BY SOLI OZEL
SABAH- The meeting in Baghdad last weekend resulted in a way to generally meet Turkey's expectations. All the countries in the region, countries from outside and the United Nations stressed the importance of Iraq's territorial integrity. So the international system gave the message to Kurds and some Shiites, who seemed to favor separatism, that this won't happen. When the Arab countries and the US supported holding the next summit in Istanbul, Iraq's efforts to prevent this failed. Ankara also favored such proposals as setting up commissions and making constitutional amendments through reconciliation. The international system and the main interests of countries in the region started to steer the course of incidents much more. In this respect, it can be said that the Kurds, who so far have enjoyed freedom of movement in a wider area, will from now on face tougher times. Similarly, if they take a rigid stance on the Kirkuk issue, this would lead to harsh criticisms from the region. When Kurds are mentioned in Turkey, calm, logical evaluations are hard to find. On the one hand, Turkey urges the Kurds in a threatening way to give up their separatist wishes and on the other, it's behaving illogically towards the Kurds working in the mechanisms of Iraq who thus have integrated their interests with Iraq. Turkey has yet to invite Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who represents Iraq in the world, to Ankara.
Actually, this is unnecessary, when Turkey's diplomatic efforts and success in its regional contacts are considered. As Ankara's importance rises, it will be expected to act with more self-confidence. But in our domestic politics, election year concerns are setting the relations between institutions, and this, plus disagreements between and among the institutions responsible for national security, aren't letting this happen. On the contrary, society continues to fear for its future. So we are inevitably worried that similar fears were experienced in 1945-46. Back then, territory was being sought from Turkey, and we were paying the price for not entering World War II in our isolation. When the dynamics of the Cold War became clearer, the US sent home the body of the late Turkish ambassador to Washington aboard the USS Missouri. After this gesture, which was directed to the Soviet Union, the Truman doctrine was declared on March 12, 1947, and Turkey came under strategic protection. In order to understand the situation of relations between these two countries, it's sufficient to see that the Truman doctrine -- whose 60th anniversary fell on Monday -- was hardly covered by the media at all. It seems that there will be rapprochement and more balanced relations between Ankara and Washington, whose arrogance of four years ago has ended. The important thing is whether such issues as the terrorist PKK, the so-called Armenian genocide resolution and Kirkuk's future will hinder this rapprochement or not.