They are not mentioning the Kirkuk-Mosul-Haifa pipeline in this. We don't hear that much about it. #msg-6643276
-Am
June 10, 2005 11:42 PM ETUS
All Financial Times NewsWhen President George W Bush met Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, at the White House on Wednesday, both leaders were seeking to rebuild one of the unsettling casualties of the Iraq war: the breakdown of the strategic relationship between Washington and Ankara.
At best, analysts and diplomats said, they succeeded in starting on what is likely to be a long healing process.
Recent investing newsL.A. Hotels Reach Tentative Labor Pact G8 Agrees to Debt Relief for Poor Nations China calls EU textile deal model for U.S. dispute Rich nations agree on debt relief deal G8 sees weaker O5 growth, mum on Asia FX Diplomats and commentators in Ankara suggest that the level of mistrust between them goes beyond the resentment felt in the US two years after the Turkish parliament vetoed a request to use Turkish bases to invade Iraq.
Indeed, what was once a close relationship based on military and political ties has been overshadowed on occasion by widespread anti-American sentiment in Turkey and anti-Turkish feeling in Washington. A recent bestselling book in Turkey imagining a US invasion of Turkey has been followed by one, by the same authors, imagining a Turkish invasion of the US.
Semih Idiz, a commentator with the Turkish Daily News, wrote that, given the anti-Turkish mood in Washington since the parliamentary vote on March 1, 2003, and subsequent Turkish statements and actions on Iraq and Syria, "it is a surprise that there is any sort of relationship between the two countries, let alone a strategic one."
The mistrust over Iraq has been exacerbated in the past few months by fierce criticism of US military actions in Fallujah, which one Turkish government minister branded "genocide" a claim not repudiated by the Turkish government, and by a lukewarm endorsement of the Iraqi elections in January, in which Turkish officials highlighted irregularities while the US was hailing them as the beginning of a democratic Iraq.
Now Syria has been added to the mix. Turkey's president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, paid an official visit to Damascus a few weeks ago that irritated Washington, which claims that Syria is allowing insurgents to cross the Syrian/Iraqi border to attack US forces. Some Turkish officials are now claiming that Ankara's engagement with Damascus was instrumental in Syria's decision to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
Diplomats in Ankara say its determination in recent months to engage with Syria reflected its scepticism about the US plan for democratising the Middle East. The government, and the secular establishment, also are increasingly dismayed by the portrayal of Turkey as a model for Muslim democracies. They insist that Turkey is a secular democracy that happens to be Muslim and that to characterise it otherwise is to misrepresent it.
At the same time, Turkey has been calling, without apparent success, for more US efforts to crack down on Kurdish separatist activity in northern Iraq that is fuelling fresh violence in southeastern Turkey. Recent months have seen an upsurge of attacks on the Turkish security forces that are blamed on Kurdish separatists based inside Iraq.
Commentators in the Turkish media noted that the meeting between Mr Bush and Mr Erdogan was cordial rather than friendly. "This meeting was important and symbolic, but it was not a breakthrough, and I don't think it is being presented as one," a diplomat said.
Robert Zoellick, US deputy secretary of state, delivered a bleak assessment of the state of US-Turkish relations at a major business meeting on the eve of the White House talks.
"I think all of us start by recognizing that the past three years have involved a serious disappointment in the U.S.-Turkish relationship, as well as frustrations and even some confusion, perhaps on both sides," Mr Zoellick began. "But I hope we can look ahead."
Like Mr Bush, he focused not on Turkey's past importance as a strategic military partner of the US in Nato, but on the role it can play in aiding US policy of promoting democracy in the Middle East.
Michael Rubin, analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote before the visit that US-Turkish diplomacy had been "a comedy of errors". "Mistakes cannot be undone, and the relationship will take years to rebuild," he said. He expressed concern that Turkish politicians might find anti-Americanism in Turkey politically expedient.
Mr Rubin, who previously worked for the occupying US authority in Iraq, said Paul Bremer, the US administrator, had become "increasingly anti-Turkish" while running Iraq and was furious when the Bush administration welcomed the October, 2003, vote by the Turkish parliament to offer to send Turkish peacekeepers. Washington withdrew its request, seriously embarrassing Mr Erdogan.
Speaking after this week's visit, Mr Rubin said there would be disappointment on the Turkish side with the outcome, notably that Mr Erdogan had secured no US commitment to deal with the PKK in Iraq. "There is still a long way to go in the relationship," he commented. "There is no quick fix."
But he also noted that Mr Erdogan was scheduled to visit the US twice more over the next three months.
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