‘BUSH LEFT POOR LEGACY IN TURKEY-US RELATIONS’
Today’s Zaman
Oct 28 2008
Turkey
Former US Ambassador to Turkey Mark R. Parris has said that outgoing
US President George W. Bush will leave US relations with Turkey worse
than he found them; however, he noted that "the next US president
will get a bounce in terms of Turkish public opinion just by not
being George W. Bush."
Parris’ remarks on Turkey-US relations appeared in an article titled
"Common Values and Common Interests? The Bush Legacy in US-Turkish
Relations," which he wrote for the latest edition of "Insight Turkey,"
a quarterly journal published by the SETA Foundation for Political,
Economic and Social Research. Parris, who also works as an advisor to
the Brookings Institution’s Turkey Project, served as US ambassador
to Turkey from 1997-2000.
"The burden of responsibility for what has been the most problematic
six years in US-Turkish relations since the Cyprus crisis of the 1970s
lies with Washington," said Parris. He omitted Bush’s first two years
in office from the list of problematic six years because relations
were relatively better before the outbreak of the Iraq war in 2003.
Parris suggested that the intensity of the negative images of the US in
recent years is often counterpoised by nostalgia for an America more in
tune with its "better angels." "This helps explain many Turks’ strong
attraction to Barack Obama’s message of hope despite John McCain’s
much greater experience with Turkey, and from Ankara’s standpoint, his
‘right’ position on the emotional Armenian genocide issue," he said. At
the end of his article, Parris made some recommendations to the next
US administration to put relations with Turkey back on track. "If
it is correct that US and Turkish strategic interests remain largely
convergent and that each side may be prepared to give the other the
benefit of the doubt in terms of values, the challenge for the next
administration will be one of execution rather than reinvention,"
he noted.