TURKISH / AMERICAN RIFT

THE longstanding close friendship between Turkey and The US suffered a setback in March 2003 when several forces came together by happenstance to cause it.

First, there was the Turkish desire to impress Europe after the European Union (EU) had been dangling carrots in Turkish faces and pulling back just in time to deny Turks entry to the coveted club. In spite of such European condescension (or perhaps, because of it), Turkey remains eager to please the Europeans. Turkish elite opinion has always been infatuated with the "high culture" and "urbane sophistication" of Europe. In contrast, America is identified with "cowboy crudity" and "peasant naivete" while American technology is admired. On the Iraq war, Turkish intelligentsia sided with the Europeans, mainly France but also Germany, who vehemently opposed resuming hostilities against Saddam. Turkish public opinion polls also showed 80 percent opposing the US position. Presumably, the public was weary of the economic hardship another war in Iraq would bring upon Turkey as the Gulf War had 12 years before. Although the military supported the US action against Saddam, it was reluctant to exercise political influence because it too was eager to look "European" in European eyes.

Second, there were the large numbers of Islamic leaning delegates elected to Parliament in the previous election. Many of the new delegates shunned fighting against fellow Muslims in a US led war against Iraq. They found common cause with an uncommon partner in the secular intelligentsia who wanted to please the Europeans by opposing the US initiative.

Third, there was the status of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the majority party in parliament, who could not become Prime Minister because he was not a Member of Parliament. A previous conviction for mixing religion with politics had barred him from running for office. The parliament quickly passed a resolution to make Erdogan eligible to run again. He won handily and became Prime Minister but it was too late for his cabinet to provide competent leadership. The US 4th Infantry Division was waiting in ships off the coast of Iskenderun for permission to enter Turkey in order to open a northern front against Saddam. The parliament voted to let the Americans land but the Turkish judiciary nullified the vote before the US ships could land the troops. It turns out the Turkish constitution requires a majority vote of all delegates present in parliament to make law, not just the majority of those who voted. Since there were 19 abstentions and the measure had passed by only a 4-vote margin, those who voted for landing the Americans did not constitute a majority of those present. Although Erdogan said he favored US entry, he was unable (or unwilling) to bring about a second vote. The US had run out of time for an effective assault on Saddam from the north through Turkey and fell back to the unexpected default option. The default was a page from the campaign in Afghanistan. Indigenous Kurds would replace Americans on the ground in northern Iraq as the Uzbeks had in Afghanistan. A few US Special Forces personnel would be parachuted to guide them and there would be unchallenged US support from the air. The whole episode had minimal effect on the US operation, thanks to the foresight of the generals who were prepared even for the remote possibility of Turks behaving in unexpected ways. The 4th Infantry headed to The Suez Canal to come up from the south. Turkey lost the advantage of having immediate influence in post-war northern Iraq although she gained so! me credibility in European eyes for flexing her democratic muscles against the only superpower in the world.

Fourth, there was the Turkish hypersensitivity to Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq. An independent Kurdish state was anathema to the Turks who feared the emergence of an independent Kurdistan as a consequence of ousting Saddam. Yet, it was apparent that Saddam would be gone with or without Turkish participation. Also, there had been an autonomous Kurdish community in northern Iraq for 12 years since the Gulf war, thanks to policing of the no-fly zone by US and British planes from Turkey's Incirlik air base. All told, this had been a profitable enterprise for Turkey. Perhaps an autonomous Kurdish state would not be such a big deal after all. In the end, Turkish policy makers were unable to untangle their conflicting views before time ran out.

Fifth, there was the American hypersensitivity after 9/11 to friends who abandoned her in time of need. It was clear to the US policy makers that the only way to fight those who use terrorism as a weapon of warfare was preemption to stop them before they unleashed terror upon unsuspecting innocents in our cities. This would be the new paradigm in the 4th World War now unfolding between the West and The Islamist Ideology. This would be fighting an enemy without a nation against which to declare war in accord with the Geneva Convention rules. This was a war against an ideology that inflicts terror as a weapon ordained by Allah and recruits converts to a perverted form of Islam by punishing those who resist. Preemptive warfare seemed to be the only way to defend against this new enemy. Yet, this new kind of war was distasteful to our European friends although they offered no alternative way to fight it effectively. They wanted to continue passing UN resolutions with words like "material breech" and "serious consequences" that had brought no resolution in the previous 12 years. One wonders if their outlook would be different had The Eiffel Tower been hit instead of The Twin Towers. France and Germany especially but also Turkey had received US help in the past even before they could ask for it. Now, America needed help against the fanatics who perpetrated attacks of colossal proportions on US soil but America was only getting the runaround from her old European friends. Only Britain was there in full force, although the Buckingham Palace had not been hit yet. Eastern Europeans (Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, et al) were willing to help with what they could afford. They had not yet forgotten that it was the Americans who removed the Soviet yoke from their collective necks. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called them "The New Europe" in contrast to the ossified "Old Europe." France in particular bore the brunt of American anger. French-denig! rating jokes proliferated in the news media and in cyberspace. There were boycotts of French wine and Brie cheese. Tourism in France took a nosedive as many Americans stopped going to France for their vacations. In contrast there was practically no resentment against Turkey among the American public. Officially, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and a couple of former US Ambassadors to Turkey made some intemperate remarks that insulted the Turks. Their collective comments gave the impression that the Turks were off the reservation in defying their master and contributed to the undignified treatment of Turkish officers in As Sulaymaniyah. These friends of Turkey apparently had a memory lapse (it is temporary, one hopes) of many anti-Turkish votes in the US Congress that the Turks had taken in stride as a natural occurrence in representative democracies. The official US treatment of the Turks was in stark contrast to the treatment of the French, the Germans, and the Russ! ians who had stood in bitter opposition to the US from the beginning. They were and are given the velvet glove treatment while the Turks got a fist in the face. The harsh treatment Turkey received from US officials who were known as friends of Turkey can be rationalized as the overreaction of a true friend who expects more from his friend than from someone who only pretends to be a friend. One hopes this is the case. Perhaps, the US did not expect much from the French, even from the Germans and the Russians, but was counting on the Turks.

Finally, there was the famous Turkish honor. The media played up the $6 billion promised to Turkey as foreign aid, instead of compensation for economic losses Turkey would suffer. This made it seem as though America was bribing the Turks to side with her. "We are not for sale" was a common sentiment on the streets of Istanbul. National honor is one thing in Turkey and commerce is quite another because bribery (rushvet in Turkish) is common and commonly accepted as a tip (bakshish in Turkish). It is the price of doing business with government bureaucrats even though it remains illegal on the books. It's OK for a government bureaucrat to take a "tip" from a businessman, Turkish or foreign, but for the Turkish Nation to take a bribe from another nation is a national disgrace. Neither the US nor Turkey made a serious effort to tell the public either in America or in Turkey that the $6 million was merely to make up for Turkish economic losses in the fight against Islamist terror!

Americans still say, "you can't buy friends with money." Turks are still proud that they were not bought.

Where do we go from here? OK, it is clear that Turkish support was not for sale. It is also clear that Turkish cooperation in Iraq is crucial to the US interest in winning the hearts and minds of Muslims around the world, not just in Iraq. Wahhabi Islamists have been hijacking mainstream Islam for years not only in majority Muslim nations but even in the US and Britain - not to mention France and Germany. Turkey is the only nation with experience to show Muslims they can build a nation under secular law that secures property rights, free speech, and free commerce to its citizens without regard to their private religious convictions. This surely is the path to follow for all Muslims if they are to survive in the 21st century. Wahhabi Islamists would be doomed if mainstream Islam unites to stop their pernicious hate campaign. They represent a fatal scourge for Islam, a religion that worships the same God of Abraham with Christians and Jews. Alternatively, if Islam just winks a t the Wahhabi Islamists, Islam is destined to become another one of the many cults that have inflicted humankind throughout history.

Turkey has an opportunity to prove she is indispensable to the civilized world. Obsequious behavior towards Europe has not been productive for Turkey so far. It would do Turkey a lot of good to cool Turkish infatuation with European sophistication in worldly affairs. Urbane sophistication did not win World War I for the Europeans. It brought the war to them. Sophistication did not win World War II for them. The "Naive Americans" did. Sophistication did not win The Cold War for humanity. The "Crude Cowboys" did. European sophisticates did not even try to deal with Bosnia. They just waited for the posse from Texas to show up. The EU has consigned former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing to write a constitution for the supranational organization -- a United States of Europe to rival the other United States across the pond. This is the same Valery Giscard d'Estaing who blurted recently that the Turks do not belong in Europe, have never been Europeans. The draft of the constitution he is producing that appeared in the press is an abominably imperious document. It royally dispenses rights to citizens of member nations from the supranational EU authority as if citizens of member nations are not born with rights. This is in stark contrast to the US constitution that prohibits government from infringing on rights of citizens endowed to them by their creator and compels the government to protect those rights. The d'Estaing constitution indicates that, by joining EU, Turkish citizens will owe their rights to the bureaucrats in Belgium for whom no Turk would even have an opportunity to vote. This is serfdom for the Turks. Few Turks in history have been serfs except those whom Arabs called Mamelukes. They were enslaved by the Arabs in the 10th century but ended up ruling Egypt for 250 years beginning in 1250 AD. The Soviet Union had a kind of serfdom imposed on the Turks of central Asia with the communist doctrine that promised a bright future if only they followed the party line emanating from Moscow. Instead, the command-and-control from Moscow brought only poverty and prison to those who did not obey the command.

"Turks have no friends but Turks" a Tatar told this scribe several years ago. It is difficult to disagree with her assertion but Americans defy that maxim. She had experienced Soviet rule and knew little about Americans. During the last half-century, the US foreign policy understood the special evolutionary requirements of Turkish democracy. Democracy in Turkey had quite a ride. It went from a monopolistic one- party system to a multi-party free-for-all, from a state-run economy to a free market economy with open borders and floating currency. It displayed a strong military, which took over three times when things spun out of control but returned power to civilian control when things cooled down. America stood steadfast alongside Turkey through all this while the European sophisticates rushed each time to conclude that the "Militaristic Turks" were, well, just being Turks.

Americans too had no closer friend than the Turks excepting the Brits during the last half century. From the Korean War to the Gulf War and throughout the Cold War, US could depend on Turkey to stand by her side. When terror became an instrument of war in the Middle East, Turkey with a 90-plus percent Muslim population, stood with the US and Israel against Muslim terrorists. Turks know about terrorism fostered by religious hatred. They had been victims of Armenian terrorists who got their inspiration from their churches that kept past hatreds alive instead of healing wounds. Turks know about terrorism fostered by political ideology. They had been victims of Kurdish terrorists who justified their behavior by communist ideology. Turks are the best friends for Americans to fight the new war against terrorists who now happen to be Islamists. It is time once again for both sides to roll up the sleeves and get to work side by side.

um...is this a vanity ?
No link ?

I wonder how timely this is ?
The original package that was shelved was for approx. 15 billion, mostly because Turkey's nose was out of joint because of the US/KURD alliance.

US/Turkey just agreed on a 8.5 billion loan. Where does the 6 billion figure in the article come from ?

In April, Congress tied any aid to Turkey, to Turkey' co-operation on Iraq. The current loan of 8.5 billion does not appear to have that rider on it.

Battle of Manzikert's over, little buddy, way back in 1071. Also, Constantinople became Istanbul way back in 1453.

You remind me of these die-hard Confederate types (I live in Richmond, VA, the former capitol of the Confederacy) getting all bent out of shape about Abraham Lincoln and the War of Northern Aggression.

Please take your ancestral squabbles elsewhere.

"That drove out the last million or so Christians from Constantinople."

First, I met a lot of Christians in Istanbul, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant. That means that what you infer is false.

Second, because you refer to Istanbul as Constantinople, this indicates that you do not recognize it as a Turkish.

Third, since this is the case, you have no interest in repairing US-TC relations, and would rather see them further deteriorate, you are merely posting to this thread to disrupt and carry on as some sort of irritating gadfly.

Now please go away, young Destro, I don't post to your threads out of courtesy. Please reciprocate.

Re: Where does the 6 billion figure in the article come from ?

At the start of the build up for Iraq $6 billion was the cash amount reported. The actual value to Turkey was estimated to be between $24 billion and $30 billion. The impact of the Gulf War on Turkey's economy was horrendous. The promised off-setting aid was never delivered by the allies. Our press generally ignored the details and instead falsely reported on "haggling" or simply concentrated on the dollar amounts. If you read the article you know that it greatly offended Turks.

Being able to do something is not the same as it being actually a good idea. For example, if I were to go to your home and decide to use the potted plant in the living room as the toilet, I am physically able to do so and I doubt seriously from the tone of your posts and general demeanour that you would be able to stop me, but good manners and a basic respect for your household would restrain me from doing so.

In the same manner, one could quickly go to the bathroom at a party, and then trot quickly back to the punch bowl and throw a fresh turd into it. This is essentially what you are doing now.

Please excuse yourself, young Destro, to save yourself further embarrassment.

Thanks for posting. Very, very good writing by Ali. It squares with everything I read at the time mostly from the foreign press. Our press intimated that the new "Islamist" government nixed the troop deal. This article tells the facts that established politicians were anxious to please Europe (mostly France) and opposed the troops hoping it helped getting Turkey into the EU. Ali is right. Turkey should give it up. IMO, look to the new Europe. We are (I thought).

Neither the US nor Turkey made a serious effort to tell the public either in America or in Turkey that the $6 million was merely to make up for Turkish economic losses in the fight against Islamist terror!

It was pretty much portrayed here as Turkey "haggling" over the amount. That did not go unnoticed in Turkey and contributed to the public opinion against letting our troops use Turkish soil to launch attacks. But you had to go to English language Turkish press to find out.

google "Ali Ferda Sevin" there are a few hits with his other writings. One is about how Turkey should lead the way to reform Islam. Turkey's been there and done that. I have not read it yet.

Thanx....I see...the 6 billion was for cash the rest was to be in loan guarantees. I seem to recall that that amount was an insult to Turkey, as they were looking for a package worth about 50 billion. And you are right. All I seem to remember reading was about the haggling.

"Very, very good writing by Ali."

Ali's writing reminds me of that old toast: "My country, right or wrong: if right, to be kept right, if wrong, to be put right."

I wish that sentiment was more widely shared at this forum. There is a reflexively self-critical personal characteristic Kemalists have which I wish we still had in the GOP.

Any idea how this bill will effect US/Turkey relations-seem to remember there are joint ventures involved? "The Pentagon has dropped its opposition to controversial legislation that would direct the US to shun overseas suppliers in purchasing parts for essential weapons systems". http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/991346/posts

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