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End of the U.S.-Turkey alliance: Ties 'more allergic than strategic'
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, June 10, 2005
ANKARA — A leading Turkish strategist said that strategic relations between Ankara and Washington are finished, having gradually eroded over the last two years.
As a result, the strategist said, the Bush administration has downgraded the U.S.-Turkish relationship and transferred responsibility from the Defense Department to the State Department.
On June 8, President George Bush met Prime Minister Recep Erdogan in the White House in a discussion meant to improve relations between Ankara and Washington. White House spokesman Scott McClellan, providing no details, said Bush and Erdogan had aimed to reinvigorate the strategic relationship, Middle East Newsline reported.
"Turkish-American relations have been in a process of erosion for a long time," Kemal Koprulu, chairman of the Ari Movement, said. "The strategic partnership is long over. And after it ended, unfortunately no effort was made to redefine our relations."
The assessment by Koprulu has been shared by leading U.S. analysts and former officials. Mark Parris, a former U.S. ambassador to Ankara, said Ankara and Washington have failed to overcome differences sparked by the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"In such key areas as Iraq, defense and diplomatic cooperation, and economic relations, the tone and substance of U.S.-Turkish partnership has become more allergic than strategic," Parris said in an article in the Spring 2005 issue of the Ari Movement's Turkish Policy Quarterly.
Turkey's supporters in the Bush administration, who Koprulu termed neo-conservatives, have also expressed a change of heart. Koprulu quoted them as saying that Turkey has abandoned the West for alliances with such Middle Eastern countries as Iran and Syria.
"The White House and political circles around it are seriously worried, wondering in which direction Turkey is going," Koprulu said. Over the last month, Turkey has agreed to expand U.S. Air Force use of the Incirlik air base and train Iraqi military officers.
In April 2005, the Ari Movement, which promotes Turkish-U.S. relations, sent a delegation to Washington to meet senior U.S. officials. The delegation met representatives of the National Security Council, State Department and Congress and discussed bilateral relations as well as the prospect of a revival in strategic cooperation between Ankara and Washington.
Koprulu, in a study for the Turkish Policy Quarterly and interview with the Turkish weekly Referans, said the Pentagon was no longer involved in U.S. decisions on Turkey. He said Turkish-U.S. relations — damaged by Ankara's refusal in 2003 to be used as a launching pad for the invasion of Iraq — have declined to their lowest point in decades.
"Turkey's refusal to open a northern front in Iraq have caused a very negative view of Turkey," Koprulu told Referans in an interview translated and distributed by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute. "We also found out that there's a negative view towards Turkey among the top-ranking military leaders in Washington. For the first time in a long while there is a military command in Washington that thinks negatively about Turkey. This is a very serious fracture."
Koprulu said that in the late 1990s five representatives each from the Pentagon, the National Security Council and the State Department were responsible for drafting U.S. policy on Ankara. Today, he said this number has dropped to no more than five officials throughout the administration.
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, June 10, 2005
ANKARA — A leading Turkish strategist said that strategic relations between Ankara and Washington are finished, having gradually eroded over the last two years.
As a result, the strategist said, the Bush administration has downgraded the U.S.-Turkish relationship and transferred responsibility from the Defense Department to the State Department.
On June 8, President George Bush met Prime Minister Recep Erdogan in the White House in a discussion meant to improve relations between Ankara and Washington. White House spokesman Scott McClellan, providing no details, said Bush and Erdogan had aimed to reinvigorate the strategic relationship, Middle East Newsline reported.
"Turkish-American relations have been in a process of erosion for a long time," Kemal Koprulu, chairman of the Ari Movement, said. "The strategic partnership is long over. And after it ended, unfortunately no effort was made to redefine our relations."
The assessment by Koprulu has been shared by leading U.S. analysts and former officials. Mark Parris, a former U.S. ambassador to Ankara, said Ankara and Washington have failed to overcome differences sparked by the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"In such key areas as Iraq, defense and diplomatic cooperation, and economic relations, the tone and substance of U.S.-Turkish partnership has become more allergic than strategic," Parris said in an article in the Spring 2005 issue of the Ari Movement's Turkish Policy Quarterly.
Turkey's supporters in the Bush administration, who Koprulu termed neo-conservatives, have also expressed a change of heart. Koprulu quoted them as saying that Turkey has abandoned the West for alliances with such Middle Eastern countries as Iran and Syria.
"The White House and political circles around it are seriously worried, wondering in which direction Turkey is going," Koprulu said. Over the last month, Turkey has agreed to expand U.S. Air Force use of the Incirlik air base and train Iraqi military officers.
In April 2005, the Ari Movement, which promotes Turkish-U.S. relations, sent a delegation to Washington to meet senior U.S. officials. The delegation met representatives of the National Security Council, State Department and Congress and discussed bilateral relations as well as the prospect of a revival in strategic cooperation between Ankara and Washington.
Koprulu, in a study for the Turkish Policy Quarterly and interview with the Turkish weekly Referans, said the Pentagon was no longer involved in U.S. decisions on Turkey. He said Turkish-U.S. relations — damaged by Ankara's refusal in 2003 to be used as a launching pad for the invasion of Iraq — have declined to their lowest point in decades.
"Turkey's refusal to open a northern front in Iraq have caused a very negative view of Turkey," Koprulu told Referans in an interview translated and distributed by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute. "We also found out that there's a negative view towards Turkey among the top-ranking military leaders in Washington. For the first time in a long while there is a military command in Washington that thinks negatively about Turkey. This is a very serious fracture."
Koprulu said that in the late 1990s five representatives each from the Pentagon, the National Security Council and the State Department were responsible for drafting U.S. policy on Ankara. Today, he said this number has dropped to no more than five officials throughout the administration.
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