The U.S. Has Already Made Up Its Mind On Turkey

BY ISMET BERKAN
RADIKAL- Columnist Ismet Berkan writes on the shifting sands of Turkish-US relations. A summary of his column is as follows:
There is a reason why today we have published the full text of yesterday’s remarks on Turkish-US relations made by US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Everybody interested in the future of relations between our two countries should read this text very carefully. Wolfowitz's comments focused on the ties between Ankara and Washington as well as the stance our country took before and during the Iraq war. He highlighted the tensions that damaged Turkish-US relations after Ankara refused to allow the deployment of American GIs to open a northern front against Iraq. Wolfowitz stated that he had been disappointed by Turkey’s stance, adding that Washington regarded the rejection as a turning point in bilateral relations. Mincing no words, he didn’t hesitate to say that Turkey’s diplomatic importance had diminished for the US in the wake of its Iraq victory. The Bush administration holds both Turkey’s government and its military responsible for the country’s failure to support the US. “I think for whatever reason, they did not play the strong leadership role ... that we would have expected,” Wolfowitz said. He also added that the Iraqi people did not want to see Turkish soldiers in Iraq. “Turning a new page in relations depended on Turkey's close cooperation on Iraq and also on Iran and Syria,” remarked the US top defense official. “Turkey and the US can still mend ties by closely cooperating in rebuilding Iraq. We have an opportunity in cooperating on maybe the most important project of this century, which is to build a free, democratic Arab country to the south of your country and frankly, if we can work together to achieve that in Iraq, it will more than repair whatever damage has been done.” Reading between the lines, here is Wolfowitz’s plain meaning: Turkey must do whatever the US wants it to do. For those familiar with Wolfowitz’s past remarks and statements, you already know that he has never before directed such harsh remarks towards Turkey nor employed such a negative tone. Yesterday, he overtly stressed that Turkey cannot pursue independent policies on certain sensitive issues. He also added that Turkey should step up and admit that it made a mistake on the Iraq issue. According to Wolfowitz, Turkey must say that it should have known how bad things were in Iraq and try to figure out how it can be as helpful as possible to the US now. However, this is a suggestion that Turkey can never accept. Therefore, we must face up to the fact that things have changed between our two countries. Nobody should expect a perfect partnership like the one we enjoyed in the past. If we want to mend fences, we should find new and better ways to communicate and cooperate with each other.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION