BY ZEYNEL ABIDIN ERDEM
STAR- Turkey is and will always be a strategic ally to the United States, said United States Ambassador to Ankara Eric Edelman last week. As a matter of fact, Ankara and Washington have successfully resolved recent problems without letting them escalate into serious crises. I hope Edelman will keep his friendly attitude towards our country in the future. He has always stood by us no matter how harshly he’s been criticized. I don’t think that he will allow anti-Turkish circles in the US to gain ground against us. Since Turkey has a strategically important location near significant energy resources, the US can never turn a blind eye to our ideas and requests. However, we must maintain this bilateral confidence and avoid any mistakes that might harm it. Turkey must protect its own position. Our government will of course provide its allies with some opportunities in line with its own national interests, as in the Incirlik case.
There’s an important point that the US should recall: Although Turkey has always supported the US in its fight against terrorism, Washington often leaves us hanging in the wind on this issue, which is why the Turkish people sometimes get angry with the Bush administration, since they feel disappointed by American policies. In other words, the US must end the continued presence of terrorist groups in northern Iraq.
The terrorist PKK and Kurdish issues must be treated separately. Nobody should confuse our Kurdish citizens who have coexisted peacefully with us for over 1,000 years, on the one hand, with the terrorist PKK, on the other. We’re all Turks and Kurds. Nobody should dare to try to divide our citizens. In this context, if the European Union tries to impose certain criteria that would lead to ethnic discrimination in our society, I believe we shouldn’t join the Union. Such social bifurcations as Turkish-Kurdish, Rightist-Leftist or Alawi-Sunni are not acceptable. They can only harm our solidarity and brotherhood. We shouldn’t forget this.