Columnist Fatih Altayli comments on recent deterioration in Turkish-US relations in his article titled 'Situation with US Seems Serious' in today's Hurriyet daily.
Altayli, who has been in New York for one week says that the Turkish-US relations are crossing over a difficult phase and the relations with Turkey are perceived in a much more negative way by the US than it is believed to be in Turkey.
Altayli says that ''American journalist-writer Pollock who is also widely known in Turkey --because of his article in Wall Street Journal--, says that he loves Turkey very much. Regarding the 'unpleasant' approach in his recent article on Turkey-US relations, he says that ''a problem was in question, but nobody (particularly the Turkish side) wanted to see it. I showed in my article that there was a problem. Whatever necessary should be done to correct that now, and I am on your side.'' Referring to the harsh style in the article, Pollock says that ''if I had used softer words, the article would not have such an impact and nobody would understand the seriousness of the problem. I diagnosed the sickness in my article. Now everybody should exert efforts to cure that sickness.''
Altayli comments that Turkey-US relations don't seem to return to its normal as easily as it is believed to be and stresses that ''Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit the US in June, but US President Bush shows a little bit reluctance to make an appointment with PM Erdogan. Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ali Tuygan who went to Washington D.C. a short time ago, couldn't sort out the appointment problem. This is another sign that the relations have not fully normalized with the US.''
Altayli says that Prime Minister Erdogan's visit to Israel would constitute an important step in normalizing the relations with the US.
Altayli concludes that Turkey-US relations could have a different dimension in the coming period and it is up to Turkey to determine whether that dimension would be positive or not.