Spiegel Online, Germany
Oct 12 2007
‘The West Needs Turkey as a Reliable Ally’
Tensions between the US and Turkey are growing as Ankara considers
attacking PKK bases in northern Iraq and a congressional committee in
Washington pushes forward a resolution calling the World War I
massacre of Armenians "genocide." German commentators are concerned
at the deteriorating relations between the NATO allies.
Military trucks carry Turkish tanks toward Sirnak near the
Turkish-Iraq border on Tuesday. Turkey has begun preparations for a
military operation into Iraq to pursue Kurdish rebels.
Relations between the United States and Turkey have hit a new low
point as a US congressional committee labels the Armenian massacre as
genocide and Turkey prepares the ground for military operations in
northern Iraq.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Ankara
was prepared to face up to international criticism if his country
launched an attack on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.
"After going down this route, its cost has already been calculated,"
Erdogan told reporters when asked about international reaction to
such an operation. "Whatever the cost is, it will be met."
Erdogan’s government has decided to seek approval from parliament
(more…) next week for military incursions into northern Iraq to
pursue Kurdish rebels there. The bill would give the government a
one-year authorization to launch military operations across the
border against the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
On Wednesday, Washington warned Turkey against unilateral action in
northern Iraq. The US does not want to rock the boat in what is
Iraq’s most peaceful region, fearing that a Turkish offensive could
potentially destabilize the wider region. Turkey is a key US ally and
has the second-largest army in NATO.
US-Turkish relations have also been soured by a move on Wednesday by
the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committtee to approve a resolution
(more…) that would label the Ottoman massacre of Armenians during
World War I as genocide. The resolution now goes to the floor of the
House of Representatives, with a vote expected by mid-November. The
resolution is supported by the powerful Armenian-American lobby.
The decision, which is expected to ramp up anti-American sentiment in
Turkey, was strongly condemned in the country, with street protests
erupting in Ankara and Istanbul. Expressing its diplomatic
displeasure, Turkey on Thursday recalled its ambassador to the US for
consultations, and the government in Ankara said the resolution, if
passed, would damage US-Turkish relations.
Commentators writing in Germany’s main newspapers Friday expressed
concern at the deteriorating relations between the two allies.
The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"The (congressional committee’s) decision could cause great damage,
on two levels: on the one hand to fundamental realpolitik interests,
but also to efforts to deal with the past in Turkey itself. … The
United States and the West need Turkey as a reliable ally. The
country has the second-largest army in NATO and is an important
anchor of stability in an increasingly hostile and unstable region.
… However, it is the timing which is fatal: The resolution
coincides with a rising wave of anti-American and anti-West rhetoric
in Turkey. … It is hardly a coincidence that Ankara’s motion on
cross-border military operations in northern Iraq comes at the same
time as the resolution in Washington."
"Something strange has been happening in Turkey in recent years. The
old taboos have started to crack as intellectuals, writers and
journalists push for a genuine reappraisal of the massacres. …
Resolutions by foreign parliaments do not help these timid attempts
to come to terms with the past. On the contrary, they play into the
hands of the nationalists and those who deny the massacres."
The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
"The decision … is a lesson in American politics. In this lesson, a
whole variety of people and factors are in play in the background:
the influence of a strategically placed lobby, the meaning of history
and human rights in conflict with security and political interests,
the relationship between Congress and the president, the calculations
of leading politicians, and so on … . It’s clear that Ankara
henceforth will have less regard for Washington’s interests and
wishes."
The Financial Times Deutschland writes:
"Politically, it’s a inexpensive gift to a few voting blocks in the
US, and a very expensive affront to Turkey … An open fight between
Ankara and Washington mostly endangers supply-chains for troops in
Iraq that arrive through Turkey. … The timing for an uproar over
history and etiquette could not be more inauspicious."
"American representatives appear little interested: Recently they
officially concluded it would be best to have Iraq divided into
Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish areas … For Turkey, a neighboring
independent Kurdish state is a horror to imagine."
The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:
"From the Turkish viewpoint, yesterday’s resolution looks like a
provocation. The reputation of the United States has long been at a
low point. You have to go back a long way to find a similarly bad
atmosphere — perhaps to 1974, when Washington and Ankara fell out
over Cyprus."
"Since the US invasion of Iraq, the Kurdish PKK has operated from
northern Iraq against targets in Turkey without being hindered by the
US Army or its allied Kurdish militias. This is a catastrophic
political failure on both sides. The United States — whether out of
ignorance or calculation — has allowed its Kurdish allies in
northern Iraq to play the PKK card… . If the US government does not
visibly act to hinder PKK attacks in the coming weeks, then there is
the risk of a new theater of war emerging in Iraq."
— David Gordon Smith, 11:30 a.m. CET
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