BY TUFAN TURENC
HURRIYET- Columnist Tufan Turenc comments on Washington’s detention of eleven Turkish soldiers. A summary of his column is as follows:
The things we have been experiencing for the last eight months are the expected difficulties of bringing an inexperienced staff to power alone. It was impossible for a nation which went to the ballot box angrily to make a right decision. We handed over the country to this staff and now we are going to put up with its results. The US has been our ally for 50 years. For the first time, Washington treated Turkey in a hostile way by detaining eleven Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq. The Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been following an undecided and wrong Iraq policy, is responsible for it. This is unfortunate for Turkey but unfortunately this was what the Turkish nation wanted.
As far as it’s understood, the operation in northern which degrades Turkey was made by ‘hawks’ in Pentagon. Washington administration’s statements, ‘We have no information about it’ aren’t convincing at all. If Ankara evaluates the situation as follows: ‘Relations with the US aren’t in the process of recovery, instead, they’re getting worse,’ it would have been a realistic approach. It’s also most likely that the US made calculations to put the Turkish government on the spot with this operation. It shouldn’t be forgotten that there is also the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in these calculations because Washington previously stated that the TSK was responsible for Turkey’s refusal of US troop deployments as much as the government was. Clearly ‘hawks’ aren’t considering the ally with Turkey important anymore. The serious development in Iraq against Turkey proves this opinion.”
What’s more, the AKP government has difficulties with governing Turkey. Now Turkey is paying the price of its votes for the AKP.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION