Turkish Press
May 29 2009

Proximity Of Views In Turkish – U.S. Relations

MILLIYET
Published: 5/29/2009
BY SAMI KOHEN

Istanbul’s Bahcesehir University is hosting an important conference on
Turkish-US relations today. The distinguished diplomats and academics
from the US will discuss the relations comprehensively and make
projections about the future, along with their Turkish colleagues in
the three-day conference, organized by the American Researches Center
of the university. This conference will give the opportunity of make
more healthy evaluations about the course of Turkish-US relations,
after Barack Obama was elected president and visited Turkey. Following
the difficulties caused by the Bush era, people started to hope that a
closer agreement will be reached between Ankara and Washington and the
‘partnership’ which was defined with various adjectives (such as
‘strategic’) in the past will be based on more real
foundations. Indeed, the new president’ world view which is different
than his predecessor and his willingness for making important changes
in foreign politics has opened a new perspective in Turkish-US
relations.

As a matter of fact, there is proximity of views between Ankara and
Washington on regional issues which particularly concern us. Let’s
start with the Middle East. Obama has taken a different stance than
Bush about the Issue and gave the message to Tehran that it was ready
for dialogue with a new opening. Ankara has been adopting and
suggesting this stance to the US since the very beginning. The US has
also displayed a similar change of stance about the Syrian issue and
taken the first step to normalize its relations with Damascus. This
situation is also in line with the policy followed by Turkey. Obama
also brought new dimensions to the US’ policies about the Palestinian
issue. On the one hand, it favors the solution of ‘two states,’ and on
the other, it treats Israel more distantly than in previous
years. This development is more harmonious with Turkey’s
stance. Finally, the US’ adoption of a withdrawal calendar about the
Iraq issue and the importance that it places on Iraq’s territorial
integrity provide the proximity of views with Turkey greatly.

The cooperation between the two countries is getting stronger about
the situation on northern Iraq and the struggle against the PKK. As
for the Caucasus, there is fundamental agreement between Ankara and
Washington about protecting Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial
integrity and initiating the normalization process between Turkey and
Armenia. The same thing can be said about Afghanistan (and now for
Pakistan).

Looking at the picture, one can get the impression that Turkey and the
US have similar views on certain issues. But once the strategies
followed by the US and Turkey on these issues are deeply analyzed,
certain differences can be seen. Obama has made an opening about the
Iran issue, but he also stated that he wouldn’t be able to wait
forever about the nuclear program issue. Unless a development occurs,
Obama might bring forward the issue of sanction and similar options
towards the end of the year. How will Turkey, which is a Security
Council member, act at that time? The US adopts the principle of ‘two
states’ about the Palestinian issue, but it considers only the Mahmoud
Abbas regime as legitimate on behalf of Palestine and regards Hamas as
a terrorist organization, as opposed to Turkey. It stipulates that it
ends its support for terrorist organizations for normal relations with
Syria. Similarly, once the issue is deeply analyzed, there are certain
differences in two countries’ strategies on other regional issues as
well. Today these differences don’t create an impact on relations (and
even the cooperation), but if a crisis occurs in these problems,
distresses might also emerge in relations.