Relations With The U.S.

BY YILMAZ OZTUNA
TURKIYE- Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna comments on Turkey’s relations with the United States. A summary of his column is as follows:
I don’t know what we’ve done so far to repair our relations with the US, but this is the most important issue for Turkey’s future. This issue is also urgent because Washington hasn’t yet made up its mind about Ankara. Following its disappointment with our stance in the war in Iraq, now it wants to gauge how we will act in a forthcoming larger war with Iran. It will draw up its war plans according to our stance.
I didn’t know that there was such intense opposition to the US in Turkey. I haven’t read in any history books how wars are judged to be legal or illegal according to their compliance with international law. The books that I read classified wars according to who won them and who lost.
We’re still discussing how much the US is right. We’re such a great nation of law that we can give lessons about law to the world. We can’t seem to understand that those who hold absolute power and vision also have a voice in international politics.
I believe that our government as represented in the Foreign Ministry and our Washington embassy isn’t doing enough to repair our relations with the US. I believe that even the importance and urgency of this issue are being ignored. Instead we’re giving Washington advice on TV and in the newspapers. We should clearly see that the US doesn’t act on the basis of our advice or any other nation’s. It keeps its own counsel and depends on this for its power. Is this at all surprising? The US is just acting in the way that other countries have in the past.

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