U.S. SHOULD NOT RISK LOSING TURKEY AS VALUABLE ALLY
By Abbie Tingstad, Daily Bruin; SOURCE: UCLA
University Wire
November 5, 2007 Monday
Turkey is typically overshadowed in the press by its Middle Eastern
neighbors, but it has recently dominated headlines and newscasts.
Turkish officials have expressed an overwhelmingly negative reaction
to the proposed U.S. House of Representatives’ resolution to condemn
the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire, which began in 1915.
There is no doubt that the recognition of genocide worldwide serves
as an important collective warning against future offenses. But was
the timing right in this case?
The House definitely made a diplomatic leap in the wrong direction and
the concerns President Bush expressed last week raise a valid point:
"With all these pressing responsibilities, one thing Congress should
not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman
Empire."
Addressing the killing of Armenians during WWI in this highly visible,
political way is a cause best championed another day. Turkey is a
valuable ally, both because of its geographical location and its
political climate in the current worldwide campaign for stability in
the Middle East.
Furthermore, Turkey will necessarily be called to resolve this issue
in the near future as it continues to gain worldwide importance and
seek membership in the European Union.
Turkey lies at the geographical crossroads between East and West. In
many ways, the country has much more in common politically with the
West than with its Middle Eastern neighbors, founded as it were on
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s campaign for a modern, secular state.
Turkey, a NATO member, has continued to serve as a strategic ally for
the United States in the Iraq war, in particular through maintaining
thousands of U.S. Air Force personnel at Incirlik Air Base and holding
key supply routes open across the Turkey-Iraq border.
Given the widespread unpopularity of western politics and culture
in the Middle East, it seems highly imprudent to now antagonize a
key ally.
This is not to say that the Armenian genocide issue should not be
raised — it absolutely must be addressed — but at the right time
and through the appropriate diplomatic avenues.
Inevitably, as Turkey continues to develop importance politically
and economically, it will have to tackle issues of human rights.
House members anxious to address the concerns of their
Armenian-American constituents will likely not need to be patient
for long.
Turkey continues to actively seek European Union membership, a process
that will surely provide opportunities for U.S. commentary.
This will then hopefully be perceived as encouragement for Turkey to
conform to the European Union and western ideas about human rights.