POLITICS-US: Washington Cements Links with Turkey

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Analysis - Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Dec 28 1997 (IPS) - President Bill Clinton appears determined to cement the alliance between the United States and Turkey, despite reservations over Turkey’s human rights record and the military’s influence on the civilian government.

Washington is also concerned about Turkish designs on Cyprus and the consequences of its repression of the Islamic opposition. But it views as irreplaceable, Ankara’s strategic position at the geographic centre of a whole range of US interests – in the Middle East, the Gulf and Central Asia.

As Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz reminded a Washington audience here this month: “We have much to offer. For instance, as an American real-estate agent might say, ‘We have location, location, location.”

That observation echoed another spoken just days earlier by Clinton himself. “If you look at the size of (Turkey), what it can block and what it can open doors to, it is terribly important.”

While here, Yilmaz met with Clinton and his senior foreign- policy advisers. After his departure, the State Department announced that U.S. companies will be permitted to bid for sales to Turkey of new attack helicopters worth up to five billion dollars and that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will travel to Ankara next summer.

Last year, Turkey cancelled plans to buy 10 Cobra helicopters which had been held up by Congress for months due to concern about the army’s use of helicopters in its counter-insurgency operations in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, and possible use against Greece against which tensions have been rising steadily. During his meetings here, Yilmaz reportedly sought assurances that future arms sales will not be subject to such delays.

Washington’s warming towards Ankara follows the decision by the European Union (EU) to defer action on Turkey’s 34-year-old application for membership. The move outraged Yilmaz and many other Turks, especially because it coincided with the EU’s determination that 11 other countries, including virtually all of Eastern Europe and the Baltic nations, are on track for eventual membership.

During his visit here, Yilmaz was still smarting from the rebuff by Brusaeels, accusing it of wanting to create a “Christian club” and warning of “catastrophic consequences” if it persists in rejecting Turkey whose 64 million people are more than 99 percent Muslim.

“Our relationship with the European Union was like a one-sided love,” he told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “We have got nothing, but we have provided them with a tremendous trade surplus,” added Yilmaz who halted Turkey’s political dialogue with Europein retaliation.

While Clinton deplored the EU decision, the administration has been quick to take advantage. In one high-profile event witnessed personally by Vice President Al Gore, Yilmaz signed a 2.2 billion- dollar deal with Boeing to buy as many as 49 commercial aircraft. In other meetings, officials lobbied the Turkish leader on behalf of various US companies with interests in Turkey.

“Yilmaz is making a mess of trying to exploit Turkey’s strategic advantage by playing the United States against Europe,” noted the Journal of Commerce, “and Washington is mistakenly going along.”

The newspaper argued that Washington should work closely with the Europe to press Turkey on human rights and Cyprus and reduce the army’s influence over the government. But the administration, and other other Turkey supporters here, believe that Turkey is just too important to too many American interests. They consider its Incirlik air base in eastern Turkey, for example, vital to Washington’s ability to police Iraq.

The base is also “an excellent location for projecting power to both the gulf and the Caspian Basin,” according to Zalmay Khalilzad, director of the strategy and doctrine programme at RAND and a former top Pentagon official under President George Bush.

“Much of the world’s energy resources are within 1,000 miles (1,600 kms) of Incirlik,” he wrote recently. Khalilzad favours a “revitalised alliance” and criticises Clinton for not moving faster.

Turkey is also seen as the key to Washington’s containment strategy against Iran. The administration has aggressively boosted a plan to build a system of oil and gas pipelines stretching all the way from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan across the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey and eventually its Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

While expensive to build, such a route would bypass both Iran, the cheapest and most convenient way to get Caspian oil and gas to port and make Turkey a major power in the global energy sweepstakes.

“In a region where the Caspian Basin oil and gas is estimated to be worth at least four trillian dollars – if only it can be got out – Turkey is not only a prime patch of turf for pipelines needed to get this oil to market, but also terrain friendly to the West,” noted the Wall Street Journal, a major Turkey backer.

These considerations are strong in themselves, but they are gaining more attention here now due to Turkey’s burgeoning military alliance with Israel.

Earlier this month, Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai made his first official visit to Ankara, capping an eight-year courtship facilitated by Washington. Under an agreement signed last year, Israeli pilots fly training missions over Turkey’s huge land-mass, while Israel will upgrade Turkish warplanes as part of a 630 million-dollar contract.

The two countries also now regularly exchange intelligence on common threats, notably Syria, Iran and Iraq. And next month, they will hold joint naval manoeuvres with the United States.

In their meeting in Teheran earlier this month, leaders of Islamic states formally denounced this relationship, prompting a walkout by Turkish President Suleyman Demirel. But the move has further endeared Turkey both to prominent geo-politicians here and the Israel lobby. “In our book, any country that responds to intolerance by making common cause with Israel and the U.S. probably has a lot going for it,” wrote the Wall Street Journal.

The two countries’ ties have greatly amplified Turkey’s voice in Washington due in large part to the power and connections of the “Israel lobby” here.

The Israel lobby’s willingness to press Turkey’s case on Capitol Hill and in the administration has left other powerful ethnic lobbies in the dust. Greek and Armenian interests have long fought closer US-Turkish ties, and with great success. Now, however, they find themselves overmatched.