way to a big tragedy, as the Vice President of
    US Dick Cheney and some other politicians had claimed in the recent
    past. The US did not have many difficulties during the invasion of
    Iraq, but after the invasion.

    The problems of the US in Iraq did not begin during the invasion, but
    later. The US easily occupied Iraq easily but could not administer the
    occupied territory. The US soldiers created serious problems in the
    region due to their wrong strategy, human rights violations, and being
    unaccustomed to the indigenous people. At this point, Turkey offered
    help to the US and the Turkish parliament ratified the decision to
    send Turkish troops to Iraq to help the US as a result of the intense
    efforts of the Erdogan government. However, the US did not show any
    desire to accept Turkey's attempts and made a special effort to keep
    Turkey and Turkish approach outside Iraq and outside the region. It
    can be said that the policies of the Bush administration regarding
    the Iraq issue were founded on the ground of punishing Turkey and
    to keep it outside the Middle East and Iraqi issues. In addition,
    the US did not give any support to Turkey in combating terrorism
    during this period, especially between the years 2003 and 2007.

    Furthermore, many people in Turkey even stated that the US supported
    PKK terrorism. During this period, Turkish public opinion showed a
    strong and unprecedented reaction against the US' approach to PKK
    terrorism and the Kurdish issue. Almost every political group in
    Turkey thinks that the US was not candid about the PKK terrorism. In
    this context, the terrorism problem still remains the most important
    issue between the two countries.

    This mistakes which occurred during the Bush administration
    would definitely pave the way to further problems in the upcoming
    years. Unfortunately, some people in Washington think that Turkish
    society can forget the bad things easily. Yet, this is not a true
    analysis. One of the most significant reasons for the Turkish
    parliament's rejection of the 1 March Bill was the repercussions
    from the two countries' previous run-ins. The Turkish intellectuals,
    bureaucrats, media, experts, and even laymen do not forget the
    US's biased behaviors regarding the 1964 Johnson Letter, the US's
    arms embargo on Turkey respecting Cyprus, and pro-Greek stance of
    the US in many occasions and the Armenian issue. Unfortunately, the
    Bush administration added new damaging even traumatic memories to the
    previous ones. Besides, the US soldiers headed bag the Turkish soldiers
    in northern Iraq. With these actions, the US not only punished, but
    also insulted Turkey. All of these bad memories would be remembered by
    the Turkish people and affect the relations between the two countries
    in the future. I am sure that no single Turkish soldier and citizen
    can forget the bag affair in coming years.

    In this context, the new president must be aware of this heritage with
    good sides and with the sins and try to take action to eliminate the
    bad memories. He should ease the damages in the relations.

    What Obama Presidency Should Do?

    First of all, the new president Barack Obama must give full support
    to Turkey about combating terrorism via a strong message. Although
    Iraq has been kept under the control of the US for about six years,
    up to now, the US military forces has not caught or arrested or judged
    any PKK terrorist. The PKK became stronger under the US occupation
    rule. In the following days, if the Obama administration could make
    a contribution by apprehending a famous name from the PKK, it would
    positively affect the US' image in the eyes of Turkish people. The US
    should do something in the PKK issue really important valuable to the
    Turkish people because the people here see the US somehow responsible
    for the increasing PKK terror.

    Secondly, Obama must not act in line with the desires of the
    ultra-nationalist Armenian Diaspora. The US should keep its
    impartiality in the issue. While a historical dialogue process has
    been launched between Ankara and Yerevan, any radical expressions
    from Obama could damage this process. Obama should concentrate on
    today's problems rather than historical Armenian claims and support
    the efforts of rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia. He should
    not be emotional but realist. The only aim should be to establish
    Turkish-Armenian friendship on mutual interests of US, Armenia
    and Turkey. Turkey defends a regional integration between Turkey,
    Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. If the Karabakh and other occupied
    territories problem could be solved with the US' help, Turkey could
    be the locomotive of Caucasian integration. The stability and more
    co-operations in the Caucasus will put an end to the Armenian isolation
    and strengthen the Western energy security making Nabucco and other
    east-west energy corridors more possible. If Obama concentrates on
    the disagreements between Armenians and Turks and if he allows the
    ultra-nationalist Armenian diaspora lobbyists to drive the relations
    Turkish, Armenian and American interests would be undermined. We
    should now focus on Armenia's and the region's needs. Armenia should
    not be a prisoner of the extremists' and Russia's narrow and conflict
    based policies. Georgia War clearly proved that Armenia, Azerbaijan
    and Turkey need each other.

    Third, the EU membership of Turkey is of vital importance in terms
    of the peace in the Middle East and the relations between the West
    and the East. In conjunction with the full membership of Turkey, the
    EU would have a Muslim member country for the first time. Becoming
    an equal and strong member of the EU, Turkey can make significant
    contributions to the stability and development of the Middle East
    and greater East. Besides, Turkey would prove to construct a frank,
    constructive, and beneficial relationship for both sides between the
    Muslim and the Western worlds. In this way, Turkey could be a model
    country and success story for the Muslim world and help to eliminate
    the region's extremist religious groups. If the EU rejects Turkey
    due to the religious differences, this great mistake would be a
    great signal to the Muslim peoples in the world. The US can play a
    constructive role in bridging Turkey and the EU.

    Finally the US must keep its promises in Cyprus. Turkish side fully
    support the Annan Plan, however while the Greeks strongly rejected the
    UN Peace Plan. The US and the EU promised a lot to Turkish Cypriots
    and Turkey before the referendum. However the side who was punished is
    the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey. The US and the EU did not keep their
    promises. Turkish people are frustrated with the double standards in
    Cyprus issue. People here think that the EU and the US support the
    Greek Cypriots because of religious solidarity. I hope Obama will
    keep the US' words to the Turkish Cypriots.
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