Posted on 05/09/2006 6:45:24 AM PDT by Wiz
The surfacing last year in Turkey of virulent anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism raises the question of what should U.S. relations with Turkey be in the interests of the U.S.?
To answer this question we need to answer the following first
Is Turkey a reliable ally?
What is Turkeys strategic, political and economic value to the U.S.?
Is Turkey a friend or a foe of the U.S. (or somewhere in-between)?
I submit that Turkey is not a friend of the U.S.; that Turkeys interests basically are not compatible with U.S. interests; that Turkey is of minimal strategic value to the U.S. and that Turkey is clearly and fundamentally an unreliable ally.
Lets look at the record.
Is Turkey a reliable ally?
The evidence is overwhelming that Turkey is an unreliable ally whose actions damaged the U.S. during the Cold War decades and more recently in the 21st century.
I have written previously regarding Turkeys traitorous conduct during the Cold War when Turkey actively aided the Soviet military to the serious detriment of the U.S. Let me repeat three examples.
1. During the 1973 Mid-East War, Turkey refused the U.S. military overflight rights to resupply Israel and granted the U.S.S.R. overland military convoy rights to resupply Syria and Iraq, and military overflight permission to resupply Egypt. A member of the Turkish Foreign Policy Institute in Ankara wrote:
During the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, Moscows overflights of Turkish airspace were tolerated. On the other hand, during the same Middle East conflict, Turkey refused to allow the United States refueling and reconnaissance facilities during the American airlift to Israel. (Karaosmanoglu, Turkeys Security and the Middle East, 52 Foreign Affairs 157, 163, Fall 1983.)
(Excerpt) Read more at kurdistanobserver.servehttp.com ...
As a result of the turd turks trying to shake down the U.S. for more lucre American soldiers died. They would not allow our soldiers to go into Iraq from turkey because their congress wanted a larger bribe to allow it to happen.
We thought the shakedown was wrong and refused to pay thus having to forego that entry point. It cost American lives.
Hey turkey and turks, f-you.
Your article sums up the PKK terrorist situation well. And the main reason for the current Prime Minister's popularity is that he actually got Turkey's EU accession talks to begin (something all previous PMs had failed at). I've been to Istanbul, Bodrum and Antalya, and half the women at the beaches were topless! Clearly their current PM can't go too far with any Islamic fundamentalist nonsense.
The Turkish contra-guerrilla force developed the most complex and sophisticated methods for its war against the PKK. Since 1985 a series of new textbooks and instructions for the contra- guerrillas have been published. Just one example is the book "Ic Guvenlik Konsepti" (The Concept of Internal Security), which was published by the Special Warfare Command of the General Staff in 1985, and which is used as a textbook in the contra-guerrilla camps.
The underground elements of the Special Warfare Department - that is, the elements which carry out actions - are called contra- guerrillas. The Special Warfare Department can be identified with the contra-guerrillas, since it is the latter who put the Department's work into practise.
The Turkish contra-guerrillas have many schools in Turkey, in which they receive their training - in Ankara, Bolu, Kayseri, Buca near Izmir, Canakkale and since 1974 in Cyprus. "In the mountain commando school in Bolu, green berets (Delta Forces) who fought in Vietnam also got their training". (7)
The contra-guerrilla teams, who are implanted with a fanatical hatred of the "peril" of "communism" and "separatism", whose heads are full of chauvanism, are unleashed against anyone who stands in opposition to the regime. For their goal, which they pursue with the support of the USA, is "the establishment of a competent military and semi-military force which will, jointly with the security forces, maintain internal security". (9)
In their eyes not only the "communists", but each and every democratic movement is a danger which they aim to counter using guerrilla methods. The American military doctrine as presented in the textbooks holds that "our security is threatened not only by open attacks, but also by other types of threats which are even more dangerous than open attacks but which do not look like open attacks. These dangers consist of the attampts to bring about transformations and changes from the inside." (10)
Selected elements of the Turkish contra-guerrillas together with the generals were all trained in contra-guerrilla schools in the USA. The aims of this training are defined as follows: "The goal of military aid is to educate soldiers from underdeveloped countries in accordance with U.S. ideology and then to install them advantageously in the leadership of their countries". (11) During their training in the USA the contra-guerrilla forces "are taught about social problems in their countries, and shown films which demonstrate the aggression and subversion of the communists. They learn how to handle explosives under the supervision of green berets in Matamoros near the Mexican border, and they are taught how to kill, stab or strangle somebody silently, etc". (12). Other places where Turkish officials are trained are the Escuela de los Americas in Panama, which is attached to the U.S. base Southern Comfort, the Police Academy near Washington and the Schongau and Oberammergau bases in Germany. (*3)
Part of the Special Warfare Department is made up of officers from official units known as A-units or Special Operations Units. As the war became more intense, B-units were formed within the Special Warfare Department, made up of professional volunteer commando forces. Both types of units employ contra-guerrilla tactics.
The forces built by the Special Warfare Department have everywhere formed organisations in the form of cells. These elements, known as "patriots", are placed in front-line duties by being infiltrated as agents-provocateurs into political parties, administrative departments and opposition groups.
Tell them yourself...tuffguy
Trust me when I say...if the Turks wanted to deal with the "kurdish" problem as you imply, there would be no kurds in Northern Iraq, at all.
Whatever the PKK did, that will not justify what Turkey did to Constantinople, Cyprus Greeks, Arabs, Kurds, and Armenians. Turkey aka Ottoman empire just has a very very bad history and something still going on today (illegal occupation of Kurdistan, Western Armenia and Cyprus), that it is far from a healthy country that US should consider it as an ally. Turks have also done too much against our Christian brothers many times in history, and they have yet to give the territory of Christians back to the Christians.
I have been told by military brass that the turks are perhaps as capeable and harsh a fighting force as is in the world.
That is not in dispute.
What I take exception to is their turning their backs on U.S. soldiers.
For a few dollars. So that appears to be where the turd turks heads are at. Lucre. Little more then shake down artests.
Piss up a rope there turk boy.
Shall I also mention about we you have yet to mention about the murder of Italian Catholic priest killed months ago by an Islamofascist Turk in Turkey, shouting "Allah is Great" at the moment he killed the priest? That has made Christians around the world very angry at the Turks.
And if Turkey attacked N.Iraq while US troops are there,the US would bomb you back to the stone age. We are trying to stabilize the country and Turkeys actions are not helping.
I've lived and worked with the Turks and you are correct...alienate them at our own peril. Most Turks are broadly pro-American, and hit pieces from Greek shills aside, they are close allies.
Really most are pro-american,since when. I remember a turkish film recently that portrayed the US and Israel as murders and organ havesters in Iraq. We know the islamic turks hate us along with the rest of the backwards ass islamic world. Sorry but they will be no caliphate.
Harvesters
No prob, American dink. Turning there back on American soldiers? Last I checked Incirlik Air Base was still there, last I checked Turkey was still in NATO and last I checked the Turks were still holding the North flank against PKK, the syrians and iran.
Tell it to someone that hasn't been there, MSM goon.
Do you know from which direction Turkey's radical islamofacists are crossing the border from? Hint: They have about 200,000 soldiers stationed there.....
So do you hate Israel to?
The Turks haven't tried diddly, they have been a good ally to the US and done the politically correct thing, at the expense of 30,000 or so Turks. And blow your smoke elsewhere, the PKK kurds cross the border, kill a few civilians and then get their asses blown off all the way back to their safe havens in Syria and northern Iraq. That's why kurdistan is still just a commie dream....
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