The U.S. Has Already Made Up Its Mind On Turkey

BYEGM: 5/7/2003

BY ISMET BERKAN

RADIKAL- Columnist Ismet Berkan writes on the shifting sands of 
Turkish-US relations. A summary of his column is as follows:  

There is a reason why today we have published the full text of 
yesterday's remarks on Turkish-US relations made by US Deputy 
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Everybody interested in the 
future of relations between our two countries should read this 
text very carefully.  

Wolfowitz's comments focused on the ties between Ankara and 
Washington as well as the stance our country took before and 
during the Iraq war. He highlighted the tensions that damaged 
Turkish-US relations after Ankara refused to allow the deployment 
of American GIs to open a northern front against Iraq. Wolfowitz 
stated that he had been disappointed by Turkey's stance, adding 
that Washington regarded the rejection as a turning point in 
bilateral relations.  

Mincing no words, he didn't hesitate to say that Turkey's diplomatic 
importance had diminished for the US in the wake of its Iraq victory. 
The Bush administration holds both Turkey's government and its military 
responsible for the country's failure to support the US. "I think for 
whatever reason, they did not play the strong leadership role ... that 
we would have expected," Wolfowitz said. He also added that the Iraqi 
people did not want to see Turkish soldiers in Iraq. "Turning a new page 
in relations depended on Turkey's close cooperation on Iraq and also on 
Iran and Syria," remarked the US top defense official. "Turkey and the 
US can still mend ties by closely cooperating in rebuilding Iraq. We 
have an opportunity in cooperating on maybe the most important project 
of this century, which is to build a free, democratic Arab country to 
the south of your country and frankly, if we can work together to achieve 
that in Iraq, it will more than repair whatever damage has been done."

Reading between the lines, here is Wolfowitz's plain meaning: 
Turkey must do whatever the US wants it to do. For those familiar 
with Wolfowitz's past remarks and statements, you already know that 
he has never before directed such harsh remarks towards Turkey nor 
employed such a negative tone. Yesterday, he overtly stressed that 
Turkey cannot pursue independent policies on certain sensitive issues. 
He also added that Turkey should step up and admit that it made a 
mistake on the Iraq issue. According to Wolfowitz, Turkey must say 
that it should have known how bad things were in Iraq and try to figure 
out how it can be as helpful as possible to the US now. However, this is 
a suggestion that Turkey can never accept. Therefore, we must face up 
to the fact that things have changed between our two countries. Nobody 
should expect a perfect partnership like the one we enjoyed in the past.  

If we want to mend fences, we should find new and better ways to 
communicate and cooperate with each other.  

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE 
GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION

                      -==-

Source: Turkish Press... http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=10197


Cheers, Steve..

---