Journal of Turkish Weekly
April 11 2005

US Fury on ‘Anti-Americanism’ in Turkey
View: Dr. Ihsan BAL

Every day an article appears in US media about Turkey which accuses
Turkish government and media of conspiring about America and feeding
anti Americanism in Turkey. According to neo-con American media and
think-tanks, majority of Turkish people have become anti-American in
recent years and this trend is rising day by day. According to the
neo-cons Turkish people have become anti American because Turkish
government is Islamic and Turkish media, particularly Islamic one,
steaming hatred against Americans in Turkey.

Those assumptions need clarification and close examination.

First of all, do Turkish people hate Americans? There has been number
of surveys conducted recently in Turkey to find out what the reality
is. According to very recent survey which was conducted by Poll Mark
Company, Turkish people do not hate Americans but overwhelming
majority of the Turkish people do not approve President George W.
Bush’s policies. According to the Poll Mark Survey, % 81.5 of
respondents is not happy about Bush’s policies compare to only % 5.6
approves president Bush. On the other hand, % 64 of respondents has
no problem for choosing an American neighbor in next door. This is a
very significant result, considering that Turkish people are very
choosy about their neighbors. Poll Mark finds out another significant
result by asking marriage preference: In Turkey marriage parameters
are very important to find out public attitude and feelings. It won’t
be exaggeration if one suggests that Turks are obsessed about their
marriage preferences in particular they do not allow their children
to marry with foreigners. With these in mind % 37.3 of respondents do
not mind getting married with Americans. This is very high percent,
even regional preferences inside Turkey plays a big role in terms of
marriage.

Another public poll conducted by Ankara-based Turkish think tank ISRO
(International Strategic Research Organization) indicates that 74 %
of Turkish people still perceive US as a `strategic ally’. Only 16 %
of the whole contenders defined themselves as `anti American’, but a
timid 4 % of the respondents dislike American people. Consequently,
it is clear that Turkish people do not hate American people, but anti
Americanism is slightly higher compared to former. The most
significant result of the survey is about George W. Bush’s policies,
where 91 % of respondents disapprove Bush’s policies, compared to the
previous president Bill Clinton who has a 49 % full (41 %) and
partially (8 %) approval rate. ISRO Survey also confirms that Bill
Clinton had the highest approval with 69 % regarding world peace and
security. It can be argued that Turkish people are concerned about
American foreign policies (particularly regarding Turkey and the
region) and their attitudes are shaped in the light of these
policies. It is obvious that the some US analysts about Turkey are on
wrong track in suggesting that there is a widespread anti American
feelings in Turkey. Also as a clear indication of the misjudgments of
some American analysts about `anti Americanism in Turkey’ is the
survey result on the reason of opposition to the American policies
where 75 % of the respondents see the biggest problem to
Turkish-American relations is the American attitude towards PKK
terror organization in Northern Iraq.

There is no widespread anti Americanism in Turkey, however there is a
level of hostile feelings against American administration. This
feeling has been fueled by American policies towards the PKK and most
recently the assumptions of use of Armenian allegations as a carrot
and stick policy against Turkey.

One must realize that the problem between Turkey and US is not
cultural, social, economic and `love and hate relation’ between the
communities but Turkish public’s disapproval of the US government
policies. When this relationship is understood from this perspective
and analyzed in this ground, than there is a real chance to work on
and build a stable and sustainable relationship between two parties.
So what the Turkish people does not like about Bush’s polices? First
one is American tolerance to radical Kurds. Every public survey
evidently put the former president Bill Clinton top of the polls as
Turkey’s friend in contrast to president Bush on bottom of the polls
in Turkey. So what is the different? President Clinton did what a
strategic ally would do and help Turkey to apprehend PKK terror
organization leader Abdullah Öcalan. On the other hand President Bush
prevented Turkey to carry out military operation against this
notorious terror organization and although Turkey has fully supported
American declaration of `war against terrorism’ and send a military
personnel to Afghanistan. Turkey did not fully cooperate with the US
over Iraq where many European countries also did not cooperate with
US. However Turkey did a lot for Bush administration even in Iraqi
case; every day thousands of Turkish lorry drivers traveled to war
zone with the expense of endangering their life, many Turkish
businessmen and workers also supported the US with their very needy
logistics, and Turkey also opened her air corridor to US planes, just
to mention a few amongst so many.

Ironically Bush administration is not satisfied with these afford and
many Turkish people believes that Turkey is being punished for not
helping the US in its invasion of Iraq. On the one hand Bush
administration is so keen on democracy; on the other hand they are
not happy with democratically elected governments’ policies.
Democracy needs more effort to convince your counterpart over your
policies. Relationship between democracies is also must be based on
common benefit rather than dictating one sides policy.

Some American intellectuals need to look at the cultural, social and
historical backgrounds of the Turkish people to understand the public
tendency towards Americans and US administration. For this respect,
authors whom writing about Turkey and analyzing the Turkish public
must bear in mind that, there is not such overwhelming hatred towards
any nation in Turkish history. Through out the Turkish history there
has been coexistence, tolerance and harmony in Anatolia. Turkish
civilization is also one of the best examples of different nations
living together in peaceful manner looking back to Balkans, Caucasus
and Middle East. Therefore a nation with these characteristics and
background may never show any sign of hatred. Even the timid anti
American group is the result of deaf and blind virtues of American
policies.

Another point to be noted is that the Turkish government has made
great efforts to normalize Turkish-American relations since the Iraq
War while the US Government just accuses the Turkish Government and
media. The American image in Turkey could not be restored by just
blaming Turkish public, government and media. The Americans need to
listen what Turks say. They do not hate the Americans, but they
disapprove the Americans deal with the Middle East and Turkey. This
is a best outcome of Turkish democratic experience and richness, as
US has been trying to promote and mention as a model Muslim
democracy.

JTW
11 April 2005