BY SAMI KOHEN
MILLIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen writes on the US detention of 11 Turkish special forces in Sulaymaniyah. A summary of his column is as follows:
How did the US detention on Friday of 11 Turkish special forces in Sulaymaniyah take place? Did this ugly incident happen upon an individual initiative of local US military authorities in the region, or was it a result of overall US military strategy? What was the driving force behind the aggressive US detention of Turkish soldiers? Although the crisis now seems to be over by the joint efforts of both sides, these questions need to be answered for the future of Turkish-US relations.
As a matter of fact, it’s hard to believe that local US military authorities commanded such an operation on their own. However, we can’t either believe that Washington or Pentagon directly ordered the US army to hold an operation against Turkish soldiers. I believe that this incident took place because US military authorities made a decision to hold this operation in the light of overall US military policy for Iraq. Therefore, we can’t consider this incident just an individual decision.
This was the biggest crisis of confidence ever happened between the two allies. Nothing like that ever took place in the history of NATO. This “Rambo crisis” caused great resentment and anger in both Turkish people and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).
There is no doubt that both sides’ determination to end this grave crisis and to establish better mechanisms of communication between their armies is to help overcome common problems and build a better future. However, it’s also clear that this incident showed it would be very difficult to keep bilateral relations at the same good level as it was before the Iraq war. We can briefly explain the driving force behind this detention incident:
Turkey’s and US’ strategies and agendas on northern Iraq are quite different from each other, and even controversial on some points. Turkey wants to maintain its military presence in the region on the grounds of its national security. However, the US wants to help Kurdish ethnic groups, which lent their full support to Washington during the Iraq war, lead the regional administration. That’s why the Americans have to take into consideration Kurdish leaders’ dissatisfaction for the cooperation between Turkish army and Turkmen groups in the region.
Washington warned Turkey against unilateral military operations in northern Iraq on suspicions of anti-Kurdish activity. The US officials argued that Turkish troops were preparing to harm civilian Kurdish officials. Officials from both countries said a joint committee would investigate the incident. However, the only way to prevent similar crises in the future is that both Ankara and Washington should clearly express their northern Iraq policies to each other. Otherwise, such crises would never reoccur...
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION