How Was Turkey Affected By Sept. 11?

MILLIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen comments on how Turkey was affected by the developments in the wake of Sept. 11. A summary of his column is as follows:
In the immediate wake of last Sept. 11’s terrorist attacks, Turkey was the leading country to react against them, to condemn them and state its forthright opposition to terrorism. For Turkey, which suffered for many years from terrorist attacks and struggled against them often alone and bereft of support, nothing would be more natural than showing such a consistent manner. In one respect, the shock of Sept. 11 opened the eyes of the US, Europe and the international community in general to the threat of terrorism. Things that Turkey had said for many years suddenly were echoed worldwide by every nation. Following the disasters in New York and Washington, Ankara argued anew that terrorism should be considered a danger for humanity in all its racial, religious, ideological and national varieties, and it thus called for international solidarity and cooperation in the face of this menace.
One of the effects of Sept. 11 which Turkey can see as a silver lining is obviously the important change in the conventional understanding concerning terrorism. The steps taken towards more international cooperation against terrorism have strengthened Ankara’s position on the issue. Meanwhile, it was an advantage for Turkey that the fifth article of NATO, stating that ‘an attack against any one of us is considered an attack against all of us,’ had been reformulated in a way to include the terrorism issue as well. The advantages felt by Turkey in developments after those terrible attacks can be summed up as follows:
Turkey’s geo-strategic location -- particularly in the eyes of the US -- gained much more value. Turkish-American relations entered a stage of a ‘strategic cooperation.’ Consequently, ensuring the support of the International Monetary Fund became easier. * Turkey gained a more prominent role on the international stage and particularly in the sensitive geographical region where it is situated. Turkish diplomacy played this role especially in Afghanistan, and the Turkish army undertook the leadership of the ISAF peacekeeping force there. In addition, Turkey played a role in the restructuring of Afghanistan. * On this altered playing field, Turkey was held up as an example to the Islamic world for its democratic, secular system of government. In the US, the ‘Turkish model’ was presented as a source of inspiration under which Muslim countries could be developed and modernized. Certain needed measures taken by the US and various European countries to better combat terrorism served to justify Ankara’s own policies towards this end. In other words, the West’s decision to shut down groups supporting terrorism and enact certain restrictions to ensure security provided Turkey with the opportunity to more comfortably defend its own arguments.
In spite of these developments, certain events following the Sept. 11 attacks weren’t so much in Turkey’s favor. For example, the placing of Iraq and Iran, two neighbors Ankara is trying to normalize relations with, on the ‘evil axis’ as declared by the Bush administration. Washington’s policies towards these countries run counter to Turkey’s interests and have also put Ankara in a difficult situation. The unilateralism shown even more by Washington after Sept. 11 is creating uneasiness in Ankara, just as in the capitals of other allies. However, one can generally say that the developments in the wake of Sept. 11’s terrible attacks ironically worked in Turkey’s favor.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION