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Is Turkey a reliable ally to the U.S.?
28.3.2007
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March 28, 2007
Gene Rossides - President of the American
Hellenic Institute
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: comments @ whitehouse.gov
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
Washington, DC — The following Op-Ed by AHI
President Gene Rossides appeared in the April 22,
2006 issue of The National Herald, page 13.
For additional information, please contact Georgia
Economou at (202) 785-8430 or at georgia@ahiworld.org.
For general information about the activities of AHI,
please see our website at http://www.ahiworld.org
Source: antibaro gr
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