Six Suggestions That Will Help Improve Relations with the U.S.

Today is Eid ul-Adha and Turkey has nine days of holiday. Please don’t ask why I mention the U.S. now. It is because the agenda doesn’t stay unchanged even during the holidays.

Prime Minister Erdogan returned from Bangladesh where he stopped after his visit to South Korea for the G-20 summit, a day before the Eid. On the eve of the Eid, Deputy Prime Minister Responsible for the Economy Ali Babacan announced a plan that will help citizens to pay back debts to the public sector. President Gul will fly to Portugal on last day of the Eid for the critical NATO summit where talks on missile shields will take place. If everything goes as planned, I will be part of president’s delegation too.

Thus, the agenda is very busy despite the holiday. I would like to wish you a happy Eid and continue with the topic from my previous article. In the previous article, where we discussed how Turkey-U.S. relations perceived from Washington, we summarized reasons for conflict and views of different agencies from Congress to the State Department and Pentagon and from the White House to our country.

I think we noted that despite everything that happened, most of the efforts came from the White House. For the Obama administration, which has been pondering on the economy, the weakest part of relations for decades has been looking for an ambassador who will be able to break the ice of the anti-U.S. atmosphere in Turkey and soften the increased amount of anti-Turkey views that are expected in the new Congress.

Another interesting point we witnessed in Washington was that despite the cold approach held at the official level in America, Turkey was a shining star among independent think-tankers who were close to the Democratic administration and university communities. Despite the global crisis, those people call Turkey a “model country” due to the economic success it gained during the global crisis and in establishing democratic reforms.

Admiration of Turkey is at such a level that some suggest adding Turkey to the abbreviation BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and change it to TBRIC. In academia, the number of people who think that the world has became multi-polar and Turkey has a positive and an active role as one of the important power in its region is not insignificant. There are also others who criticize American politicians who insist on acting from a Cold War mentality and ignoring the big changes occurring in Turkey.

Ali Babacan who has had a good performance in terms of the economy and has a sympathetic personality is very popular. Ahmet Davutoglu is also one of the names to look out for in same platforms. There is a rumor going on that whenever there is a possibility of the minister traveling to Washington, think-tankers compete with each other to convince him to make a speech at their organization.

The conflict between official and unofficial circles, such as the act of relaying unenthusiastic messages in lower levels and behaving politely at the upper level, which we mentioned earlier about American diplomacy, is a factor that makes it hard to establish an accurate perception of Turkey. For that reason, it is important to look at the whole picture for a realistic evaluation.

We have heard the same line from many people — from ex-ambassadors who worked in Ankara to people in Congress and non-profit organizations: “Turkey is about to lose friends it made after significant efforts made in Washington because of the UN vote and Mavi Marmara.”

We asked people we talked with their suggestions that will help to improve relations. It will be beneficial to list some of them:

— It wouldn’t be good if Turkey falls into conflict with its allies. For that reason, the missile shield issue should be solved. An isolated Ankara in NATO would build up the perception of a shifting axis of power.

— Even if Turkey is ethically and legally justified in the Mavi Marmara issue, it has to strive to normalize relations with Israel. This is crucial for both Turkish-American relations and Turkey’s role in the region.

—There is no need for Turkey to declare support for the U.S. on the issue of Iran but if it announces publicly that it will support the position of the P-5+1 in a nuclear crisis, cynical perceptions would decrease.

— More members of Congress should be taken to Turkey and exposed to the new Turkey. They should also meet with the opposition parties.

— More sociologists and political scientists of different views should go to Washington to talk about Turkey's socio-economic transformation. The people who should go to Washington, including politicians, should focus on explaining Turkey instead of moving internal arguments from Turkey to here.

— American politicians must see the reality that Turkey is not the county that it used to be 20 years ago.

This is a road map for those who ponder about relations in both sides. An envoy cannot be blamed for his mission.* In any case, the Turkish Ambassador to the U.S Namik Tan is currently in Turkey to share the same approaches.

*Translator’s note: The sentence is translation of a Turkish idiom, Elciye zeval olmaz.