Turkey- Friend or Foe?
By Gene Rossides
Hellenic News of America
April 20 2006
The surfacing last year in Turkey of virulent anti-Americanism and
anti-Semitism raises the question of what should U.S. relations with
Turkey be in the interests of the U.S.?
To answer this question we need to answer the following first
Is Turkey a reliable ally?
What is Turkey’s strategic, political and economic value to the U.S.?
Is Turkey a friend or a foe of the U.S. (or somewhere in-between)?
I submit that Turkey is not a friend of the U.S.; that Turkey’s
interests basically are not compatible with U.S. interests; that
Turkey is of minimal strategic value to the U.S. and that Turkey is
clearly and fundamentally an unreliable ally.
Let’s look at the record.
Is Turkey a reliable ally?
The evidence is overwhelming that Turkey is an unreliable ally whose
actions damaged the U.S. during the Cold War decades and more
recently in the 21st century.
I have written previously regarding Turkey’s traitorous conduct
during the Cold War when Turkey actively aided the Soviet military to
the serious detriment of the U.S. Let me repeat three examples.
1. During the 1973 Mid-East War, Turkey refused the U.S. military
overflight rights to resupply Israel and granted the U.S.S.R.
overland military convoy rights to resupply Syria and Iraq, and
military overflight permission to resupply Egypt. A member of the
Turkish Foreign Policy Institute in Ankara wrote:
During the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, Moscow’s overflights of Turkish
airspace were tolerated. On the other hand, during the same Middle
East conflict, Turkey refused to allow the United States refueling
and reconnaissance facilities during the American airlift to Israel.
(Karaosmanoglu, “Turkey’s Security and the Middle East,” 52 Foreign
Affairs 157, 163, Fall 1983.)
2. In the 1977-78 conflict in Ethiopia, Turkey granted the Soviets
military overflight rights to support the pro-Soviet minority of
Ethiopian communist insurgents, led by Colonel Mengistu, who
eventually prevailed and established a Marxist dictatorship directly
dependent upon the Soviet Union. Giant Soviet Antonov-22 transport
aircraft ferried Cuban troops, Soviet weapons and other assorted
needs to Ethiopia through Turkish airspace. By late December 1977,
17,000 Cuban troops were in Ethiopia. The Cuban troops were
immediately moved to the fighting front against Somali and
anti-communist Ethiopian forces. They effectively turned the tide in
favor of the communists. (C. Meyer, Facing Reality- From World
Federalism to the CIA 276-80, 1980.)
3. Over NATO objections, Turkey allowed three Soviet aircraft
carriers, the Kiev on July 18, 1976, the Minsk on February 25, 1979
and the Novorosiisk on May 16, 1983, passage rights through the
Bosphorous and Dardanelles Straits into the Mediterranean in
violation of the Montreux Convention of 1936. The Soviet ships posed
a formidable threat to the U.S. Sixth Fleet.
Most readers I assume are aware of Turkey’s unreliability as an ally
on March 1, 2003, when the Turkish Parliament voted not to allow U.S.
troops to use bases in Turkey to open a northern front against Saddam
Hussein’s dictatorship.
That negative vote was maneuvered by the Erdogan government and the
Turkish military and was aimed at extracting another $6 billion over
the $26 billion irresponsibly offered to Turkey by then Deputy
Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz for use of bases in Turkey.
A U.S. administration official involved in the negotiations called
Turkey’s negotiating tactics “extortion in the name of alliance.”
What is Turkey’s strategic, political and economic value to the U.S.?
The U.S. defeat of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in 2003 without
Turkey’s help demonstrated conclusively that Turkey is of minimal
strategic value to the U.S. in the region.
The Turks did not allow the U.S. to use Incirlik airforce base in
southeastern Turkey in the Iraq war. It is not needed by the U.S.
today and should be shut down and U.S. taxpayer money saved. Its
primary use was to patrol the Iraqi Kurd no-fly zone against Saddam
Hussein’s government.
In the early years of the Cold War, the U.S. placed nuclear warheads
on Turkish soil. In 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis with the
Soviet Union, President John F. Kennedy secretly removed the U.S.
nuclear missiles from Turkey as part of the deal in which the Soviet
Union removed its nuclear missiles from Cuba.
>>From the time of the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey in 1962 to
the end of the Cold War in 1990, Turkey was of minimal strategic
value to the U.S. And as stated above, Turkey actually aided the
Soviet military to the detriment of U.S. interests.
After the end of the Cold War, Turkey’s proponents in the State and
Defense Departments and its paid U.S. foreign agents, came up with
the argument that Turkey, a 99.9% Muslim country, is a democracy and
can be a model for other Muslim nations in the Middle East and a
bridge between the East and West, particularly in Central Asia. That
allegation was false then and is false today. And Turkey’s alleged
value to the U.S. in Central Asia was a complete failure. That
argument did prolong military and economic aid to Turkey for several
years at U.S. taxpayer expense.
The U.S. has minor trade and commercial relations with Turkey.
Whatever they are now or in the future they should not interfere with
U.S. support of the rule of law and democratic values in our
relations with Turkey.
Freedom House in its annual report does not list Turkey as a
democracy! It is listed as a partial democracy. It lacks freedom of
speech; it lacks religious freedom and is openly against Eastern
Orthodox Christians and Jews; it regularly conducts ethnic cleansing,
crimes against humanity and genocide against its 20% Kurdish
minority; and its human rights violations against its citizens in
general is extensive.
Turkey’s military is not under civilian rule and Turkey is an
aggressor in Cyprus and continues to illegally occupy 37.7 of Cyprus,
now in its 32nd year.
Turkey continues to blockade Armenia over U.S. objections. And Turkey
refuses to acknowledge its genocide against the Armenians in
1915-1916 and the massacres against the Armenians in 1894-1896.
Turkey is hardly a model for Muslim nations or anyone.
Is Turkey a friend or a foe of the U.S. (or somewhere in-between)?
Based on the record of the past several decades, there is no
substantial evidence to
justify calling Turkey a friend of the U.S. Turkey’s interests and
aims are in most cases not in accord with or compatible with those of
the U.S.
While I believe the evidence makes it clear that Turkey is not a
friend of the U.S., I do not believe the evidence is adequate to call
Turkey an outright foe of the U.S. Turkey’s actions have done
substantial damage to the U.S. over the past 50 years from its
support of the Soviet military; its invasion of Cyprus and continuing
occupation of 37.3 % of Cyprus; its blockade of Armenia; its crimes
against its 20% Kurdish minority; its actions against the Iraqi
Kurds; its substantial drug trafficking and its “No” vote of March 1,
2003.
These actions and others by Turkey bring Turkey close to the line of
being a foe but not over that line yet.
However, Turkey’s conduct and history are such that the U.S. in its
relations with Turkey should treat Turkey at arms length and should
apply forceful pressure to achieve U.S. aims.
Words are definitely not enough in dealing with Turkey to achieve
U.S. goals. For example, the U.S. seeks a Cyprus settlement based on
a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation in a state with a single
sovereignty and international personality, incorporating norms of a
constitutional democracy embracing key American principles, the EU
acquis communautaire, UN resolutions on Cyprus and the pertinent
decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the other
European Courts.
If the U.S. acted forcefully with Turkey using the full range of
diplomatic weapons, including economic sanctions, the withdrawal of
trade benefits, and pressure from international financial
institutions, the Cyprus problem could be solved in short order.
I reject the British argument that the Cyprus question is a difficult
problem to solve. It is a problem of aggression and occupation. The
British started the problem during their colonial rule by pitting an
18% minority against an 80% majority for Britain’s selfish interests.
The two communities have proven they can live and work together
peacefully.
The U.S. could go a long ways to solving the problem by publicly
calling for the demilitarization of the island, the removal of the
Turkish barbed wire fence separating the communities and the return
of Turkey’s 120,000 illegal Turkish settlers/colonists to Turkey and
stating that if Turkey does not cooperate the full range of
diplomatic actions will be utilized.
In taking such action the U.S. should move multilaterally with other
nations through the UN Security Council.
Similar action should be taken against Turkey regarding full
political and human rights for the 20% Kurdish minority and for full
religious freedom for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the return of
church properties taken by the Turkish government and the reopening
of the Halki Patriarchal School of Theology.
Talking to Turkey has not and will not resolve these problems. State
Department officials misled the Greek American community for years by
saying they will speak to the Turkish government on our issues
knowing that their comments would have no impact on Turkey.
Turkey will only respond to forceful action. Turkey paid the several
hundred thousand dollars court judgment in the Loizidou case after
several years only when the Council of Europe threatened expulsion on
a specific date if the judgment was not paid.
Write to President Bush and Secretary Rice and urge them to apply
forceful pressure on Turkey to solve the above problems in which
Turkey is the cause:
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Tel. 202-456-1111 (Comments)
202-456-1414 (Main Switchboard)
Fax: 202-456-2461
E-mail: [email protected]
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
The State Department
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520
Phone: 202-647-4000 (Main Switchboard)
Fax: 202-647-2283
Gene Rossides is President
of the American Hellenic Institute and
former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress