BY SAMI KOHEN
MILLIYET- Istanbul's Bahcesehir University is hosting an important conference on Turkish-US relations today. The distinguished diplomats and academics from the US will discuss the relations comprehensively and make projections about the future, along with their Turkish colleagues in the three-day conference, organized by the American Researches Center of the university. This conference will give the opportunity of make more healthy evaluations about the course of Turkish-US relations, after Barack Obama was elected president and visited Turkey. Following the difficulties caused by the Bush era, people started to hope that a closer agreement will be reached between Ankara and Washington and the 'partnership' which was defined with various adjectives (such as 'strategic') in the past will be based on more real foundations. Indeed, the new president' world view which is different than his predecessor and his willingness for making important changes in foreign politics has opened a new perspective in Turkish-US relations.
As a matter of fact, there is proximity of views between Ankara and Washington on regional issues which particularly concern us. Let's start with the Middle East. Obama has taken a different stance than Bush about the Issue and gave the message to Tehran that it was ready for dialogue with a new opening. Ankara has been adopting and suggesting this stance to the US since the very beginning. The US has also displayed a similar change of stance about the Syrian issue and taken the first step to normalize its relations with Damascus. This situation is also in line with the policy followed by Turkey. Obama also brought new dimensions to the US' policies about the Palestinian issue. On the one hand, it favors the solution of 'two states,' and on the other, it treats Israel more distantly than in previous years. This development is more harmonious with Turkey's stance. Finally, the US' adoption of a withdrawal calendar about the Iraq issue and the importance that it places on Iraq's territorial integrity provide the proximity of views with Turkey greatly.
The cooperation between the two countries is getting stronger about the situation on northern Iraq and the struggle against the PKK. As for the Caucasus, there is fundamental agreement between Ankara and Washington about protecting Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity and initiating the normalization process between Turkey and Armenia. The same thing can be said about Afghanistan (and now for Pakistan).
Looking at the picture, one can get the impression that Turkey and the US have similar views on certain issues. But once the strategies followed by the US and Turkey on these issues are deeply analyzed, certain differences can be seen. Obama has made an opening about the Iran issue, but he also stated that he wouldn't be able to wait forever about the nuclear program issue. Unless a development occurs, Obama might bring forward the issue of sanction and similar options towards the end of the year. How will Turkey, which is a Security Council member, act at that time? The US adopts the principle of 'two states' about the Palestinian issue, but it considers only the Mahmoud Abbas regime as legitimate on behalf of Palestine and regards Hamas as a terrorist organization, as opposed to Turkey. It stipulates that it ends its support for terrorist organizations for normal relations with Syria. Similarly, once the issue is deeply analyzed, there are certain differences in two countries' strategies on other regional issues as well. Today these differences don't create an impact on relations (and even the cooperation), but if a crisis occurs in these problems, distresses might also emerge in relations.