I was reading this article earlier about the deteriorating relationship between Turkey and the US. According to the article Turkey is they most anti-American nation polled (I’m assuming countries like North Korea weren’t asked):
Looking at the article the Turks have a serious problem with the US…probably more than most Americans realize.
And of course, thrown in with all the OTHER tensions currently between Turkey and the US, our wonderful Congress chose this time to up the ante and really build a bridge for US/Turk relations:
There are a lot of issues here, and a lot of reasons Turkey and the US aren’t seeing eye too eye right now. A big part of this obviously stems from the US invasion of Iraq and the pressure this is putting on the Muslim community in Turkey. Another huge bone of contention is the issue with the Kurds and the PKK and the perception by a large percentage of Turks that the US is supporting the PKK and Kurdish terrorism in Turkey.
What can be done? The US is in a sticky situation here. Obviously we don’t want too piss off Turkey (though you couldn’t tell this by the actions of either our idiot President OR our idiotic Congress). On the other hand we have too maintain a delicate balance with the Kurds in Iraq because this is the one area of relative peace in the who god forsaken country. On the other other hand, the PKK definitely are some mangy bastards that the US SHOULD be helping Turkey eliminate…they are certainly terrorists by any definition and we are supposed too be fighting terrorism and all that jazz.
So…thoughts? What can the US do to repair it’s relations with Turkey (or vice versa…not all of this is the US’s fault, and some of this stems from local groups in Turkey deliberately attempting to swing their publics perceptions away from the US)? How can the US walk this razors edge? Is there even anything that CAN be done as long as Bush remains in office, or is this going to be yet another thing that needs too be handled by the next administration? What can be done to explain to Congress that they need to shut the fuck up and deal with problems here in the US…or maybe deal with the whole Iraqi war thingy?
In the long run, the best thing America could do for Turkey is turn against it, and pressure it to grant independence to Turkish Kurdistan. Once that is done, the primary reasons for Turkey’s poor human-rights record will vanish, and Turkish membership in the European Union will become a much more viable possibility. (Plus it would piss off the Iranians. )
Bush could send Jimmy Carter to bring peace to the region. Then Bush’d only have two things to worry about: that he might fail, and that he might succeed.
Let’s do it! Well, not the part where we lose. We’ll win. Look, I’ve been against a lot of wars. Pretty much all of them. But everyone has to support one war, right? It’s unsightly not to, especially as an American. So I say let’s invade Turkey. They’ve been mouthing off to us. They don’t know how to follow orders. Plus, they’re the name of a bird which by all accounts doesn’t deserve to live. Let’s serve both the bird and the country with a side of mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. Who’s with me?
That would be the same Mugabe who took power in 1980? Under the terms of an agreement brokered by Henry Kissinger? Carter was only in office for the first few months of Mugabe’s rule; his main abuses of power started in 1983. Did Carter leave secret orders behind or something?
But seriously, I think the pendulum will swing of its own accord. Turks are not Arabs, and AFAIK don’t feel much of an affinity toward Arabs in general. Hell, Turkey does joint military exercises with Israel, for chrissake. They are more Western-oriented (the change from the Arabic to the Latin alphabet was more than just symbolic) than virtually any other Muslim country. Besides, I think any future president of either party will recognize that one of the US’s first priorities has to be to patch up our foreign relations, including those in the Muslim world. The US is already starting to make some of the right noises–denouncing the PKK as a terrorist organization, for instance, and (if I recall correctly from the radio news tonight) agreeing to share intelligence on Kurdish terrorists with Turkey. Give it time.
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