BY TUFAN TURENC
HURRIYET- Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is holding interesting meetings in Washington this week. According to Gul's impressions, important developments will soon occur concerning the terrorist PKK. Are Americans again distracting Ankara, as they have done up to now, or will they really take effective steps against the terrorist group? Gul seems to believe the promises made by American officials. According to the journalists accompanying him, he has a smile on his face. If America keeps the promises it made to Gul and takes the steps expected by Turkey, relations between the two countries, which recently have been a `dialogue of the deaf,' can be fixed. Washington is concerned that the anti-American and anti-European atmosphere in Turkey could worsen, because they have already reached a dangerous level. Washington is also concerned by the racist and nationalist wave rising in Turkey. I think they realize that European countries played an important role in this atmosphere. If they still haven't understood this, we should be seriously concerned.
According to experts in Washington, jingoistic elements in Turkey are forcing the limits of our positive nationalism which has embraced Islam and democracy. Not only the US and Europe, but also trends which despise the country's values played a role in this negative development. These kinds of actions provoke illiterate people living in areas on the outskirts of cities. Washington believes that the basic traditions of the Turkish nation are Islam and democracy. According to these Americans, the only party which embraces these traditions is the Justice and Development Party (AKP). So even though it was disappointed by the AKP after it rejected the March 1, 2003 motion on US troops in Turkey before the Iraq invasion, Washington supports this party. Because there is no other party that Washington can trust. Washington particularly doesn't care for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). It knows that the CHP was the driving force against the March 1, 2003 motion. It doesn't consider the other parties as strong.
So Gul's expectations that the US will take effective steps concerning the terrorist PKK might have a basis. For example, they could arrest and send a few PKK leaders to Turkey as a gesture to the AKP before this year's elections. This might strengthen the AKP. However, no matter what the US does, certain facts won't change. If the PKK issue isn't resolved, and if Iraq falls apart, a Kurdish state is established in northern Iraq, Kirkuk is given to the Kurds and a so-called Armenian genocide resolution is passed, hatred of the US in Turkey will rise. Even if it comes to power again, the AKP can do nothing to prevent this. If the US still can't understand this, it means that their diplomats and intelligence officials in Turkey may as well have stayed at home.