Turkish Press, Turkey
July 12 2004

What Edwards Means
BYEGM: 7/12/2004
BY ASLI AYDINTASBAS

SABAH- Does everybody really want George W. Bush to lose the coming
US presidential elections? Will a new administration led by
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry really manage to turn a
new page on US foreign policy?

For Turkey, the situation is quite complicated. As a matter of fact,
Ankara doesn’t willingly support the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive
strikes whose ultimate aim is to expand American military and
economic power in the Islamic world. However, on the other hand,
neither does Ankara oppose the `star’ role Washington has set for
Turkey in its Greater Middle East Initiative (GME), which is why
certain domestic circles were extremely pleased with Bush’s speech at
Galatasaray University at the closing of NATO’s recent Istanbul
summit. Having seen Turkey’s critical importance in the wake of Sept.
11 attacks, the Bush administration is now lending its full support
to Ankara on both its EU membership bid and relations with the
International Monetary Fund. Bush somehow knows and likes our
country.

Therefore, Ankara foreign policy circles believe that the devil we
know is better than the one we don’t. Let’s recall that Kerry is one
of the supporters of the so-called Armenian genocide bills. In
addition, he is a member of US leftist circles, which are known for
their harsh criticisms of Turkey. Unlike Bush, Kerry won’t be willing
to pressure EU countries for Turkey’s EU membership.

However, Turkey shouldn’t let itself get worried. Let’s not forget
the Clinton administration, once very close to the leftist and Greek
lobbies in the US, and how Clinton’s term was one of the golden eras
for Turkish-US relations. What I’d like to stress here is no matter
what the US president thinks about our country, Turkey is a sine qua
non for US foreign policy. There are fixed, inevitable parameters in
Washington’s foreign policy which no leader can alter. Moreover,
would a Kerry administration be able to ignore the nuclear power
plant that Iran is currently building in Natanz? Kerry certainly
doesn’t have any magic wand with which to change the world.

Kerry and his charismatic running mate John Edwards so far seem very
clumsy in their campaigning, as Edwards is voicing a very leftist
rhetoric which means little to the US nation. The specter of `class
war’ which Edwards often raises in his speeches is not a popular
theme for Americans. This duo must prove to their country that they
are capable of correcting things inside and outside the homeland.
Otherwise, Americans too might opt to stick with the devil they know.