BY GULER KOMURCU
AKSAM- The most important issue next month will be Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington. Besides foreign policy issues, the visit will be gauge for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) for the spring local elections. This isn’t just my idea, but also what two leading AKP members told me.
We spoke for a long while. On the one hand, the Bush administration considers 2004 a critical year for the fight against terrorism in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and it also knows that this year will be decisive for Turkey regarding its European Union membership bid and the Cyprus question. If Bush sends Erdogan back with proposals on northern Iraq and Cyprus in Turkey’s favor, and agrees to a joint road map, then the AKP will have score successes in the local elections.
But if the opposite happens, and if Erdogan can’t resist Bush’s demands on Cyprus and northern Iraq (in other words a Kurdish federation), then we’ll see the results of this.
For this reason the background of the Washington visit is very important.
Of course, we all know how powerful the Greek and Armenian lobbies are in the US. Turks, on the other hand, find US support in short supply.
A new book called ‘Turkey’s Future’ by Dr. Nazmi Cora says the following: Turkey should immediately reach out to US Hispanics as this population group is booming and soon be a key player in US politics. Along these lines, we should work to cooperate with the Hispanic lobbies.