BY FIKRET BILA (MILLIYET)
Columnist Fikret Bila comments on US Vice President Dick Cheney's visit yesterday to Ankara. A summary of his column is as follows:

"US Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday arrived in Ankara as the last stop of his tour of the Mideast. Cheney met with President Abdullah Gul, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit.

Cheney's desire to meet with Buyukanit pointed to the importance of military issues taken up during his talks.

Troops to Afghanistan

We can easily surmise that the issues of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and the terrorist PKK dominated the meetings.

For some time, the US has wanted to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan. Ankara's stance on the issue hasn't changed in the last month.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates's letter to his Turkish counterpart Vecdi Gonul conveyed the same request. But Gonul replied in the negative, citing the Turkish military's engagement with terrorism in the southeastern region.

The defense minister also reiterated this answer when Gates recently visited Ankara.

In addition, Buyukanit made remarks reflecting the same stance. He stated that Turkish troops could not assume front-line duties in Afghanistan, and that NATO rules also wouldn't allow this. Cheney probably had nothing new that could change Buyukanit's view.

The PKK

We can say that PKK terrorism is a key factor of Turkish-US relations.

The main reason for the US' recent unpopularity in Turkey is its failure to take concrete steps to stop the PKK, even though Washington declared it a terrorist group, and also not allowing Turkey to do anything.

Similarly, the reason for the recent uptick in relations and the US' public image came from it not blocking Turkish military air strikes and our brief ground offensive.

The future of relations

The PKK issue is the key factor in the future of relations. In addition to continuing its support for Turkey's fight against the PKK, a clear US explanation of what it means by `political resolution' carries a lot of weight.

The distrust between the two countries that arose back in March 2003, after Parliament rejected the use of Turkey as a springboard for a northern offensive into Iraq, can only be lessened through such a positive stance from Washington.

But the US linking cooperation against terrorism to abundantly unclear political terms, or at least giving that impression, could give new life to his mistrust, which recently seemed to have been mostly dispelled!"