US-Turkish Relations Go Wobbly Now Over Syria
By K Gajendra Singh
Al-Jazeerah.info, GA
March 23 2005
When it appeared that the acrimonious airing of differences between
Nato allies USA and Turkey over Iraq had ebbed somewhat, US efforts
to ‘franchise ‘ a ‘ Cedar revolution’ in Lebanon, to weaken and
isolate Syria have brought acute tensions back into the relationship.
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer told media last week that he would
go ahead with his planned visit to Syria in mid-April. “Of course,
we will go (to Syria),” he said when questioned by reporters at the
presidential palace.
Analysts commented that Sezer’s visit could be interpreted as support
for Syria at a time when it was under mounting international pressure
to end its military presence in Lebanon. Turkey largely kept its
silence when USA supported by France commanded Syria to quit Lebanon
forthwith.
Ankara has also kept quiet on sale of short range Russian missiles to
Damascus. It would have howled over such a deal in the past. Russian
Defence Minister and head of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov
told Israel’s Channel 1 TV last week that Russia is ready to provide
assurances that non-portable, anti-aircraft Strelets missiles with
a range of 4-5 Kms being sold to Syria would not threaten Israel.
US ambassador Eric Edelman had urged Ankara to join in for an immediate
and complete Syrian withdrawal. “What can be said on Syria is that
the international community is completely unanimous on UN Security
Council Resolution 1559,” which calls on Syria to immediately pull out
of Lebanon. “We hope Turkey will join the international community. Of
course, the decision to do so lies with Turkey,” Edelman added.
The Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul explained that his country
was fully in line with the UN resolutions as “democracy and the
dissemination of freedoms in various parts of the region is Turkey’s
basic policy”. Diplomatic sources in Damascus reportedly revealed that
the US administration reacted angrily at the Turkish government’s
silence over a Turkish people’s delegation visiting Syria to voice
its support and solidarity with the Syrian people in the face of the
US pressures and the Israeli threats.
USA has cautioned, even warned Ankara many times, not to have
close relations with Damascus, but Turkey has ignored such threats.
Several bilateral high level visits have taken place, the last one
was in December by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Sezer’s visit is in return for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s
earlier visit to Turkey in 2004, which marked a turning point in the
Syrian-Turkish relations.
Syria has begun withdrawing its forces from Lebanon near to its border
as laid down in the 1989 Taif Agreement, which had ended the 16 year
civil war in Lebanon in which nearly 100,000 people were killed and the
nation almost destroyed. Syria had gone in to protect the Christians
and the Druzes, now leading opponents of Syria. Last year US and
France made UN Security Council pass resolution 1559, which called
for Syrian with drawl and disarming of various militias in Lebanon.
France became the colonial power in Syria following the First World
War, which ended the Ottoman empire and its rule over the Middle
East. Paris created Lebanon by detaching it from Greater Syria to
give a dominant role to Maronite Christians, who had forged closer
relations with France during the Crusades.
After massive but peaceful demonstrations from anti- and pro -Syrian
groups ignited after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafiq Hariri in February, an early morning bomb blast on 19
March morning in the Christian sector of Beirut has rekindled fears
of renewal of inter -communal violence and worse.
During the cold war, while Turkey was member of Nato, Syria was a close
ally of USSR. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the change
in international strategic scenario, specially after the illegal US
invasion of Iraq two years ago, Turkey and Syria have come closer.
In late 1998 Turkey had threatened to invade Syria unless it expelled
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and his Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK ), sheltered in Syria. Ocalan was expelled, caught up by Turkish
agents in Kenya, brought to Turkey for trial and is now lodged in a
Turkish jail.
The US -Turkish differences reached a high acrimonious level, when
on 1March, 2003, Turkish Parliament shot down a government proposal
to let US use its territory to open a second front against Iraq from
the north. Since then Turks have remained opposed to US policies in
the region.
Turkish Foreign Ministry did try to lower tensions when it spokesman
Namik Tan told the media on 10 March that Turkey was strongly committed
to its strategic partnership with the United States. Rebuffing
recent allegations that the ruling Justice and Development Party’s
(AKP) had helped encourage rising anti-American sentiment in Turkey,
Tan stated that Turkey was a friend and ally to the US and that such
media allegations had no place in Ankara’s relations with Washington
But utterances like the recent one by Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld on the 2nd anniversary of US invasion of Iraq do not help
either. He told Fox News TV on 21 March that “Given the level of the
insurgency today, two years later, clearly if we had been able to
get the 4th Infantry Division in from the north, in through Turkey,
more of the Iraqi, Saddam Hussein, Baathist regime would have been
captured or killed.” “The insurgency today would be less,” he said.
Rumsfeld of course understands little about insurgency, rebellion
and war of independence against occupying powers through out history,
Vietnam. Algeria and Kenya being recent examples.
War of Words in US media ;
Calling Turkey “The Sick Man of Europe-Again ” in his oped piece of
16 February in the Wall Street Journal “,Robert Pollock declared that
“Islamism and leftism add up to anti-American madness in Turkey.” Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s favorite.– Yeni Safak has repeatedly
claimed that U.S. forces used chemical weapons in Fallujah. One
of its columnists has alleged that U.S. soldiers raped women and
children there and left their bodies in the streets to be eaten by
dogs. Among the paper’s “scoops” have been the 1,000 Israeli soldiers
deployed alongside U.S. forces in Iraq, and that U.S. forces have
been harvesting the innards of dead Iraqis for sale on the U.S.
“organ market.”
“It’s not much better in the secular press. The mainstream Hurriyet has
accused Israeli hit squads of assassinating Turkish security personnel
in Mosul, and the U.S. of starting an occupation of Indonesia under
the guise of humanitarian assistance. In Al Sabah, a columnist
last fall accused the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Eric Edelman,
of letting his “ethnic origins”–guess what, he’s Jewish–determine
his behavior. –The intellectual climate in which he’s operating has
gone so mad that he actually felt compelled to organize a conference
call with scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey to explain that
secret U.S. nuclear testing did not cause the recent tsunami.
“All of which makes Mr. Erdogan a prize hypocrite for protesting to
Condoleezza Rice the unflattering portrayal of Turkey in an episode of
the fictional TV show “The West Wing.” The episode allegedly depicts
Turkey as having been taking over by a retrograde populist government
that threatens women’s rights. (Sounds about right to me.) ”
Tensions fictionalized into US-Turkish War ;
Voice of America ‘s Ed Warner reported on this startling shift of
opinion in a nation recently considered quite close to the United
States. He quoted from a current best selling novel depicting war
between the two countries
Turkey is in flames. A U.S. air attack has leveled Istanbul and
Ankara, and now American tanks are rolling in to occupy the country.
In desperation, the Turks call on Russia and the European Union for
help, and these onetime enemies of Turkey stall the U.S. advance
and end the war, but not before an enterprising Turkish agent has
destroyed much of Washington with a nuclear device.
It is from Turkey’s best-selling Turkish novel titled ‘Metal Storm’
which has indeed taken the Turkish public by storm and politicians with
its outrageous plot which strikes a responsive chord. One of the two
authors, Burak Turna, a former military affairs reporter, claims his
book is not just another conspiracy theory but a possibility theory.
Certainly there is a war of the words. A recent BBC survey indicated
that Turkey was now the most anti-American nation on earth. So, no
monstrous act was considered beyond America or its Israeli partner in
crime who are even compared to the German Nazis. Warner then writes
about the causes and quotes Sabri Sayari, director of the Institute
for Turkish Studies at Georgetown University. Turks believe the United
States has failed to suppress the anti-Turkish rebels operating in
northern Iraq.
He said,”I think Turkish sentiment has to be explained in the context
of what is happening in Iraq,” he said. “Obviously, the war in Iraq
has not been popular in Turkey for a variety of reasons, especially
the situation in northern Iraq with the growing power of the Kurds
and the general instability that has engulfed a neighboring country.”
“The US has been pretty much in support of Turkey’s experiment with a
party that originates from the Islamist movement.” “When it initially
came to power in 2002, this party was viewed as something that would
prove that Islam and democracy are compatible and there should be no
clash of civilizations. So the US was upholding Turkey as a kind of
model in a way,” he added
Henry Barkey, professor of international relations at Lehigh
University, says there is Turkish concern of spillover. A separate
Kurdish entity in Iraq could revive the separatist movement in Turkey.
“I think this is overly exaggerated. The Turkish Kurds have had
problems with the Turkish government and the Turkish elite, but they
are part of a very vibrant economy and a very vibrant society, which
is on its way to become a member of the European Union a decade and
a half from now.”
Prof Barkey continued that relations cooled after Turkey’s refusal to
let U.S. forces invade Iraq from its territory. But U.S. actions hardly
excuse the constant anti-American drumbeat of Turkish politicians
and journalists. Nothing Washington says is believed:
“When you have serious newspapers publishing articles about the United
States having a secret weapon that makes earthquakes and that Istanbul
is the next target,” he explained. “When you have newspapers that
publish all kinds of scurrilous articles about the United States,
that is more worrisome. The problem is that some Turkish politicians
have joined the fray and have accused the United States of genocide
and all kinds of other activities in Iraq.”
Calling for dialogue Professor Barkey said that U.S. and Turkish
officials” should sit down and map out the steps ahead to restore
proper, if not amicable relations. The two countries are too important
for each other to let the current rancor persist. ”
Of course Warner did not disclose that PKK rebellion since 1984
against the Turkish state cost over 35,000 lives, including those of
5,000 soldiers. To control and neutralize the rebellion, thousands of
Kurdish villages have been bombed, destroyed, abandoned or relocated;
millions of Kurds have been moved to shanty towns in the south and
east or migrated westwards. The economy of the region was shattered.
With a third of the Turkish army tied up in the southeast, the cost
of countering the insurgency at its height amounted to between US$6
billion to $8 billion a year.
The rebellion died down after the arrest and trial of Ocalan in 1999,
but it has not been fully eradicated. And the PKK – now also called
Konga-Gel – shifted almost 4,000 of its cadres to northern Iraq and
refused to lay down arms. A five year unilateral ceasefire declared by
PKK in 1999 was not renewed in last June. There have been increasing
skirmishes and battles between Kurdish insurgents and Turkish security
forces inside Turkey. Turkey remains frustrated over US reluctance to
employ military means against the PKK fighters – in spite of promises
to do so. US priority to disarm PKK cadres was never very high,in fact,
it wants to reward Iraqi Kurds, who have remained peaceful and loyal,
unlike the rest of the country.
The Turks manifest a pervasive distrust of autonomy or models of a
federal state for Iraqi Kurds: it would encourage the aspirations
of their own Kurds. It also revives memories of Western conspiracies
against Turkey and the un-ratified 1920 Treaty of Sevres forced on the
Ottoman Sultan by the World War I victors. It promised independence
to the Armenians and autonomy to Turkey’s Kurds, which Iraqi Kurds
could later join. So Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, after undoing the Sevres
Treaty with his war of independence, opted for a unitary state and
ruthlessly suppressed Kurdish rebellions in Turkey.
The war between Iraq and resurgent Shi’ites in Iran in 1980s helped
the PKK establish itself in the lawless north Kurdish Iraq territory.
The PKK also helped itself with arms freely available in the region
during the eight-year war. The 1990-91 Gulf crisis and war also proved
to be a watershed in the violent explosion of the Kurdish rebellion
in Turkey.
Writing in the Washington Times, Andrew Borowiec claimed that
“Turkey’s often virulent anti-American media campaign appears to
be ebbing somewhat, but diplomats say considerable damage has been
done to the relationship between the two allies.” He added that,
“Signals from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan are regarded as
confusing — one day minimizing the differences with Washington,
and another day warning about their impact.”
He quoted Istanbul’s left-leaning Cumhuriyet daily, “The United
States wants Turkey to cooperate with it unconditionally. Should
such a cooperation be rejected, then [Washington] is threatening to
isolate Turkey, and going even further, to turn it into a target
country. … The situation is every bit this serious.” He also
refers to, “Metal Storm,” novel, already into a third edition, which
describes an imaginary U.S. invasion of Turkey,. “Much to the concern
of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, the book is particularly appreciated
in Turkish military and government circles. According to a recent
opinion poll, 82 percent of Turks consider U.S. policies under the
Bush administration to be negative.
“The peace and freedom loving country of the Cold War period has now
become the enemy of peace and freedom,” wrote columnist Ahmet Cakar in
Istanbul Ortadogu, a newspaper supporting the right-wing Nationalist
Action Party. “The United States, which dreams of dominating the
entire world, is especially attacking Muslim countries and shedding
Muslim blood in streams.”
But he noted a sober appeal to “respect mutual sensitivities”
in the English-language Ankara Turkish Daily News (TDN). “The
relationship between the two countries “rests on mutual respect and
national interests,” said TDN the newspaper said. “The two countries
should take cognizance of their common interests and United Nations
resolutions. Both countries should be more calm and more collected
in relating incidents and events that occur in wartime.”
The mass-circulation Istanbul Milliyet also reminded its readers that
“the United States is not Turkey’s enemy. On the contrary, it is a
friendly country, it is our ally.” “There is no doubt that the United
States is also making mistakes that should be criticized. And it is
being criticized,” the newspaper added.
TDN was bought last year by a corporate business house from its founder
editor Ilhan Cevik’s family. When the author returned to Ankara in 1992
after 20 years, the quality of journalism had declined, with major
trading /industry corporate interests having muscled their way into
media to exploit its power for their interests, in the foot steps of US
media now under control of half a dozen corporate conglomerates. People
in Turkey bought newspapers for the gifts of crockery and other awards
instituted to increase circulation and not for its contents. A sad
development in the free world which lectures others on media freedom.
Turkish Media reaction;
Writing in Yeni Safak, Columnist Ibrahim Karagul commented on 17 March,
“Considering the range of his activities, his statements which violate
the decorum of democracy, and his interest in Turkey’s internal
affairs, Eric Edelman acts more like a colonial governor than an
ambassador. Since his appointment as US ambassador to Turkey, Edelman’s
actions have always caused discomfort among the public. His latest
‘suggestions’ on Sezer’s upcoming visit to Syria had the same impact.
“Edelman is probably the least-liked and trusted American ambassador
in Turkish history, and his reputation is not likely to recuperate.
Edelman’s actions have exceeded his diplomatic mission. His ‘interest’
in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the Turkish media and ethnic
minorities make him go beyond his role as an ambassador. His presence
here has never contributed to Turkish-American relations, and it
never will. If we want to address the reasons for anti-Americanism,
Edelman must be issue one. As long as Edelman stays in Turkey, the
chill wind disturbing bilateral relations will last.” ( Incidentally
Edelman has resigned but cited personal reasons )
Chiding the pro-US writers in the Turkish media, Karagul said, “Don’t
our government and people have the ability to decide which countries
we should visit? Is our foreign policy decided by Edelman and his
chorus among the Turkish media? — Do we have to act in accordance
with the common interests of Israel and the US? Is Turkey not an
independent nation?”. He concluded, ” The ultimate plan is to corner
and control Turkey in order to use it as a hit man. The Vietnamese
were terrorists, according to the US. Latin America, China, Libya
and the USSR were also terrorists. And now Iran and Syria. But if
they abandon their policies based on opposing the US, they will no
longer be called terrorists. Instead, they will be lauded as models
of democracy for the Middle East.” If Turkey follows an independent
policy, ” who can guarantee that those who serve Turkey’s interests
won’t be declared terrorists? –Isn’t more than half of the world
already a threat for the US?”
Recalling ups and downs in US Turkish relations since Turkey’s No to
US troops, another Journalist Fehmi Koru wrote in the New Anatolian
on 15 March, ‘Turkey’s stature was raised by Parliament’s decision
in March 2003. Many in the region started to look up to Turkey as
a strong democracy which could say “No” to a superpower with little
regard for challenges to its hegemony. This isn’t just my point of
view or that of the people in the region, but is also shared by some
U.S. specialists. Alan Makovsky, an aide to Congressman Tom Lantos,
in a panel discussion last week in Washington DC. called it “ironic”
that Turkey’s stand against the U.S. can be used as a successful
example of the U.S.’ democratization project for the Middle East.
He then lambasted US corporate media, “Can you find any justification
for the high number of articles recently appearing in the U.S. media
criticizing Turkey for being “anti-U.S.”?
He added that Turkey could play an important role in the
democratization of the Middle East because the Parliament didn’t say
“No” to a good relationship between Turkey and the U.S., but only
opposed US intentions to get Turkey involved in an unjustified
war in Iraq. It was a warning to all concerned to steer clear of
military engagement which would lead nowhere. Democracy has worked
beautifully in Turkey, making the country an exemplary democracy for
both undemocratic countries in the region and for those democracies
with little respect for their peoples’ wishes.
” Instead of rushing to Turkey’s assistance to put things in order in
the region, the people representing U.S. interests in Ankara have been
trying to ruin anything good that remains. Can you see the reason why?
He then quoted Einstein who once said, “Logic will get you from A to B,
imagination will take you everywhere.” So one has to use imagination,
Koru concluded.
Even US friendly Sami Kohen in a recent column, while reacting to US
criticism of Turkish reliability quoted a Turkish official: ‘Instead,
we should question America’s reliability. Does the US care about our
concerns on the PKK? Does the Bush administration take into account
our opinion on Iraq? Turkey has always been loyal to the alliance. If
the dialogue between our countries is in a sorry state, it’s America’s
fault. He added that that the true motive behind anti-Americanism in
Turkey is Bush administration policy on Iraq.’ Unlike a large number
of countries, neither the Turkish government nor the public feels
hostile towards the US. Those in Washington must come to see that.’
On the Syrian question, US Middle East policy was “to soften up and
eventually knock down Syria. The recent events in Lebanon were just
what the US needed to make another move against Syria. And this time
Washington got active support from Europe and other nations. Such
a display of support was anticipated from Turkey as well. Instead,
Ankara announced that President Sezer would visit Syria. That clearly
upset the US. Thus the Syria issue was also added to the list of
disagreements between Turkey and the US.
“It’s a new experience for the Bush administration to see Turkey act
according to a foreign policy independent from that of Washington.
But it’s time the US became tolerant of Turkey and got used to Turkey’s
new policy.”
Fireworks !
To discuss and analyze the future of Turkish-American relations a
panel discussion on “Can Turkish-American relations be saved?” will
be held in Washington on 23 March. It would be organized by the
American Enterprise Institute (AEI), known for supporting franchised
revolutions in Ukraine, Georgia and elsewhere, with the aim of
restoring relationship .. The US side would include Robert Pollock
of Wall Street Journal, Richard Perle and Michael Rubin, all known
for lambasting Turkey in the media. Ankara will be represented
by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Vice- President
Murat Mercan.
Conclusion;
Since decades Turkey has suffered the consequences of the wars next
door, first between Iraq and Iran in 1980s, then US led war on Iraq
in 1991. And now the illegal US invasion of Iraq two years, with no
end in sight in spite of Washington’s glib talk of promoting democracy
in the region. After decades of political and economic instability at
home under asymmetrical coalition governments, the new party with its
overwhelming strength in the parliament and the municipalities would
like to concentrate on economic rebuilding of the state. Turkey thus
aims to promote peace in the region and with a growing economy and a
million strong armed forces would like to be a regional peacemaker
and promote democratic legitimacy in international relations. It
would like Syria and Iran to act according to the demands of the
international community, but not according to what USA and Israel
demand. Turkey’s new neighborhood policy remains how to minimize
problems without being pulled into international confrontations.
Turkey doggedly pursued its campaign to stop Israeli interference
in Iraqi Kurdistan after an article by veteran US journalist Seymour
Hersh exposed Tel Aviv providing training to Peshmarga commando units
in north Iraq and running covert operations in neighbouring countries
Israel was also infiltrating agents into Iran to plot Iran’s.
clandestine nuclear weapons program for a possible pre-emptive
strikes. Israel would prefer a weak and decentralized Iraq if not
a divided one. It led to public denunciation of Israel’s actions in
Gaza, which Erdogan described as state terrorism. It also adversely
affected their close defence relationship.
But conflicting strategic interests and consequent tensions between the
US and Israel, and Syria and Iran would not make Turkey’s task easy.
(K Gajendra Singh, served as Indian Ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan
in 1992-96. Prior to that, he served as ambassador to Jordan (during
the 1990-91 Gulf war), Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman
of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies. The views expressed here
are his own.- [email protected])