BY CEM OGUZ
HURRIYET DAILY NEWS - Right now the US is reportedly upset with Turkey. Actually, not a day passes without a news story in the American press questioning US relations with Turkey due to Ankara's dissenting vote on sanctions against Iran and the crisis with Israel following the May 31 Israeli raid on an aid flotilla which resulted in the death of eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American.
Certain political circles in Washington clearly hold the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) responsible for this alleged falling out between the two old allies. They are engaged in serious speculation as to whether Turkey is becoming more radicalized or religiously motivated and if our government has a hidden agenda. More importantly, they are acting as if it is the AK Party that is strengthening anti-American sentiments among the Turkish public. Paradoxically, commentators like me are also a subject of US criticism in that regard. For instance, a close American friend of mine, an academic who has known me for more than a decade, ironically sent me an e-mail recently asking whether I had become a blind AK Party follower, too. As a close follower of this newspaper, he was questioning my critical approach towards both the US and Israeli governments.
In response, I asked him whether he had read the recent op-ed by Ilhan Tanir, 'Is the most brutal US Congress session ending? Think twice.' Writing on the Washington visit by a delegation from Ankara, Tanir wrote, "Two members of the opposition parties [in the delegation] [.] were mostly quiet and when asked, appeared to be in line with the Turkish administration's Iran and Israel policies, to the surprise of many."
Those who met the delegation might have been surprised by the alleged silence of the opposition parties, but it doesn't surprise me a bit. Let me repeat what I have maintained as far as Turkey's relations with both Israel and Iran are concerned: No one in Turkey wants a nuclear Iran, there's no doubt of that. But I personally believe that the current approach by Western countries led by the US will make things worse. In the Israeli raid, on the other hand, nine Turkish citizens lost their lives. I might not share their Weltanschauung, but this doesn't mean that I will accept Israel's illegal act.
So I feel obliged to remind my American friends that every criticism, unless tempered by self-criticism, is inevitably unreliable. In fact, they are equally responsible for the sinking US image in the Turkish public. For instance, Turks feel disappointed that Washington cast the lone dissenting vote against a United Nations Human Rights Council report that described the Israeli raid as illegal.
In such a climate, US efforts initiated by ethnic lobbies to punish Turkey will make things worse. A recent resolution in the US House of Representatives exemplifies precisely this phenomenon. You may remember how the House urged Turkey, in a resolution introduced by Greek-American Congressman Gus Bilirakis, to work to retrieve and restore all lost artifacts and immediately halt the 'destruction' of religious sites, 'illegal' archaeological excavations, and the traffic in icons and antiquities in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). I hear my American friends saying that the US is a democratic country. But what about Turkey? Isn't Turkey democratic?
The real reason behind the turbulence between Washington and Ankara can be gleaned from something Brent Scowcroft said in an interview with this paper's Fulya Ozerkan. When asked to describe how Turkey looks from Washington's perspective and to comment on Turkey's intentions, Scowcroft, a former US national security advisor who is also said to have assisted Barack Obama, spoke of wanting the return of 'the old Turkey that [they] know and love.'
I urge my American friends to realize that Turkey has indeed changed, having in some ways matured as a nation and grown in confidence. Will they continue to love us as we reasonably assert ourselves on the world stage?