Why Were Those Phone Calls from Washington Received?

After the latest terrorist attacks, one of the countries that has given the highest, quickest and warmest support to Turkey is the United States.

President Barack Obama personally called his friend Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called her peer Davutoğlu. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta spoke with his contact Yılmaz. Which country is allotted American attention to this extent? On top of this, the behavior of the Obama administration was the same from top to bottom. For example, American diplomats called their contacts in the Washington embassy and expressed their condolences. American speakers did not object to Turkey’s cross-border operations in defense of itself. In short, it treated Turkey as a first class friend and ally during its time of need.

Erdoğan gave his list of demands to Obama

In the fight against the PKK, perhaps excluding the couple years after the crisis of March 1, 2003, the U.S. has been one of the top countries to support us. After the simultaneous intelligence agreement in 2007 the Iraq-Turkey-U.S. threesome mechanism has had many advantages for Turkey. The U.S. may not be doing everything it can. After all, this is not a direct U.S. problem. But one could also not deny that the U.S. and Turkey have cooperated the most in the fight against terror. The Americans have been demanding from the Europeans who have only ignored us to seize the organization’s financial resources. The Sikorkys and Cobras, which are the nightmares of terrorists, are American products. The cooperation between the two countries in fighting terrorism will be reinforced through the Global Counterterrorism Forum which they co-chair.

A lot has been done, but there is still more to do. In bilateral meetings between the Turkish side and the U.S., fighting terrorism has always been a priority. Thus Prime Minister Erdoğan delivered some comprehensive demands to Obama in their last meeting in New York. The American administration has generally received these demands positively. They should be taken care of imminently. The same goes for transferring unmanned aircraft from Iraq to Turkey. Both sides are currently working on an agreement. The U.S. would like to move these aircraft to Incirlik by November. It helps that neither state has to go through parliament to speed up the process. As of now, there is no tangible progress in Turkey’s request to buy the armed versions of the unmanned aircraft, MQ-9 Reapers. Diplomatic sources state that the Obama administration has not begun the Congressional confirmation process because it is worried that it might get stuck in the Senate, and that he is waiting for the right moment.

There is this reality: Ankara is very dependent on Washington in its fight against terror. The White House is dependent on Congress for legitimacy, especially with the Republican opposition so strong. Under these circumstances, Turkey must keep its relations with Congress good for its vital national security interests. However, the recent developments with Israel have had the exact opposite effect. The Israeli lobby’s ability to cause problems for Turkey in Congress is incomparably more than the Armenian or Greek lobby. In the fight over the sheets in the Middle East, while pulling the sheets a little more to its side, Turkey is exposing its feet to the cold in its southeast region. Reducing tensions with Israel would also help the vital cooperation with the U.S. in the fight against terror.

So why has the Obama administration become so cooperative when up until last year it did not keep it secret that it was unhappy with some of Ankara’s policies, including those towards Iran? Why is it trying to do everything we ask regarding the PKK? I think it has a lot to do with their dependence on Turkey to be a democratic, economic and strategic island of stability in the face of the recent developments in the Middle East. With the Arab Spring continuing with all its might with the latest development being Gadhafi’s violently being out of the game, it does not want to be distracted with any serious domestic problems that its strategic ally, Turkey, might have. Especially when Iran is trying to take advantage of all the strategic treasures that come with the fault lines between the two countries, America does not want any new problems in the region.

If Turkey’s terrorism problem is relieved, this would relieve the U.S. as well, especially in Iraq. The religious day problem in northern Iraq can potentially ruin relations between Iraq and Turkey. This certainly does not benefit the U.S. while it tries to balance Iran, who is trying to take Iraq under its influence, with Turkey. Obama declared on Friday that all American soldiers will be out of Iraq by the end of the year, but Washington had hoped that some units would stay. However, the Maliki administration did not grant American soldiers immunity despite all its requests. As a result, the U.S. became much more dependent on Turkey both militarily and strategically. We were important to the U.S. during the Cold War as the southern front of NATO, and now, during the Arab Spring, Turkey has proven its importance as a security hold of the Middle East.

In face of all of this, it seems to be in the interest of the U.S. to overcome the PKK terrorist threat in the short term and find a permanent democratic solution to the Kurdish issue that has shaken Turkey in the long term. The suspicions toward Turkey in Washington have not been completely erased. However, Turkey’s willingness to stand up to Tehran by allowing the missile defense radar, and to Damascus by supporting the opposition, has positively affected American trust. Now Turkey should try to turn that positive atmosphere into tangible returns, especially in fighting terrorism. But it should probably begin by fixing relations with Israel enough to at least make it look good on the surface.