A SADDENING VIEW IN WASHINGTON D.C.
Anatolian Times, Turkey
March 30 2006
Asli Aydintasbas, a columnists of the Sabah daily who was in attendance
at the annual meeting of the American-Turkish Council (ATC) in
Washington D.C., explained her impressions in her column on Wednesday.
“For the first time in my life, I engulfed in sadness when I entered
the conference hall. ATC meetings are not ordinary events. In fact,
those meetings were used to be held with the participation of
leading figures from the Turkish government, business circles and
the General Staff. American senators, military officials, bureaucrats
and executives of giant companies were used to attend the ball prior
to the meetings. Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline project was shaped during
those meetings. But this year, the conference hall was half empty.
Of course it is not a problem of bad organization but is the sign of
‘confidence crisis’ in bilateral relations. I talked to a high-level
American official at dinner and he told me that everybody was fed up
with talking about Turkish-American strategic partnership. He also
said that there were obvious problems. He did not attend the ATC
meetings, but complained about the movie “Valley of Wolves-Iraq”,
the visit (to Ankara) of Hamas delegation, distressing developments
at the (Turkish) Central Bank and the possibility of legalization
of the Koran classes by the government. He was afraid of Turkey’s
metamorphosis into a new Malaysia.
This was the sad view I observed in Washington D.C. in the spring of
2006. I asked another high-level American official whether he would
attend the ATC meetings. He told me that he rather prefer to go to
a dinner to be hosted by the Armenian National Congress.
As usual, the resolution on the so-called Armenian genocide will be
on the agenda in April. Turkey do not rely on support of the Jewish
lobby in Washington D.C any longer. Some say that the resolution might
have a coercing impact on U.S. senators. In that case, we will have
to forget about 50-year Turkey-US friendship.”