« Bashar Al-Assad’s Obituary | Main
06/25/2012
My Dear Adam Levine, I am Sid Harth.
-
Erogenous, Oops, Euro-Zoneous and I am Sid – वसुधैव कुटुंबकम
www.webworldismyoyster.com/…/erogenous-oops-euro-zoneous-an…Jun 16, 2012 – … and I am Sid Harth@webworldismyoyster.com · Slider My Dear …. View Gallery » First Movie Gig Adam Levine is set to make his big screen …
-
इदं न मम – My Sister Eileen
mysistereileen.com/?m=aqqowpandhxnhx&paged=42Apr 5, 2012 – My dear Robert Naiman. I am Sid … May your tribe increase. …and I am Sid Harth@mysistereileen. ….. Adam Levine & Anne V Call It Quits …
-
इदं न मम – I take no credit for this – My Sister Eileen
mysistereileen.com/?cat=embychjiybu&paged=858Jan 25, 2012 – magnify. Slider Think Before You Look, Adam Garfinkle … Hi Barack. …and I am Sid Harth@sidileak.com …. From Adam Levine, CNN | November 3, 2010 …. My dear (honorable)Senator Lindsay Graham, Sir I am Sid Harth.
-
“Take That.” Mitt Romney « My Sister Marilyn Monroe
www.mysistermarilynmonroe.com/2012/04/…/take-that-mitt-romney/Apr 4, 2012 – My Sister Prudence: Sid Harth … …and I am Sid Harth@mysistereileen.com …. My dear Mitt, Oops, Romney,I am Sid, oops, Harth. ….. Jaleel White downplays ‘
DWTS’ dust-up with Kym Johnson · Adam Levine and model Anne …
-
Letters to Juliet’s Vanessa Redgrave – My Sister Marilyn Monroe
www.mysistermarilynmonroe.com/page/108/It’s the Budget, Stupid: Sid Harth … …and I am Sid Harth@mysistereileen.com …. My dear colleagues, I thank you very much for this tribute to my work. …… Lopez nip it in the booty, plus more from George Clooney, Adam Levine and other stars …
-
Thus Spake Sid Harth
sidharthspeaketh.com/page/64/Results 1 – 10 – My Dear Navid Hassibi, … Internet Blackout Day on January 18 January 17, 2012
…and I am Sid … My particular (biased as it is) is for the latter. …… program, The Voice by judges Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera.
-
Top karthik dutta News
noozly.com/topic/karthik+duttaPosted: May 12, 2012 (10:32:07 PM) | Updated: May 13, 2012 (06:26:14 AM) … I confronted my intuition and told myself to believe him and this is how he has repaid ….. No dear. Arjun was your good friend and he understood you well. So you …. Neha Kashyap Sompa Malakar Sidharth Gupta Nitin,Anwesha Bhattacharjee …
-
Batman Begins – Review Comments – Rotten Tomatoes
www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_begins/comments/?reviewid…then I am proud to say that I am a moron … dear rex reed, … tray flippout scene was right on and fun. before burton thier was campy adam west.bales lack of charisma is what sinks this movie … Sidharth E on 12-19-2011 03:19 PM … When the Dark Knight Rises hit the theaters, you will have my permission to die ,you moron.
-
Mark Zuckerberg Attacked by Brits – cogito ergo sum
www.sidileak.us/2012/03/mark-zuckerberg-attacked-by-brits.htmlMar 3, 2012 – Thus Spake Sid Harth Control Free Speech? … Adam Levin, the US-based chief executive of Criterion Capital Partners and the owner of British …
-
The 7 Secrets of Running a Wildly Popular Blog | Copyblogger
www.copyblogger.com/secrets-of-popular-blog/I’m not saying content isn’t important when you’re creating a popular blog. Content for ….. I am going to reference it on my blog as there is much good information here. Cheers! …. King Sidharth | 64 Notes says: July 20 …. 2:31 am. Dear Dean, …
My Dear Adam Levine, I am Sid Harth.
The right answer to your rhetorical, Oops, nonsensical question is a big NO!
Do something else. Say, underwater basket weaving, for heavenssake. Idiot!
…and I am Sid Harth@webworldismyoyster.com
Can Turkey force U.S. and other NATO countries to attack Syria?
By Adam Levine, CNN
Turkey’s leadership took on a much more strident tone on Sunday, calling the downing of its military jet by Syria an “act of aggression” and invoking its right to consult with other NATO nations. That call to meet has raised the question of whether other nations, including the United States, would be compelled to strike back on Turkey’s behalf.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has spoken with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the foreign ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and Iran, and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton since the incident, spokesman Selcuk Unal told CNN Saturday.
British Foreign Minister William Hague Sunday called the incident “outrageous” and said he condemned it wholeheartedly.”
“The Assad regime should not make the mistake of believing that it can act with impunity. It will be held to account for its behavior,” Hague said of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The top American military official, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, called his Turkish counterpart this weekend, a U.S. official told CNN’s Barbara Starr.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with her Turkish counterpart, as well. In a statement issued Sunday she called the incident a “brazen and unacceptable act in the strongest possible terms.”
NATO members will be meeting this Tuesday in Belgium to discuss the incident, at the request of Turkish officials, according to NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu.
The meeting, or “consultations,” is one Turkey called under Article 4 of the NATO treaty, Lungescu said in an e-mail to CNN. Turkey is expected to make a presentation about the plane incident.
“Under Article 4, any ally can request consultations whenever, in the opinion of any of them, their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened,” she wrote.
With the consultations, there is a chance Turkey will demand a collective military response. The notion comes from what is known as Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Washington Treaty, which states that should a member nation – which Turkey is – be attacked, other NATO members are compelled in a collective act of self-defense “such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”
Article 5 has been invoked just once since NATO’s founding, the military response to 9/11.
In this incident, after restrained comments early on, Turkey has issued much angrier comments as details became known. On Sunday, Turkey’s foreign minister said the country will act “decisively” within international law and refuted Syria’s contention that the plane was shot down because it displayed an “act of aggression.”
The plane in the Friday incident was unarmed and sending no hostile signals, said Davutoglu. The plane was testing Turkey’s radar systems, Davutoglu said.
“You have to first send a caution, a warning,” he said in the first detailed Turkish statement on the international incident. “If the warning doesn’t work, you scramble your planes, you send a stronger signal, you force the plane to land. There wasn’t enough time to do any of that in the time that our plane was in Syrian airspace.”
Davutoglu added the plane was shot down in international air space.
Turkey has invoked Article 4 before, after tensions arose on its border with Iraq.
“This did not lead to the invocation of Article 5,” Longescu noted.
A senior American administration official speaking on background because of the sensitivity of the issue, told CNN’s Jill Dougherty on Sunday that Turkey’s request “is just consultations, and they aren’t asking for more than that.” The official added that the move does mean Turkey considers Syria’s shooting down their plane a threat to Turkey’s security.
If NATO was looking for a fight, this would be a good opportuity to invoke Article 5, but there is no appetite for a military conflict with Syria at the moment, several NATO diplomats told CNN’s Elise Labott on Sunday.
There are many factors that weigh against a military response. First and foremost, the North Atlantic Council has to agree to it. Also, even if agreed, each member can contribute as they see fit.
“This is an individual obligation on each Ally and each Ally is responsible for determining what it deems necessary in these particular circumstances,” according to a description of the charter posted on the NATO website.
The United States and many other countries have been vocally opposed to military intervention and will not be quick to encourage Turkey to press the issue. After Syrian troops shelled refugees on the Turkish side of the border earlier this year, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made clear that the bar was high for Turkey to claim the need for a collective self-defense.
Panetta was asked about invoking Article 5 at a House Armed Services Committee hearing in April.
“I think it’s clear that the only way that the United States would get involved militarily is if there’s a consensus in the international community to try to do something along those lines. And then obviously ensure that the international community is able to get the – the authorities required in order to make that happen,” Panetta said. “They would have to make clear that what is happening there really does truly represent a direct threat to Turkey. And I think at this point, that’s probably a stretch.”
In her statement Sunday, Clinton said the U.S. would keep in contact with Turkey as the country determines its response. The U.S. will “work with Turkey and other partners to hold the Assad regime accountable,” Clinton said.
NATO members agreeing to respond to this incident is “inconceivable,” wrote James Joyner on the Atlantic Council blog. Joyner, who said he opposes military intervention in Syria, felt the incident does not rise to the level of such a response.
“The operative word that almost certainly disqualifies this incident from an Article 5 response is ‘attack.’ Turkey was engaged in aggressive action along its border with Syria during a particularly tense situation and flew into Syrian airspace,” Joyner wrote on Friday, “While shooting down the plane was almost certainly an overreaction – the Assad government has said as much – it’s hardly an ‘attack.’”
Additionally, Joyner said, the article demands response “to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”
“Given that the incident is already contained – that is, not likely to be followed by any sort of follow-on action by Syria absent further provocation – said security already exists. Indeed, a NATO or Turkish response would make the area more, not less, secure,” Joyner maintained.
But Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, may feel compelled to make a decisive response, said Hoover Institution’s Fouad Ajami, who explained Erdogan is already under pressure after he turned against Syria’s regime and called for the rescue of the Syrian people.
“I think it would be an embarrassment to Prime Minister Erdogan, because he has to make good on the threats that he has made,” Ajami said in an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley broadcast on “John King, USA.”
Ajami said the shootdown is a worrisome development as it demonstrates Syrian president al-Assad’s “sense of abandon.”
“Turkey is a NATO member. Turkey is a very, very formidable power. Turkey is four times the size of Syria. The Turkish military is a mighty institution.
“And the idea that this ragtag regime in Damascus would shoot down a Turkish airplane, a jet fighter … a Phantom – F-4 Phantom plane – tells you that Bashar al-Assad’s regime has the sense of invulnerability, that no one is coming to the rescue of the Syrian population,” Ajami said on Friday.
But in the end, nobody is expecting the Turks even to ask to invoke Article 5, knowing that NATO would probably not go along, diplomats told CNN on Sunday. The impression was that Turkey itself does not want to ratchet thing up that high, either.
| Post by: By CNN’s Adam Levine Filed under: Middle East • Military • NATO • Syria • Turkey |
We recommend
From around the web
Recent Highlights
- FIRST ON CNN: Director of national intelligence expected to roll out new measures against leaks
- Can Turkey force U.S. and other NATO countries to attack Syria?
- Review recommends combat pay be based on level of danger
- Leader of New York-based radical Islamist group sentenced
- U.S. sees Syrian military defections beginning to ‘accelerate’
Search Security Clearance
About this blog
CNN’s Security Clearance examines national and global security, terrorism and intelligence, as well as the economic, military, political and diplomatic effects of it around the globe, with contributions from CNN’s national security team in Washington and CNN journalists around the world.
E-mail us at securityclearance@cnn.com
@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
Top Topics
- Military (506)
- Afghanistan (372)
- Terrorism (310)
- Diplomacy (227)
- Al Qaeda (219)
© 2010 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertise with us | About us | Contact us | Help | Advertising PracticesPowered by WordPress.com VIP
Print
Email
ShareU.S.-Turkey Relations
A New Partnership
Chairs: Madeleine K. Albright, Chair, Albright Stonebridge Group LLC, and Stephen J. Hadley, United States Institute of Peace
Director: Steven A. Cook, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies
Order Print EditionPublisher Council on Foreign Relations Press
Release Date May 2012
Price $15.00
96 pages
ISBN 978-0-87609-525-6
Task Force Report No. 69
Share
Overview
Turkey is a rising regional and global power facing, as is the United States, the challenges of political transitions in the Middle East, bloodshed in Syria, and Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. As a result, it is incumbent upon the leaders of the United States and Turkey to define a new partnership “in order to make a strategic relationship a reality,” says a new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)–sponsored Independent Task Force.
The bipartisan Task Force is chaired by former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright and former national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, and is directed by Steven A. Cook, CFR’s Hasib J. Sabbagh senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies. The Task Force includes twenty-three prominent experts who represent a variety of perspectives and backgrounds.
“Turkey may not yet have the status of one of Washington’s traditional European allies,” the report explains, “but there is good strategic reason for the bilateral relationship to grow and mature into a mutually beneficial partnership that can manage a complex set of security, economic, humanitarian, and environmental problems.”
The relationship should reflect “not only common American-Turkish interests, but also Turkey’s new stature as an economically and politically successful country with a new role to play in a changing Middle East,” argues the Task Force in the report, U.S.-Turkey Relations: A New Partnership.
Turkey is more democratic, prosperous, and politically influential than ever before. Still there are worrying domestic developments that raise questions about Turkey’s democratic practices. According to the Task Force, these concerns include: “the prosecution and detention of journalists, the seemingly open-ended and at times questionable pursuit of military officers and other establishment figures for alleged conspiracy against the government, the apparent illiberal impulses of some Turkish leaders, the still-unresolved Kurdish issue, and the lack of progress on a new constitution.”
The Task Force finds that overall, Turkey is not well understood in the United States. The Task Force “seeks to promote a better understanding of the new Turkey—its strengths, vulnerabilities, and ambitions—in order to assess its regional and global role and make recommendations for a new partnership of improved and deepened U.S.-Turkey ties.”
To make the vision for a new U.S.-Turkey partnership a reality, Ankara and Washington should observe the following principles:
- equality and mutual respect for each other’s interests;
- confidentiality and trust;
- close and intensive consultations to identify common goals and strategies on issues of critical importance;
- avoidance of foreign policy surprises; and
- recognition and management of inevitable differences between Washington and Ankara.
More About This Publication
Madeleine K. Albright
Albright Stonebridge Group
Henri J. Barkey
Lehigh University
Elmira Bayrasli
Richard R. Burt
McLarty Associates
Soner Cagaptay
Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Steven A. Cook
Council on Foreign Relations
Edward P. Djerejian
James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University
William M. Drozdiak
American Council on Germany
Stephen J. Hadley
U.S. Institute of Peace
Robert W. Kagan
Brookings Institution
Parag Khanna
New America Foundation
Clark B. Lombardi
University of Washington School of Law
Aliza Marcus
World Bank Group
Larry C. Napper
George Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University
Denise Natali
Institute for National Strategic Studies
Joseph W. Ralston
The Cohen Group
Gregory Saunders
BP America Inc.
Patrick N. Theros
U.S.-Qatar Business Council
Vin Weber
Mercury/Clark & Weinstock
Jenny B. White
Boston University
Ross Wilson
Atlantic Council of the United States
Nur O. Yalman
Harvard University
Ahmad Zuaiter
Jadara Capital Partners, LP
Subscribe to CFR’s Publications Quarterly
CFR Blog: From the Potomac to the Euphrates
Steven A. Cook examines developments in the Middle East and their resonance in Washington.
- In Egypt, Lamentations Over a Lost Revolution
- The Pharaoh’s Legacy
- Military ‘Soft Coup’ in Egypt Has Precedent
Receive Blog Posts by EmailSubscribe to the Blog Feed
CFR Blog: Renewing America
Ideas and initiatives for rebuilding American economic strength.
- Clarity about Austerity
- Morning Brief: Bipartisan Attacks on Facebook IPO
- Morning Brief: Moody’s Downgrades Large Banks
Receive Blog Posts by EmailSubscribe to the Blog Feed
New Ebook on Iran’s Nuclear Regime
Iran: The Nuclear ChallengeIn what may be the clearest picture of Iran’s nuclear program to date, CFR scholars map the objectives, tools, and strategies for dealing with one of the most vexing issues facing the United States and global community today.Available in Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, iBook, Kobo, and paperback versions
New Council Special Report
Countering Criminal Violence in Central Americaby Michael ShifterThe author assesses the causes and consequences of the violence faced by several Central American countries and examines the national, regional, and international efforts intended to curb its worst effects.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
New Books
No One’s Worldby Charles A. KupchanA renowned scholar maps out the twenty-first-century world, providing a detailed strategy for reconciling the West with the “rise of the rest.” More
The US-South Korea Allianceedited by Scott A. SnyderA new volume explores the possibilities for enhanced U.S.-South Korea cooperation in both traditional and nontraditional spheres. More
New Independent Task Force Reports
U.S.-Turkey RelationsThis Independent Task Force asserts that Turkey is an increasingly influential regional and economic power and calls for the United States and Turkey to forge a new partnership.
U.S. Education Reform and National SecurityThis Independent Task Force report asserts that fixing the nation’s underperforming K-12 public schools is critical for strengthening the country’s security and increasing its economic competitiveness.
Permissions Requests
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
U.S.-Turkey Relations: A New Partnership
Speakers: Madeleine K. Albright, Stephen J. Hadley and Steven A. Cook
Presiders: Anya Schmemann and David R. Ignatius
May 9, 2012, Washington D.C. The new CFR-Sponsored Independent Task Force report provides analysis and recommendations on Turkey’s relationship with the United States;…
Reuters: Building a New Future for Turkey
Authors: Madeleine K. Albright and Stephen J. Hadley
May 15, 2012The U.S.-Turkey relationship has become increasingly important as a result of the continuing violence in Syria and ongoing debate over Iran’s…
U.S.-Turkey Relations: A New Partnership Report of a CFR-Sponsored Independent Task Force
Speakers: Madeleine K. Albright, Stephen J. Hadley and Steven A. Cook
Presider: Gary Rosen
May 8, 2012, New YorkTask Force Co-Chairs Madeleine K. Albright and Stephen J. Hadley and Project Director Steven A. Cook discuss the findings and recommendations…
U.S. Needs to Deepen Ties with Turkey Despite Concerns, Says New CFR Task Force
May 8, 2012It is incumbent upon the leaders of the United States and Turkey to define a new partnership “in order to make a strategic relationship a…
Turkey–United States relations
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008) |
 |
|
 Turkey |
 United States |
Turkey – United States relations [1] Difficulties faced by Greece after the war in quelling a communist rebellion, along with demands by the Soviet Union for military bases in the Turkish Straits, prompted the United States to declare the Truman Doctrine in 1947. The doctrine enunciated American intentions to guarantee the security of Turkey and Greece, and resulted in large scale U.S. military and economic support.[2] This support manifested in the establishment of a clandestine stay behind army, denoted the “Counter-Guerrilla“, under Operation Gladio. After participating with United Nations forces in the Korean War, Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952.[3]
The friendliness of Turkey towards the United States has declined markedly over the past five years. The decline of U.S.-Turkish relations is primarily a result of the United States’ instigation of and action in the Iraq War. Turkey views the Iraq war as a significant threat because northern Iraq acts as a safe-haven for a Kurdish terrorist organisation, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Furthermore, Turkey views the destabilization of Iraq as a possible impetus for Kurds to claim their independence from Turkey, Iraq, and/or other Middle Eastern countries with significant Kurdish populations.
Early relationship
A Turkish stamp for 150th Anniversary of American Independence
1952 U.S. Army film about Turkey
Turkey’s most important international relationship has been with the United States since the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War. Turkey’s association with the United States began in 1947 when the United States Congress designated Turkey, under the provisions of the Truman Doctrine, as the recipient of special economic and military assistance intended to help it resist threats from the Soviet Union. A mutual interest in containing Soviet expansion provided the foundation of U.S.–Turkish relations for the next four decades. As a result of Soviet threats and U.S. assistance against them, Turkey moved away from a single-party government towards democracy; in fact holding the first democratic elections in 1950, as a result of which self-declared “National Chief” Ismet Inonu was finally toppled by the people and Adnan Menderes was elected by popular vote. In support of overall United States Cold War strategy, Turkey contributed personnel to the United Nations forces in the Korean War (1950–53), joined NATO in 1952, became a founding member of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) collective defense pact established in 1955, and endorsed the principles of the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine. In the 1950s and 1960s, Turkey generally co-operated with other United States allies in the Middle East (Iran, Israel, and Jordan) to contain the influence of those countries (Egypt, Iraq, and Syria) regarded as Soviet clients. Throughout the Cold War, Turkey was the bulwark of NATO‘s southeastern flank, directly bordering Warsaw Pact countries and risking nuclear war on its soil during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Turkey received around 2.5 billion dollars in military aid from 1950 to 1970 (in 1970 dollars).[4] Since 1954, Turkey hosts the Incirlik Air Base, an important operations base of the United States Air Force, which has played a critical role during the Cold War, the Gulf War, and the recent Iraq War.
Turkish invasion of Cyprus
After the 1974 Cypriot coup d’état, backed by the Cypriot National Guard and the Greek military junta, Turkey sent its forces to Cyprus on July 20, 1974. In doing so, Turkey claimed to protect the safety of Turkish Cypriots under the Treaty of Guarantee. As a result of the military operation, Turkish forces took control of the northern third of Cyprus and divided the island along what became known as the Green Line monitored by the United Nations.
Turkey, only 75 km away, had repeatedly claimed, for decades before the invasion and frequently afterwards, that Cyprus was of vital strategic importance to it. Ankara has defied a host of UN resolutions demanding the withdrawal of its occupation troops from the island. About 142.000 Greek Cypriots living in the north – nearly one quarter of the population of Cyprus – were forcibly expelled from the occupied northern part of the island where they constituted 80% of the population. These people are still deprived of the right to return to their homes and properties. U.S. Congress imposed an embargo on arms sales to Turkey leading to excessive tension and mistrust between relations of Turkey and USA.
The arms embargo was silently removed a few years later.
1980s
During the 1980s, relations between Turkey and the United States gradually recovered the closeness of earlier years. Although Ankara resented continued attempts by the United States Congress to restrict military assistance to Turkey because of Cyprus and to introduce congressional resolutions condemning the Armenian Genocide, the Özal government generally perceived the administration of President George H.W. Bush as sympathetic to Turkish interests. Ronald Reagan was sympathetic to the Armenian cause and is the last American to have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. .[5] It was in this period that the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) was established and started to licence-build F-16 Fighting Falcon jets in Turkey. Washington also demonstrated its support of Özal’s market-oriented economic policies and efforts to open the Turkish economy to international trade by pushing for acceptance of an International Monetary Fund program to provide economic assistance to Turkey. Furthermore, the United States, unlike European countries, did not persistently and publicly criticize Turkey over allegations of human rights violations. Also, the United States did not pressure Özal on the Kurdish problem, another issue that seemed to preoccupy the Europeans. By 1989 the United States had recovered a generally positive image among the Turkish political elite.
After the Cold War
The end of the Cold War forced Turkish leaders to reassess their country’s international position. The disappearance of the Soviet threat and the perception of being excluded from Europe have created a sense of vulnerability with respect to Turkey’s position in the fast-changing global political environment. Özal believed Turkey’s future security depended on the continuation of a strong relationship with the USA. For that reason, he supported the United States’ position during the Persian Gulf War, although Turkey’s economic ties to Iraq were extensive and their disruption hurt the country. After the war, he continued to support major United States initiatives in the region, including the creation of a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, the Arab–Israeli peace process, and expanded ties with the Central Asian members of the CIS. Özal’s pro-United States policy was not accepted by all Turks. The United States’ use of Turkish military installations during the bombing of Iraq in 1991 led to antiwar demonstrations in several cities, and sporadic attacks on United States facilities continued in 1992 and 1993. Nevertheless, among Turkey’s political elite, a consensus had emerged by January 1995 that Turkey’s security depended on remaining a strategic ally of the United States. For that reason, both the Demirel and Çiller governments undertook efforts to cultivate relations with the administrations of presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
War on Terror
The Turkish Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the Wardak Province of Afghanistan is part of the U.S. led-International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Turkey has remained a close ally of the United States, supporting it in the war on terror in the post September 11 climate. However, the Iraq war faced strong domestic opposition in Turkey and as such, the Turkish Parliament couldn’t reach the absolute majority of 276 votes needed for allowing U.S. troops to attack Iraq from Turkey, the final tally being 264 votes for and 250 against. This led to a brief period of cooling in relations, particularly following the “hood event“, which was perceived as an act of hostility in Turkey.
Ankara is particularly cautious about an independent Kurdish state arising from a destabilized Iraq. Turkey has fought an insurgent war against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish guerrilla group (recognized as a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union) seeking Kurdish independence, in which more than 37,000 people have lost their lives. This has led Ankara to pressure the U.S. into clamping down on guerrilla training camps in northern Iraq, though the U.S. remains reluctant due to northern Iraq’s relative stability compared to the rest of the country as well as its lack of spare forces to divert away from the more contentious areas of Iraq. On October 17, 2007, the Turkish Parliament voted in favour of allowing the Turkish Armed Forces to take military action against the PKK rebels based in northern Iraq.[6] In response, U.S. President George W. Bush stated that he did not believe it’s in Turkey’s interests to send troops into Iraq.[7]
In late 2007, Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States after the House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a United States resolution on the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. This resulted in a delay of a full House vote on Res. 106. Speaker Pelosi has pledged to bring the resolution to a full vote, but pressure from the White House and Turkey has kept her from doing so.[8]
Nevertheless, the United States and Turkey share membership in NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the G-20, and continue to cooperate in important projects, such as the Joint Strike Fighter program. The United States also actively supports Turkey’s membership bid to join the European Union, lobbying frequently on behalf of Ankara through its diplomatic missions in EU capital cities. In June 2008, The United States and Turkey began to cooperate on peaceful uses of nuclear energy with a pact that aims for the transfer of technology, material, reactors and components for nuclear research and nuclear power production in Turkey for an initial 15-year period followed by automatic renewals in five-year increments that provides a comprehensive framework for peaceful nuclear cooperation between the two nations under the agreed non-proliferation conditions and controls. A parallel U.S. bipartisan resolution has recently highlighted the importance for Turkish Republic’s key role in providing her western (EU and US) and regional allies Eurasian energy security.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies has recently started a one-year initiative project to evaluate and enhance the Turkish Republic – United States strategic partnership, aiming for a plan of implementation of the concluded framework at the end of this phase.
Current relations
2009 US presidential visit to Turkey
Barack Obama in Turkish Assembly, 6 April 2009
US President Barack Obama made his first official visit to Turkey, stopping off in both Ankara and Istanbul, on April 6–7, 2009. There had been critics in the U.S. who claimed that Turkey should not be rewarded by an early presidential visit as its government had been systematically reorienting foreign policy onto an Islamist axis, but as former US Ambassador to Turkey Mark Parris has stated, “Whatever the merits of this argument, the Obama administration, by scheduling the visit, have decisively rejected it.”[9]
During his visit Obama urged Turkey to come to terms with its past and resolve its Armenian issues. Prior to this, during the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, he had criticised the then US President George W. Bush for his failure to take a stance and stating that the “Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence”.[10] He responded positively to an announcement from sources in Ankara and Yerevan that a deal might soon be struck to reopen the border between the two states and exchange diplomatic personnel by indicating that although his own personal views on the subject remained unchanged, he may, in order to avoid derailing this diplomatic progress, refrain from using the word genocide in his upcoming April 24 speech on the question.[11]
Turkish President Gül later referred to the visit as “evidence of a vital partnership between Turkey and the US,” whilst Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu pointed out that, “You are changing the psychological atmosphere,” of what was before “seen as a military relationship,”[12] but as Obama made clear, “We are not solely strategic partners, we are also model partners,” and with this change in terminology, “The President wanted to stress the uniqueness of this relationship. This is not an ordinary relationship, it’s a prototype and unique relationship.”[13] A US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing entitled The United States and Turkey: A Model Partnership under the chairmanship of the Head of the Subcommittee on Europe Robert Wexler was convened following, “the historic visit that Obama paid to Turkey,” and concluded that, “This cooperation is vital for both of the two states in an environment in which we face serious security issues in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, the Balkans, Black Sea, Caucuses and the Middle East, besides a global financial crisis.”[14]
Following Obama’s visit Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Chief of the Turkish General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ played host to US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen in Ankara. In the course of the closed-door meeting they discussed the pledging of further Turkish support troops to Afghanistan and Pakistan where Turkish authorities have influence, the secure transport of troops and equipment from the port of İskenderun during the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, and the pro-Kurdish terrorists operating in south-eastern Turkey and northern Iraq.[15]
On April 22, 2009, shortly after Obama’s visit, Turkish and Armenian authorities formally announced a provisional roadmap for the normalisation of diplomatic ties between the two states.[16] The US responded positively with a statement from the office of US Vice President Joe Biden, following a phone conversation with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, which stated that, “The Vice President applauded President Sargsyan’s leadership, and underscored the administration’s support for both Armenia and Turkey in this process.”[17] Turkish columnists however criticised the timing of the announcement believing it to have been made to placate the US President in advance of his April 24 speech, with Fikret Bila writing in the Milliyet that, “the Turkish Foreign Ministry made this statement regarding the roadmap before midnight,” as it would allow Obama to go back on his campaign promise, to refer to the incident as genocide, which the Turkish government denies profusely, by pointing out to the Armenian diaspora that, “Turkey reached a consensus with Armenia and set a roadmap,” and, “there is no need now to damage this process.”[18][19]
President Obama on the Armenian Genocide
U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Turkey’s President Abdullah Gül in Ankara, Turkey, in April 2009.
“Ninety-four years ago, one of the greatest atrocities of the 20th century began. Each year, we pause to remember the 1.5 million Armenians who were subsequently massacred or marched to death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire. The Meds Yeghern must live on in our memories, just as it lives on the hearts of the Armenian people,”[20] stated the Statement of President Barack Obama on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. As previously indicated US President Obama had chosen to avoid the use of the word genocide in order to avoid upending recent pledges of a closer partnership with Turkey but for many the use of the Armenian term Meds Yeghern, translated as “Great Calamity”, did little to placate critics within the country.[21][22]
Official Turkish response was highly critical with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stating, “We regard the statement concerning the 1915 events as an interpretation of history that does not reflect the truth and is thus unacceptable. We are saddened that the issue is being persistently exploited and many politicians are trying to win votes out of the controversy over the 1915 events. Turkey is not a country that can be flattered and then fooled.” Whilst Turkish President Abdullah Gül claimed, “Hundreds of thousand of Turks and Muslims also died in 1915. Everyone’s pain must be shared.”[23] Although no official complaint was lodged US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry the day after the statement, where officials expressed “views, comments, assessments, as well as the reaction.”[24]
Obama confirmed in his speech that, “I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view of that history has not changed. My interest remains the achievement of a full, frank and just acknowledgment of the facts.”[20] In response former US Ambassador Parris has stated that the new US administration had been “true to its public declarations of readiness to listen and be responsive to Turkish viewpoints and concerns”, before concluding that, “had the statement contained the word ‘genocide’, US-Turkish relations would have gone into a deep freeze that would have taken years to thaw,” and although criticised Obama’s speech, “did no lasting harm.”[9]
Continued cooperation in the war on terror
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington D.C., February 13, 2012.
Incirlik Air Base hosting USAF operations
The 2009 US Secretary of State’s Country Report on Terrorism confirmed that cooperation in terrorism is a key element in America’s strategic partnership with Turkey, before going on to praise Turkish contributions to stabilise Iraq and Afghanistan and highlighting the strategic importance of the İncirlik Air Base in Adana used by both US and NATO forces for operations in the region.[25]
Questions have been subsequently raised, however, over the continued presence of US nuclear weapons, reportedly stationed at the air base during the Cold War as part of the NATO nuclear sharing programme, after recent parliamentary debates in Belgium and Germany called for the removal of weapons stationed there under the same programme. Bilkent University Professor Mustafa Kibaroğlu speculates that if the Obama administration presses for the withdrawal of these weapons, which Turkey wishes to maintain, then Turkey-US relations may be strained.[26]
The US Secretary of State’s report also contained information on the PKK and other terrorist groups operating in Turkey, whom the US and Turkish authorities share intelligence on, highlighting the September 12, 2006 attack on Diyarbakır and the July 27, 2008 attack on Güngören before going on to mention the ongoing Turkish investigation into the Ergenekon network and concluding that, “the details of the case were murky, however, and Ergenekon’s status as a terrorist organisation remained under debate at year’s end.”[25]
A separate report presented to US President Obama by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, which had previously urged him to raise the subject of religious freedom during his 2009 presidential visit to Turkey, concluded that Turkey’s interpretation of secularism, “resulted in violations of religious freedoms for many of the country’s citizens, including members of the majority and, especially, minority religious communities.”[27]
A US Democratic Party delegation group including US Senators Robert Casey, Edward E. Kaufman, Frank Lautenberg and US Congressman Timothy Waltz met with Turkish officials in Ankara on 30 May to confirm, “Turkey can always depend on the US, while the US can always rely on its close friendship with Turkey.”[28]
2009 Conference on US-Turkish Relations
The 28th American Turkish Council Annual Conference on US-Turkish Relations entitled “US-Turkey: Overcoming Challenges in an Era of Change” commenced in Washington on 31 May 2009 with key speakers Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül and Chief of the Turkish General Staff İlker Başbuğ both thanking the US for its support in anti-terror actions against the PKK, with Başbuğ adding, “Our relations are very comprehensive and cannot be limited to one specific issue,”[29][30] and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu elaborating “I think where there’s the most promise is in the idea that Turkey and the United States can build a model partnership, one in which a majority Christian and a majority Muslim nation, a Western nation and a nation that straddles two continents can come together; we can create a modern international community that is respectful secure and prosperous. This is extremely important,” and, “Model partnership is not an issue of preference, but it is a necessity.”[13]
Turkey and the Iranian Nuclear Crisis
In April 2010, Washington stepped up its efforts to impose a new round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
But key powers such as Turkey, India and China oppose the adoption of a new round of sanctions against Tehran.
As a result the American Congress has held up arms sales sought by the Turkish military in order to impose their will on the Kurds.[31]
2010 Leaked diplomatic documents
According to leaked diplomatic cables, Erdoğan was described by US diplomats as having “little understanding of politics beyond Ankara” and as surrounding himself with an “iron ring of sycophantic (but contemptuous) advisors”. He is said to be “isolated”, and that his MPs and Ministers feel “fearful of Erdogan’s wrath”.[32] Diplomats state that “he relies on his charisma, instincts, and the filterings of advisors who pull conspiracy theories off the web or are lost in neo-Ottoman Islamist fantasies”.[33][34]
The alleged cables also highlight Turkish concerns that upgrades to General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons had “precluded Turkish access to computer systems and software modification previously allowed”.[35]
Human rights and arms sales
In 2010, American president Obama said that future arms sales would depend on Turkish policies.[36]
The Arab Spring
The US under President Obama was reluctant to get deeply involved in the Arab World and was generally supportive of Turkish efforts in the region.[37]
For the Anatolian Falcon 2012 joint exercises, the United States sent the 480th Fighter Squadron to train Turkish pilots in Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses.[38]
Visits
![[icon]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} |
This section requires expansion. |
| Guest | Host | Place of visit | Date of visit |
|---|---|---|---|
 Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit |
 President Bill Clinton |
White House, Washington, D.C. | September 27, 1999 |
| President Bill Clinton |
President Süleyman Demirel |
Çankaya Köşkü, Ankara | November 15, 1999 |
| President Ahmet Necdet Sezer |
President Bill Clinton |
White House, Washington, D.C. | September 4, 2000 |
| President Barack Obama |
President Abdullah Gül |
Ankara and Istanbul | April 6-April 7, 2009 |
Cultural Relations
American Schools in Turkey
- Bursa American Girl College (1854–1928)
- Robert College (1863 – )
- Talas American College (1871–1968)
- Üsküdar American Academy (1876 – )
- Anatolia College in Merzifon (1886–1924 )
- Tarsus American College (1888 – )
See also
President John F. KENNEDY addressing the Turkish people on Kemal Atatürk and the Anniversary of the Republic. Recorded in October 1963.
- Foreign relations of the United States
- Foreign relations of Turkey
- Turkish invasion of Cyprus
- Turkish lobby in the United States
References
- ^ “Growth in United Nations membership (1945–2005)”. United Nations. 2006-07-03. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
- ^ Huston, James A (1988). Outposts and Allies: U.S. Army Logistics in the Cold War, 1945-1953. Susquehanna University Press. p. 198. ISBN 0-941664-84-8.
- ^ http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_52044.htm
- ^ Call of Turkish Minister of Defense Ahmet Topaloglu on Secretary Laird. Washington National Records Center, OASD/ISA Subject Files: FRC 33072 A 6309, Turkey 333–, 1969. Confidential. Drafted on April 11 by Krebs and approved by Nutter. The meeting took place in Secretary Laird’s office. Washington, April 9, 1969, 5:35–6:45 p.m. United States Department of State.
- ^ [1]
- ^ “Turkish MPs back attacks in Iraq”. BBC News. 2007-10-18. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
- ^ “Turkey approves Iraq incursion”. CNN.com. 2007-10-17. Archived from the original on 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
- ^ “Turkey recalls ambassador over genocide resolution”. CNN.com. 2007-10-11. Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
- ^ a b Aslan, Ali H. (2009-05-02). “Parris: ‘Genocide’ reference would have frozen Turkey ties”. Today’s Zaman.
- ^ “Turkey and Armenia set ‘roadmap’”. BBC News. 2009-04-23. Retrieved 2009-04-29.
- ^ Paul Richter (2009-04-03). “Turkey, Armenia are likely to ease conflict”. L.A. Times. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
- ^ “Davutoğlu expects Obama message to Muslims to change ‘atmosphere’”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-06-03.
- ^ a b “Model partnership with US necessity rather than preference”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-06-04.
- ^ “Wexler urges US to positively ‘channel’ Turkey’s value”. Sunday’s Zaman. 2009-05-16.
- ^ “Top US commander discussed Afghanistan, Iraq in Turkey talks”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-05-01.
- ^ “Turkey and Armenia move to ease tensions”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-04-25.
- ^ “Turkey and Armenia expect gradual normalization in ties”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-04-25.
- ^ Dişli, Fatma (2009-04-25). “Turkey makes last-minute move to placate Obama administration”. Today’s Zaman.
- ^ Sami, Kohen (2009-04-25). “Road map is OK, but…”. Today’s Zaman.
- ^ a b “Statement of President Barack Obama on Armenian Remembrance Day, 2009″ (Press release). 2009-04-24.
- ^ “Obama avoids g-word, brands Armenian killings ‘great atrocity’”. Sunday’s Zaman. 2009-04-26. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
- ^ Dişli, Fatma (2009-04-27). “Obama and ‘Meds Yeghern’”. Today’s Zaman.
- ^ “Obama’s message brings no relief to Ankara”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-04-27.
- ^ “US envoy summoned to ministry over Obama message”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-04-28.
- ^ a b “US says anti-terror cooperation key in partnership with Turkey”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-05-02.
- ^ “Turkey to face pressure over US nukes on its soil”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-05-04.
- ^ “‘Religious freedoms in Turkey curbed by hard-line secularism’”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-05-02.
- ^ “Turkey can always count on America, say US senators”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-06-02.
- ^ “Government, military VIPs in Washington for ATC conference”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-06-02.
- ^ “Başburğ: Anti-PKK fight ends when its presence in northern Iraq ends”. Today’s Zaman. 2009-06-03.
- ^ Despite its views on Israel and Iran, Turkey is trying to prove it’s still a friend to the U.S.
- ^ “Cable Viewer”. Cablegate.wikileaks.org. 25 March 2005. Retrieved 1 December 2010.
- ^ “Leaked cables point to vital, volatile U.S. relationship with Turkey”. CNN. 30 November 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ “WikiLeaks US embassy cables: live updates”. The Guardian. 1 December 2010. Retrieved 2 December 2010.
- ^ “SECRETARY OF DEFENSE GATES’S MEETINGS WITH TURKISH” 16 February 2010.
- ^ “US threat on Turkey arms sales.” Al Jazeera, 17 August 2010.
- ^ Daniel Dombey (2012-02-15). “Turkey-US harmony has its limits”. Financial Times. Retrieved 2012-02-16.
- ^ Knee, Daryl. “U.S. pilots plant SEAD with Turkish counterparts.” USAF. March 9, 2012.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies.
Further reading
- Zeyno Baran (May 11, 2005) “The State of U.S.-Turkey Relations”, United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats.
- James E. Miller, Douglas E. Selvage, and Laurie Van Hook, ed. (2007). “Turkey”. Eastern Europe; Eastern Mediterranean, 1969–1972. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976. XXIX. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. pp. 1036–1132.[dead link]
- James E. Miller, Douglas E. Selvage, and Laurie Van Hook, ed. (2007). “Turkey”. Eastern Europe; Eastern Mediterranean, 1969–1972. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976. XXX. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. pp. 650–855.[dead link]
- Will Turkey be complicit in another war against another neighbour? CASMII, February 24, 2008
- Coming war against Iran: Increasing Anglo-American pressure on Turkey Global Research, June 21, 2008
External links
- History of Turkey – U.S. relations
- U.S. Department of State Background Note: Turkey
- U.S. Embassy in Turkey
- Recommendations for Strengthening U.S.-Turkish Relations
DOC, ASAM
|
|||
|
|||
Most of the languages spoken is Turkish
- This page was last modified on 25 June 2012 at 09:58.
- Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of use for details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
How does Turkey do it?
ISTANBUL, Turkey, June 25 (UPI) — As the economies of Europe, China, India and the United States all slow at once, how does Turkey do it? How does this country, poised at the intersections of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, grow its economy last year at close to 10 percent, lower its trade deficit and get its sovereign debt upgraded by Moody’s?
Low debt is part of the answer. The economy has been growing so fast that its sovereign debt is now reduced to just 42 percent of Turkish gross domestic product, the lowest level in Europe after Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic.
Intelligent policies help. Noting the warning signs last year when the trade deficit went to more than 10 percent of GDP, the Turkish central bank introduced a controversial but imaginative two-tier interest rate system to discourage inflows of hot money, which can flow out again just as fast.
But at the same time, to encourage inward investment and local manufacture, the government introduced new trade incentives, which allow foreign automakers like Renault to export more cars to Turkey but only if they increase their local output. Automakers that increase annual output in Turkey by 100,000 units will be entitled to import additional vehicles equaling 15 percent of that amount without tariffs, Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan explained.
Open a new engine manufacturing plant and the company can import an extra 30 percent of foreign made cars. Similar incentives are also on offer in industries like chemicals and steel-making (where the local steel industry has been hard hit by cheap imports from Russia and Ukraine).
A sharp eye for international politics also helps explain Turkey’s success. Despite a far more assertive and self-confident foreign policy that began when Turkey refused to let U.S. troops use its territory during the Iraq war, Turkey has managed to forge close relations with China, Brazil, Russia and Iran, while remaining a staunch member of NATO.
Most recently, Turkey persuaded the European Union to loosen its visa regime for Turkish visitors. That might not sound like much but two EU members — Greece and Cyprus — are still outraged at Turkey’s 1974 invasion of northern Cyprus and the continued presence of Turkish troops, helping protect the “independent” enclave of Northern Cyprus. A cynic might say Turkey was taking astute advantage of Greece’s near-bankruptcy and the impatience of other EU countries with the slow pace of Greek reform; a realist would acknowledge Turkey’s timing.
Another example comes from the nasty spat with France last year when the French Parliament passed a resolution saying that the deaths of Armenians in 1915 under the Ottoman Empire was an act of genocide. Although the Ottomans disappeared in 1918, successive Turkish governments have seen any such charge as a terrible insult, and Franco-Turkish relations — and trade — froze. But Turkey took advantage of the change of government in the latest French elections to declare the fuss was over and that trade links were back on track.
Relations are still very cold with Israel, formerly a close ally, after the deaths of Turkish citizens when Israeli forces boarded and seized a ship of volunteers taking aid and medical supplies to Gaza. This complicates Turkey’s position with the United States where Congress is blocking Turkish requests for unmanned aircraft because Turkey is now seen as hostile to Israel.
By contrast, a personal relationship has developed between U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkey’s moderate Muslim Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. U.S. intelligence officials are said to be working closely alongside Turkish counterparts on the borders with Syria, where Turkey has taken an increasingly critical line as the crisis inside Syria spirals into civil war.
The apparent shooting down by Syria of a Turkish warplane has sharply raised the stakes. Turkey has formally taken the issue before its NATO allies and rejected Syria’s claim that the plane was an intruder into Syria’s airspace and Syria shot it down without knowing it was Turkish.
So far, however, Turkey’s ability to navigate the swirls of regional geopolitics, from the instability of Iraq to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, has been as impressive in its way as the ability of the Turkish economy to thrive in tough times. Of course, the most important reason for Turkey’s economic success has been hard work, a great deal of local and foreign investment and a growing number of locally bred entrepreneurs.
Given that Europe is Turkey’s biggest market and Europe has hardly been a growth center for the past four years, Turkey’s resilience has been remarkable. And for once, Turkey’s latest growth spurt hasn’t collapsed under the combined effects of inflation, trade deficits, bad debts and banking crises, which is what happened to previous Turkish booms in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000.
Although growth is likely to slow this year to 5 percent or less, the current growth phase looks much more soundly based and sustainable.
There are some shadows on the horizon. The first is the resumption of political violence in the Kurdish regions. Last year was the bloodiest in several years in the ongoing conflict with the Kurdish Workers’ Party. Last week, eight Turkish troops were killed in yet another border shootout (this is why Erdogan is pressing Obama for Predator drones).
More serious in the longer term is the slow pace of reform in Turkish education. The average Turkish worker these days could be described as someone who hasn’t completed a high school education and the pace of economic growth points to the urgent need for more skilled workers, more graduates and specialists. Shortages of skilled labor are threatening to drive up wages and thus inflation, which could threaten the economic miracle.
One really worrying aspect of this is that unlike many other emergent markets Turkey has few hopes of women coming in to buttress the workforce. Turkey has the lowest rate of working women if any country in the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development at just 23 percent — lower than it was 30 years ago.
Two other concerns are the large number of journalists arrested — close to 100 — and the government’s continued pursuit of supposedly anti-Islamic groups in the military. After controversial claims of a coup plot, around 15 percent of serving generals and admirals are in prison, some for more than two years without any trial. This suggests institutional strains in the system that economic growth can dilute, but not resolve.
Topics: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Barack Obama
The Bipolarity of U.S.-Turkish Relations
In early 2001, as Bush-administration officials were formulating a new global strategy, an Israeli diplomat met in Washington with a top Pentagon official who explained that Washington’s policy in the Middle East would “not be very complicated.” On one side would be the “good guys,” including Israel, Turkey and India. On the other side were the “baddies,” led by Iraq, Iran and Syria. The Israeli diplomat was asked to travel to Ankara to try selling the new “strategy” to officials there.
“The Turks were quite astonished to learn that the Americans were expecting them to join a strategic alliance with India,” the Israeli diplomat recalled. “Don’t the Americans know that we’ve always had close diplomatic and military ties with India’s traditional rival, Pakistan?” said one Turkish official, who rejected the administration’s Manichean worldview in which the Turks were part of an U.S.-led coalition confronting what would later be known as the Axis of Evil.
That initial U.S. approach toward Turkey reflected the dualistic doctrine of the Cold War, in which the “good guys,” led by Washington, confronted the Evil Empire. From that perspective, the Turks together with the Israelis and the Indians were expected to play on “our team” in the Middle East.
The alliance between Ankara and New Delhi failed to materialize. But in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Turkey, then led then by a moderate Islamist political movement, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), was designated as a model of a liberal and democratic Muslim country that—unlike the ayatollahs in Tehran and the perpetrators of 9/11—shared the values and interests of the United States.
Then came the American decision to oust Saddam Hussein and the ensuing refusal by Ankara to permit the United States to use its territory to deploy troops into Iraq—followed later by the cooling off in the relationship between Turkey and Israel—and the same Americans who not long ago were celebrating Turkey’s pro-Western foreign-policy orientation were now warning that Turkey, headed by Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, was joining forces with Iran and Syria. They feared an anti-American and anti-Israeli Axis of Evil seeking to destroy the Jewish state as part of a long-term strategy of reestablishing the Ottoman Empire. Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry even suggested that Turkey was ruled by “Islamic terrorists.”
But more recently, following Turkey’s decision to join NATO’s missile-defense project and its blasting of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s repressive policies, the bipolar disorder that has afflicted U.S. attitudes towards Ankara seems to be swinging from the irritable mood of the last few years back into euphoria. Ankara is once again on “our team,” and Prime Minister Erdogan has been transformed from a Middle Eastern Hugo Chavez into one of the “good guys.”
Indeed, against the backdrop of the so-called Arab Spring, American pundits are once again hailing the Turkish model that fuses commitment to Islamic values and democratic and liberal principles. And at a time when U.S. influence in the Middle East has been eroding, Ankara is now seen by the Obama administration as a regional power helping Washington maintain its interests vis-à-vis radical players like Iran.
Ankara has done “an about-face” and decided “to re-embrace the West,” Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote in the Los Angeles Times recently. Turkey under Erdogan chose to pivot away from the West in the 2000s: it “entered a period of increasingly cold relations with the United States and turned its interest to the Middle East in hopes of becoming a regional power,” he argued. Now Turkey’s foreign policy “has come full circle.”
Bridge to the West
But the facts are different than some commentators would present them. At no stage in the evolution of its foreign policy in recent years has Turkey demonstrated an interest to pivot away from the West. Under Erdogan, Turkey remained a committed member of NATO and has participated in its operations in Afghanistan.
And Turkey has continued to apply for full membership in the European Union (EU); the reason it has not joined that grouping has to do with German and French opposition and not with the alleged anti-Western inclinations of the AKP and Erdogan.
If anything, one of the main factors driving the more recent Turkish efforts to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties with its Middle Eastern neighbors was a recognition that Turkey would probably not be able to join the EU anytime soon and needed, therefore, to search for new export and investment markets. In any case, much of the talk about Turkish neo-Ottoman aspirations was overblown. Ankara hopes to become an economic bridge between the Middle East and the West—not form an anti-Western bloc of the kind Chavez is trying to build in Latin America.
At the same time, Turkey sees in a nuclear Iran a threat to its national security, which explains its decision to join NATO’s missile-defense project last year. But Ankara also wants to prevent a full-blown war next to its borders that could ignite regional instability—the reason for its opposition to the American invasion of Iraq—which explains its efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution of the Iran nuclear crisis.
More by
- Show full page
- Login or register to post comments
Stories Related to The Bipolarity of U.S.-Turkish Relations
Commentariat
Cover Story
Most Popular
Latest Posts
The Lede
Newsletter
Stay informed on our latest news!
Follow The National Interest
Follow The National Interest
©2010 The National Interest. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions
- David Ignatius
- Opinion Writer
U.S. and Turkey find a relationship that works
By David Ignatius, Published: December 7, 2011
They are unlikely partners: a cool and unflappable U.S. president and a proud, sometimes hot-tempered Turkish prime minister. But they have developed a working relationship that is one of the most important but least discussed developments shaping this year of change in the Arab world.
If you’re looking for factors that can keep the Arab Awakening from turning into a nightmare, the U.S.-Turkey partnership is mildly reassuring. President Obama and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have worked closely to manage events in Egypt, Libya, Syria and, increasingly, Iran.
David Ignatius
Ignatius writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column and contributes to the PostPartisan blog.
They have talked by phone 13 times this year, according to the White House. The two didn’t start off as friends but became so after a blunt conversation last year in Toronto. The relationship that emerged exemplifies Obama’s basic formulation of “mutual respect and mutual interest.”
For an administration that wants to influence Arab turmoil but also stay in the background, Erdogan has been the perfect cut-out: He has high credibility on the Arab street, especially with the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties empowered by the Arab revolutions. And he has a foreign minister with Kissingerian ambitions, Ahmet Davutoglu.
Erdogan embodies the “Turkish model” — a strong Islamist governing party that is committed to the free market and backed by a solid, pro-American military — which many administration officials see as the best hope for Egypt and its neighbors. But critics caution that Erdogan has narrowed the scope of democracy in Turkey by reducing the independence of the media, the judiciary and the army. In that sense, the Turkish model has dangers as well as benefits.
I’ve seen Erdogan’s temper firsthand, when he walked out of a Davos panel I was moderating in 2009 because he thought he hadn’t been given a fair chance to express his criticism of the Gaza war. That spark of populist anger is part of why Erdogan is so popular in a region where the public increasingly wants politicians to stand up to the West.
As White House officials reconstruct the evolution of this special relationship, they go back to Obama’s decision to add a stop in Ankara on his first overseas trip as president in April 2009. The initial itinerary was standard fare — Group of 20 and NATO summit meetings in Europe — but Obama wanted to reach out to newly emerging powers, starting with Turkey.
The Ankara speech went well enough, but relations soured in early 2010 when Turkey tried to broker a deal with Tehran over fuel for the Iranian nuclear program. Obama saw the Turks undermining U.S. policy — especially when they voted in the U.N. Security Council against a new sanctions resolution on Iran in June.
Obama and Erdogan had a showdown later that month at the G-20 summit in Toronto. Obama protested, “You knew how important this was to me, and you didn’t come with me,” recalls a senior administration official. Erdogan responded equally bluntly. Over several hours, they moved into “a long discussion about evolving trends in the world and what it means to be allies.” Turks agree that a real partnership was born at that meeting.
As examples of “really close cooperation,” the official cites Turkish help in forming an Iraqi government under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki; joint efforts against terrorist groups, including the Kurdish PKK; partnership on Afghanistan; and shared strategy during the Arab Spring.
The alliance has continued even as Turkey’s relations with Israel were scuttled by the Gaza flotilla incident in May 2010. The United States tried to negotiate a truce, but it failed when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused Erdogan’s demand for an apology. The fact that Obama has such good relations with Erdogan probably adds to Israeli uneasiness with this White House.
The most delicate piece of Turkish-American business is trying to organize a peaceful transfer of power in Syria. Erdogan, once the closest foreign ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is now a bitter foe. As often with Erdogan, it’s personal: He feels Assad backed out on a reform promise he made several months ago. When Assad reneged, after Erdogan had told Obama he would have a deal within 72 hours, the Turkish prime minister was embarrassed and angry. That anger continues, and it’s driving the Turks to take a tough stance.
Washington and Ankara are planning an escalating pressure campaign against Assad, which will include economic sanctions, secret activities to support the opposition and perhaps a haven along the Turkish border and a humanitarian corridor inside Syria.
And what about Turkish relations with Iran, the ticking time bomb on its border? Administration officials note that Erdogan recently agreed to deploy a forward-based radar system as part of a NATO missile defense plan aimed chiefly at Iran.
52
Comments
They sent terrorists on the Mavi Marmara to try to break through Israel’s blockade of Gaza. When Israel’s defense forces boarded that ship, the Turks on the ship viciously attacked them. several IDF soldiers were injured. Several of the Turkish terrorists were killed.
After a year of investigation, the UN’s appointed commission found that the Israel’s blockade of Gaza is legal and that the boarding of the Turkish ship was justified, but that the Israelis may have used too much force in the process of seizing the ship.
How did the Turks respond? They cut off diplomatic ties with Jerusalem and various military cooperations were terminated. Other aggressive threats and actions by the Turks have ensued.
IBM Smarter Cities
>>>> Roll over for article <<<<
>>>> Roll off to close ad <<<<
Leadership for Smarter Cities
The impact of population growth on the aging infrastructures of cities represents one of the great challenges facing municipal leaders in the 21st Century. By 2015 UN statisticians predict that nearly 61 percent of the world’s population will live in urban settings, increasing at a rate of 2 percent yearly.
Is this the “new normal†that we keep hearing about? How can our cities, already struggling with overburdened and crumbling infrastructures, reduced budgets, and faltering services, cope with the demands of these increasing populations? It’s a dilemma that has many city planners worried.
But some innovative leaders today are confronting the population growth challenges by inter-connecting their IT infrastructures in new and productive ways. This isn’t a sci-fi experiment, but a means to better provide public safety, maximize diminishing resources, and serve their local communities. They aren’t abandoning their cities’ systems, but making them more resilient, more responsive, and more intelligent.
IBM is committed to “Smarter Cities†and is developing new and enhanced solutions based on its insights gained from thousands of engagements around the globe.
What makes a “Smarter City�
Consider Alameda County, home to Pixar Animation Studios, and UC Berkeley. Alameda County’s Social Services Administration, was facing a mounting deficit, deep Federal and State budget cuts coupled with increasing requests for public assistance during the 2009 recession. Like many municipal governments, it was severely challenged to do much more with much less.
However, led by an innovative administration team, the county engaged IBM’s business analytics technology to maximize every dollar through technology efficiencies.
What were the results? Immediate gains from the reduction of waste in welfare-to-work and child care programs came to approximately $11 million. The bulk of this came from elimination of general assistance benefits to ineligible recipients, but at the same time the system simplified the tracking and reporting requirements for government funding by providing real-time dashboard views of funding and progress across programs.
“It’s not just about making us more efficient, though it’s certainly doing that,†said Don Edwards, assistant agency director of Alameda County Social Services. “It’s helping us reach out to those who need us, making sure they don’t fall through the cracks. It’s about using our resources wisely and effectively to improve people’s lives, better than we ever could before. The more we know, and the more information is shared in a responsible way, the better able we are to get that assistance to those who need it.â€
Managing the population crunch
How can a city deal with a massive population explosion when transportation systems are already grinding to a halt? How will cities get the emergency services to those with immediate needs?
Many metropolitan areas have already implemented data-collection systems like sensors, video cameras and GPS devices. But those investments now need to be enhanced and tied to new computing processes to identify patterns and trends.
Consider Bucheon City, a municipality of 900,000 located at the crossroads of Seoul and Incheon in the western part of South Korea. Bucheon was faced with mounting traffic gridlock that severely retarded response times for traffic incidents and other necessary emergency services. The city’s traffic monitoring systems were relying upon manually counting cars from closed circuit TVs. City leaders decided to make its city “smarter†to help solve the problem.
An upgrade of existing systems to IBM’s WebSphere MQ, and WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment delivered the needed technology for the city’s critical infrastructure. It increased the speed of collecting traffic data by over 1,200 percent, now enabling the city to deliver traffic information directly to drivers, law enforcement and emergency responders in real time. Simultaneously, it increased the accuracy of traffic volume data from 50 percent to 90 percent. This initiative now delivers more accurate reports on traffic tie-ups, calculates suggested route changes, and helps city emergency services to more efficiently respond to crises.
How cities are getting smarter
IBM says its Smarter Cities initiatives are deploying information experts and solutions around the world to assist leaders in their planning, evaluation, and execution using existing IT infrastructures. According to IBM, these initiatives are designed to dynamically respond to the growing challenges and needs of the 21st century city, scaling to three broad categories: Planning and Management, Infrastructure Services, and Human Services.
“When you understand that the world has become pervasively instrumented and interconnected,†said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM’s chairman at last year’s SmarterCities Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “It inevitably leads you to see our planet not as a collection of countries or industries…but as a system of systems…. Most important, city leaders are quantifying the value of making their systems smarter.â€
Need some more examples?
- Endesa – An electricity provider in Spain reduced energy use by 20 percent through real-time monitoring and smart meters.
- Integramedica – A healthcare provider in Chile is using intelligent medical records to centralize patient information and make it accessible in real time to medical practitioners.
- Singapore – A smart card system has enabled the Singapore Land Transport Authority to double its performance capacity to 20 million fare transactions per day.
Intelligent City Operations
IBM points to one such initiative: the IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities. According to IBM, it’s specifically designed to allow cities and businesses to work smarter by empowering leaders to:
- Leverage information with real-time visibility of key data to drive better decisions;
- Anticipate performance to identify, manage and mitigate incidents that impact operations;
- Coordinate resources and processes to respond to situations rapidly and effectively.
IBM says its Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities enables the real-time communication and collaboration between departments and agencies to coordinate actions and resolve issues in an efficient manner. It says the operations center can significantly reduce the impact of a crisis while it provides on-going monitoring to reduce the overall cost of maintenance and repairs. By minimizing disruptions to public services, IBM says it preserves critical services and resources and minimizes life-threatening issues. Most importantly, according to IBM, it allows leaders to recognize events as they arise, and to put responses in place to manage the negative impacts.
But, considering the budget crunch that cities face today, how can city entities afford to connect their infrastructures? IBM says that many of its initiatives for smarter cities can be deployed within a city’s existing data center or through a subscription service hosted on the recently announced IBM SmartCloud. This cloud computing service, according to IBM, provides rapid and secure Internet access to the capabilities of the IBM Smarter Cities initiatives so cities can rapidly adopt and deploy new capabilities while still controlling cost.
What makes a smarter city? Leadership!
“The world’s emerging global cities are the crucible in which a new model of leadership is being forged,†said Palmisano at the Rio forum. “A new generation of forward-thinkers is making our world literally work better: from police and fire chiefs…to education and transit commissioners…to mayors and community organizers.â€
IBM is actively seeking to help these leaders reach their goals by integrating their IT infrastructures and expanding the services needed to sustain the growth in populations. IBM believes that the “new normal†for cites is not the failing of city infrastructures. For smarter cities, the future is extending the reach of public services for every citizen, and IBM has a plan to help chart the way.
This article was produced by The Washington Post Custom Content department and did not involve The Washington Post news or editorial staff. This article was written by Thomas M. Stockwell, a freelance writer, hired by The Washington Post Custom Content department.
The Post Most: Opinions
Today’s Opinions Poll
Voice Your Opinions
PostOpinions E-Newsletters
Sign-up for e-mail newsletters and alerts and get the news you need delivered directly to your inbox.
-
22 m
BusinessLawmakers reworked financial portfolios after talks with Fed, Treasury officials
-
59 m
White HouseHealth-care ruling will cap a consequential week for Obama
-
21 m
FrontpageSyria denies knowing downed fighter jet was Turkish
-
55 m
StyleQuoted: Bob Dole on picking a candidate
-
28 m
OpinionsMedia news derivatives: June 25
- ★ Recently diagnosed with M E S O T H E L I O M A? ★
Get paid for your H I P I M P L A N T troubles.- Help Barack stand up for working Americans. Join our campaign now.
- Looking to buy a home? Visit TWP Real Estate section for the latest open houses.
- What’s up with the price of gas? GasPricesExplained.org
- Access your computer on-the-go with LogMeIn Pro
- washingtonpost.com
- © 1996-2012 The Washington Post
- Terms of Service
- Privacy Policy
- Submissions and Discussion Policy
- RSS Terms of Service
- Ad Choices
Posted at 08:50 AM | Permalink
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Search
soundoff (176 Responses)
My Dear Adam Levine,I am Sid Harth.
The right answer to your rhetorical, Oops, nonsensical question is a big NO!
Do something else. Say, underwater basket weaving, for heavenssake. Idiot!
…and I am Sid Harth@webworldismyoyster.com
STOP SACRIFICING AMERICAN LIVES FOR ISRAEHELL!U.S/NATO want to DESTABILIZE the whole Mid-East so that Israehell lives “peacefully in a hostile region.” Iran is now a thorn in their side. Meanwhile they have every right to nuclear power. Western nations are the world’s best examples of hypocrits.
Keep getting yourself into wars America and a “future for your children” will be a myth. Your economy is going down the DRAIN as I type this.
Ordinary idiot Americans wake up.
Please say no to war…whether Syria shot the damn jet down or not.War against them does not make us better than them…It pulls us towards them and when 2 fools are arguing,no one sees the difference.
let those arabs slaughter each other. turkey should not intervene
Turkey are not alone to decide. Let several head of NATO to decide. It might cause of havoc amount the nation humanitarian sake. Most of are innocent in Syria.
That’s the reason Turkey want to attack Syria. To protect the innocent Sunni muslims from Alewite community. Turkey’s attack will hopefully wipe off the Alewites and Esad from the map. Go for it Turkey!!! Our heart is with you!!!
An attack on Syria would be a HUGE mistake, and 95% of Americans recognize that. Unfortunately, the opinion of the American public has not impact on what Washington decides to do, but we surely suffer from their repeated mistakes.
Buradan tüm dünyaya söylemek istediğim bazı şeyler var. Biz Türklerin dostluğu daimidir. Düşmanlığı ise çok serttir. Bizim tarihimizi Türk tarihini bilen herkes ne demek istediğimi çok iyi anlayacaktır. 2 pilotumuz şu an kayıp öncelikle onların bulunması için uğraşılıyor. Suriye’ye tepkimiz daha olmadı. Pilotlarımız bulunsun sonrasında her şey gelişecek ona inanıyorum. Atatürk’ün ve Osmanlı gibi bir ecdadın torunları olarak söylüyorum. Herkes ayağını denk alacak.
Stop with that Turkish garbage.
Dogru soyluyorsun kardesim. You are right.
türkün türke reklami, gerizekali ingilizce yazsana
I sure hope not because NATO is a DEFENSIVE alliance. If this is used as a pretext for attack then I will really know just how corrupt it has gotten here in the “free world”.
NATO has not defended anything for ages on end. Yes, the so-called “Free World” has become quite corrupt as the M.I.C. in Washington is becoming more and more in control of that organization. For a very long time now, no European nation has done anything on it’s own! All they do is to sit around and take orders from Washington D.C.
I only hope here that Killer O’Bama doesn’t do something stupid here like going to war on Turkey’s behalf! We need a president who harbors no animosity toward the Muslims but unfortunately, it will be years before we get one! Enough of this stupid warmongering already!
“Killer Obama” can’t hold a candle to “Killer Bush W”! Bush went to “war” based on rumors and his “shock and awe” solved nothing! His revenge only made matters worse. Obama has stood up to Israeli demands that we attack Iran. Now Turkey?
George W. and Dick C. both salivated over taking out a dictator, Saddam, so their friends could get cheap oil from Iraq. They “screwed up” big time! China and India got the oil. Saddam kept Iran in check, now Iraq is highly influenced by Iran!! Thanks to “democratic elections”!
US foreign policy has been a disaster for many decades. Will “we” ever learn?
Don’t worry Jews. You have plenty of friends in the USA. Everybody knows when zhit hits the Fan we will have your backs in a Flash despite the laughable bullsht these mickey mouse Muslim misfit cyber jihad cells try to propagate. Let us know if you need any help! We owned the Nazis in Germany 60 years ago we are about ready to own them again in the middle east
I second that!
Are you sure you are ready? At what price? Another depression or just printing more money?
You people read CNN and write such crap? The situation in Syria is an international issue. All the racist and nationalist comments here are digsuting and don`t lead to a decent conversation. Before you don`t have to say anything senseful, just don`t hit the keys and be quiet.
germany should leave the euro, schnell!
Agreed! Deutschland über alles. The responsibility of the German government is to the German people first.
I never liked the whole Euro thing when it was created. But if you now take Germany out, the Euro will collapse completely. The main reason the Euro is failing is Socialism. In Socialism, you have to have people working and paying high taxes in order to support all the social programs for those that are unable to contribute, as well as those that are contributing, thus there’s not much incentive to work hard and make lots of money. With Capitalism, you have to work hard for what you want, and hard work is rewarded.People that think a two class society like Socialism is a good idea have never experienced anything else, or they are just lazy and don’t want to work for what they want. A single class society will only ever exist in futuristic science fiction movies. So having multiple classes is better than the Socialistic two class society.
I say down with Socialism and up with Capitalism. Work hard and get rewarded for it.
Words from a true Communist! Sensor us because you don’t like what we are saying.
It’s the right-wing fanatics who do all the censoring, not the Communists! In fact, George Patton was censored once and for all on CNN’s This Just In just because the idiots didn’t like what he was saying! So Alex, if you’re going to talk about censoring, look to CNN!
I can’t help but feel Merkel is somehow to blame for all this
No surprise here, crunchy. She is in fact! Like you said, Germany needs to quit the Eurozone as every other member nation does!
Your All a bunch of slaves!!!
Turkey’s air space has been violated 114 separate times so far this year but each instance was quickly resolved peacefully. This happens between any and every neighbouring country, certain procedure needs to be followed. First you warn the plane with radio to leave your airspace. If ignored, next step is to dispatch planes to force the plane to get out of your airspace or land. If there is no hostility, only after this stage can you resort to destruction. Turkish plane was unarmed and it was downed without any warning. If Turks acted like Syria, Turkey could have downed 114 planes for airspace violations in 2012 alone.
You are looking on to the issue objective, i hope that jet down is not a jewish trick. they love to make that kind of diplomatic tricks. But as i see there deep issues are exist between israil russia iran and syria……they re just doing that for fool…nosense. I have been near syrian boarder. People are starwing there. So they wanna do war with Turks .? i think no, some people want WAR and some guys are playing…I hope we wont be a player ! better to be coach .
Turkey has flown into Cypriot and Greek airspace countless times. Constantly scrambling fighters to chase their F14′s out.
I didn’t know Jeffersonville was that bad. Surprising.
Yeah, it’s Incirlik isn’t it? And you people know it. Wonder if that’s where they’ll stash Assad’s dead body after Clinton and Petraeous torture the guy to death. Probably loading up with guns, bombs and propaganda leaflets for the ongoing “liberation” of Syria.
Probably Turkey will seek if they can destroy all syria anti aircraft defense.
I don´t think that Turkey will ask for launching air strike against syria now… but a correspondent access to military tecnology by USA and to know where are the anti aircraft missiles and defenses.
Then, on a swift move, it will launch an massive ofensive by sea and air of 2-3 hours to destroy everything they can from the air defenses.
After that, they will wait to see what does syria do. If they attack Turkey… then Nato will destroy everything that is military connected to the regime in syria.And Turkey is still waiting to see why did syria taked down there aircraft, but 3 days earlier a russian bomber that was passing through the region got over syria without authorization and it was a Nato plane that was trailing the russian bomber that informed them they where inside Syria air space.
these clowns still warmongering?
Its election time. Obama isn’t going to touch this. His head is already buried in the sand.
I donot understand the support for B.Assad here!! Clearly, it states that the Turkish UNARMED jet was shot down in INTERNATIONAL waters. Rules are rules, people. The UNARMED Turkish jet was supposed to get a WARNING and this did not happen. This is a BRAZEN act and it underscores international law. Given that both countries neighbor each other, it is LIKELY this will happen and possibly again. and Davutoglu says there was no radio warning, no jets sent to force landing or retreat. In fact he implies there was no need for any of these measures any way as the incursion was momentary. Thus there was also absolutely NO NEED to shoot the plane down either.
Let Syria waste away and fight its own wars. Spend the money on America and educate the youth of america. Spend our money ourselves and fix our issues.
Stop giving billions of US taxpayers’ money to Israel every year. In 1-2 years that money can save USPS, then it can be used to fix other issues including education of American youth.
Why do you focus just on aid to Israel? The US gives billions to Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, etc. At least Israel has to spend 80% of the military aid that we give them back here in the US. What do the Arabs states give back to us?
Busta: The aid given to other countries is not nearly close to the aid given to Israel even when added up. Besides, stop the giving back BS, that’s the most absurd propaganda I hear. Just stop taking US taxpayers’ money and waste it to attack your self-created enemies, Americans need it. Stop bullying the US politicians through your lobbies and threatening them with Jewish votes. Deal with your problems yourselves, Americans don’t owe you any money.
Mark: First of all, I am an American and second, there is no BS or proganda. The FACT is that Israel receives military aid from the US or which 80% must be spent back in the US. Don’t believe me? Then look it up yourself. Israel also gives much back to the US in terms of advanced technolgies and counter-terror and counter-insurgency methods. You have no clue about how much Israel helps the US.
Israel has self-created enemies? I am sorry if their mere existence causes the Muslim lunitics to hate them but the Israelis are here to stay, so they better put down their weapons and make peace for the sake of not just Israel but also themselves.
Busta: Post your propaganda elsewhere, nobody cares about where you spend the money, spend your own money and spend it wherever you want, just stop taking billions of US taxpayers’ money, period. US government should give the money to Americans to spend it in America. “Give me money, I’ll spend it there” is not a solution, then you’re getting free stuff, same thing. Israel’s “help” is like a flea on a camel when compared to the help it receives. It should be Muslim lunatics vs. Jewish lunatics, keep Americans out of the equation. You may be an American citizen, but you’re obviously a Jew.
Busta: You Jewish propagandists are well-known to act like a third party, nobody buys it. Americans gained enemies they wouldn’t have if you weren’t their “ally”. Without an ally like Israel, US would be in far better shape now. They lost soldiers, money, their economy went down, they gained enemies, lost credibility. On top, they give you billions in aid. With such an “ally”, who needs enemies? They need to leave you to your fate as soon as possible, for their own good. You bully their politicians through your lobbies and threaten with Jewish votes. You pump lies and propaganda into US public on a daily basis to fool clueless Americans to think that you are their ally. They are waking up, slowly but surely, you want the status-quo to continue because you benefit from it but it will come to an end much sooner than you think.
Diane: You may be an American but you are obviously a Jew-hater. America doesn’t live in a vacuum. We live in a global community and when we provide foreign aid, we do not give it for free. We usually expect something in return. If you would suspend your hatred and stop being shortsighted, you would realize that America gets much back from Israel for our investment. First, because 80% of the aid is spent back here in America, this helps provide jobs for Americans in the defense industry. Israel anti-terror methods and techniques protect both you and me from terror attacks. Israeli technology protects our borders and help fight terrorists abroad. The cooperation between the US military and Israel is huge. All I am say is the truth but your hatred of Jews has blinded you.
Mark: You Jew-hating propagandists are well-known to act like a third party, nobody buys it. Israel has made enemies for America? Who? Jordan? No. Saudi Arabia? No. Egypt? No. Bahrain? No. Yemen? No. Oman? No. Kuwait? No. Qatar? No. Turkey? No. You are just a liar and a propaganda artist. No American has ever died in the defense of Israel. i dare you to provide one shread of evidence that America fought in Iraq for Israel. you can’t because you are a liar.
Busta: Stop being an “ally” of Americans and there won’t be terror in the United States, they owe it to Israel to begin with. And just stop taking Americans money when they can’t even save the USPS, nobody cares about you spending it in the US, it doesn’t matter. If Wal-Mart gave you money to spend it there, how would they stay in business? Come with your own money. Americans can invest it themselves rather than giving it to you and you buying free stuff with a percentage of it from the United States. And, Americans don’t need your help with anything, it’s all a game in your benefit, Americans aid you more with investments in Israel on top of the aid. It’s not a win-win situation despite how hard you try to show it differently, Israel wins and Americans lose in this relationship. You are well-known to accuse anyone that posts the truth about Israel to be a hater and anti-semite, that won’t take you anywhere.
Mark: I am still waiting for you to prove that America fought in Iraq for Israel. Eveything I wriiten is 100% true whereas all you have written is unsubstantiated lies and propaganda. Face it, you hate Jews and you hate Israel. Why is that so difficult for you to admit? You write poisonous lies and propaganda to discredit and destroy Israel. Why?
I agree. The US Post Office is much more useful than izraeel.
That’s pretty short sighted. If we had done that during WW2 we would all be speaking German now, and the Nazi’s would be in charge… not to mention there would be no Jewish state, and probably no Jews at all.
Lay syria out!nobody follows the rules!its a war!nuff said?
Sounds like another Gulf of Tonkin to me.
Yes! bomb em!
sensible and acceptable in the respectful terms. Where does Sec. Clinton dig up that extremist terminology?
Yes
Turkey should’ve bombed the site where the missile came from within like 10 mins of their jet going down, it’s that simple.. That’s what Israel would’ve done! Instead, they went to NATO complaining..blah blah blah
There lies the difference. Turkey does not act recklessly and violently, they always thoroughly evaluate the situation and exhaust all political communication channels as long as it’s not an obvious act of war. This issue does not warrant an immediate response, thus no decent nation would immediately respond and do what you said in such a case. Israel is notorious for violence, you wouldn’t expect them not to attack. Plus, Israel bullies countries that are far weaker than itself, they don’t attack any country that will give them slightest hard time. Instead, they make Americans fight their enemies at no cost to them, receive sympathy and billions of dollars of US taxpayers’ money on top. Iraq first, Iran is on their agenda next, Israel loves the status-quo to continue because it’s to their benefit. With such an ally, US needs no enemies.
This is a typical stupid comment from a typical Israel hater. America fought for Israel in Iraq?? Okay, where is your proof. Show me one shread of evidence that your statement has some truth to it. Israel is notrious for violence? I don’t see Israelis walking into restaurants, buses, schools and discoteques strapped with suicide belts and blowing up inncocent people. I didn’t see Israelis dancing in the streets and handing out candies when the twin towers were destroyed but I did see Arabs rejoicing. You are a liar and a propaganda artist. I hope your hatred consumes you.
Busta: You always have some twisted story and you always attempt to challenge the person who posts the truth about Israel, your games are well-known. Your hatred should consume you.. not the Americans. Of course Israel made Americans attack Iraq and eliminate your #1 enemy. You made Americans suffer casualties and lose money, credibility, gain enemies, at no cost to you.. on top, you received sympathy and aid. Status-quo makes you win and Americans lose, you want it to continue. Right now, Israel is trying to make Americans attack Iran, you constantly warn Americans that it’s time. If it’s time, deal with it yourselves, stop telling the Americans. You can’t turn the table around with propaganda, truth is out in the open for everyone to see, words won’t change who you are in people’s eyes.
Mark: You are a pathetic liar. I will ask again. Show me one shread of evidence that the US fought the war in Iraq for Israel. Just one shread. But you can’t because it is just propaganda spread by Israel haters to undermine and destroy Israel. The only one here who is twisting the truth is you Mark.
He is right, everybody knows it, otherwise why would Americans get involved in the middle east? US had nothing to do with your region, you got Americans involved, they gained enemies. 9-11 was either a response to this involvement or an Israeli act, either way you got Americans eliminated the Iraqi regime for you which was the biggest threat to Israel at the time. You got that accomplished, then moved on to Iran. Now, you keep trying to initiate an Iranian war, Israeli leaders give speeches about how it’s getting late for action and such, just search CNN. If that’s the case, you should do whatever you want to do, don’t talk, do. Americans suffered enough in your hands, leave them alone.
You fascist extremist muslims still dont get it. Your above conversation is why, whenever or for whatever reason i happen to reconsider my country’s support of israel (financial or otherwise) , i make myself take a step back and remind myself, these people (you and your fascist brethren) have never read a history book, most likely never done anything but for your own self-gain, youre so locked up in your particular mindset and way of thinking in your desperate country, you would never consider the billions of people outside of your faith… so i would actually want my government to redouble its support for israel. i might in fact make a first time donation to the ADL as a result of your obscenely childish attempt at manipulating random strangers who read your propaganda. May god, whichever one you pretend to follow, grant swift death upon you liars and distortionists everywhere who do nothing but bring more death and misery to their countries. Forgive me for now leaning towards a full out war in the middle east, but you dont make it very hard.
Diane: Yet another typical stupid comment from someone who is clueless. Why are we involved in Korea? Why are we involved in Taiwan? Eastern Europe? South America? Mexico? Cuba?, etc. etc. We are involved everywhere in the world not just the ME. 9-11 was because of an Israeli act? Show me you proof. Show me one shread of evidence. You can’t because you are a liar.
It’s the filthy method of you Jews to act like a third party, this last comment is posted by a Jew as well. You involve religion to gain sympathy. Israelis created religious division and polarization among world population to benefit from it anyway, just like you use it on your propaganda frequently although that is not at all the subject. It should be extremist Jews vs. extremist Muslims, stop dragging Americans into the equation, leave them alone since they have nothing to do with the middle east, they suffered enough thanks to you – the so-called “ally”. You kill far more Arabs, you make far more Arabs suffer, they do little, yet your lies and propaganda show them as “extremists”. The entire world condemns your violence, yet you bully everyone and continue your ugly ways. You can’t change it with words.
Okay, NOW we all can see the true Mark. I don’t need to call you a Jew hater and antisemite. Your own post prove it for me.
Turkiye should have been kicked out of OTAN a long time ago.
Russia is now a capitalist country.
You should have gotten kicked out of earth long ago, post your hatred driven random nonsense elsewhere.
Mark and Turkiye have a lot in common.
I’m just curious, why would you say that Turkey should have been kicked out, unless you are trolling?
You and hell have a lot in common.
as you say Russia is Capitalist and same on policy level like a Banana Repuplic with a Putin as new Despote and Mafia.
First we Americans will kicked you from EUROPE allso from Asia as well. Hahahahaha
Turkey provoked the response and is supporting terrorism in Syria. Fortunately Russia has made it very clear that it won’t tolerate an attack by NATO. Surely NATO’s bloodlust has been filled with the destruction of Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.
(laughter) and what exactly is Russia going to do about it?Accusing NATO of ‘bloodlust’ in Afghanistan (responding to an ATTACK on a member) and Libya (dealing with a brutal dictator who went on public TV and informed the world he was going to exterminate a section of his own population) is laughable. Oh, and NATO wasn’t in Iraq at all.
You fail.
Russia has already stopped an attack on Syria. NATO only attacks weak adversaries; the US also.Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. And no Afghans were involved either. Libya is now run by gangs of terrorists.
Get some facts you dummy.
I would not accuse nato of bloodlust; but certainly of world-domination-lust, which I think ought to be stopped. And, if you want to attack any country of this world, it is always easy to find a pretext (and to media-manipulate the more naive majority of your citizens into supporting it).
Perhaps you should learn to read, it would help you look less foolish.I never said or implied Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, why would you lie and pretend otherwise?
Of course NATO only attacks weaker countries. there ARE only weaker countries. And Russia has not stopped anything, you are delusional if you imagine otherwise.
you do not read very carefully, either. He did not say “weaker” but “weak”. And that is true. You do not see nato attack countries like Russia, China, India or Brazil, or even Nortk Korea; that is countries, where you could expect some retaliation on your own soil. And, for your info, nato is only the US. The rest of the nato countries do not help much there, and their people are mostly ashamed for their countries being mambers of nato.
Russia, China, India or Brazil are not killing their own people by the hundreds or thousands… you idiot!
Turkey is just consulting with NATO as a member state, nothing more than that, nobody should take it out of context. Turks will not want to activate Article 5 or attack Syria neither alone nor with NATO. All they want is to show Syria that their action will not be tolerated if it repeats, otherwise they are not warmongers like newlyfound adventurist countries that get involved in unjustifiable wars, Turkey never acted recklessly in such situations throughout history, it takes far more for them to resort to violence.
finally a decent comment !
Very well put, gazzman. Thank you.
I think Turkey should blow up a major Syrian military base. The Syrian regime needs to know that it is not the untouchable regime that the international community has implied that it is by not taking action thus far.NATO needs to do something here. Article 5 of the NATO charter needs to be invoked. Al-Asad needs to be shown that shooting down a military plane from any NATO country will not be tolerated, and there will be consequences to ensue.
I don’t know why there is such a debate about this. Syria needs a new government at the top, here is a chance for NATO to make that happen without any further bloodshed to the Syrian people.
Why should the Syrian people have to find refuge outside of their own country. Syria belongs to the Syrian people, not to the Syrian government!
Funny if they blew up Incirlik Air Force base where the CIA is basing their shipments of war materiel to Bushama’s phoney “rebels”.
i do agree with one sentence – Syria belongs to Syrian people. therefore, why should nato decide for them? do you think people – or majority of them- in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya and other countrie wanted to be bombed or have their future decided by nato? and do not tell me it is about saving lives, because every bombing or invasion by itself cost thousands and thousands of innocent lives.
Were you born just today? The Syrian people are begging for NATO or anyone else to come and help them. What a bonehead!
Sphere82, I don’t know who you are or where you’re from, but imagine your countries president bombing cities and villages in your own country and you couldn’t do a thing to stop it. Wouldn’t you want some help from anyone that would give it?
funny how Israel can break any international law…with impunity…
Actually Israel has broken very few international laws, certainly compared to its brutal Muslim dictator neighbours. It gets ACCUSED of breaking international law all the time by these same totalitarian dictators, but most (not all, but most) of those accusations are laughable.
Gaunt: Words are cheap, your post is as far from truth as it can get. Israel violates international law more than any other country in the world. The entire world condemns, you come up with self-righteous justifications and continue. There is a very very long list. Please post your lies and propaganda elsewhere.
Really Dianne? What a fascinating lie. OK, if the list is so long, then please tell us, what International laws has Israel broken in, say, the last decade? I’m curious.
What good will it do? You will blatantly deny them all anyway. The whole world knows, you don’t? You copied tourists’ passports and Mossad used them to enter foreign countries to assassinate your opponents. Those countries, along with the entire world, condemned your actions to the extreme, you just denied it all. You rained Gaza with phosphoric bombs, the entire world condemned, you either denied or bullied everyone as usual. You attacked an unarmed humanitarian aid ship which posed no threat to you and murdered 9 peace activists, the entire world condemned it and nobody -not even the US politicians- sided with you, yet you still come up with stories and accusations and try to justify your actions in various ways. Just examples which you will have twisted versions of all, you are self-righteous bullies who justify every violent action of themselves in their minds.
Funny how a story that has nothing to do with Israel becomes a story about Israel.
Item V of the NATO: If a member of NATO was attacked , all members of NATO must help the member who was attacked.
Yes , It is not the first time, last April, soldiers from Assad Army attacked the Turkish border, 2 of the citizens were wounded Turks, and killed 2 of the refugees in Syria. Syrian attacks will be repeated. Therefore, the Turkish army
the U.S and NATO should intervene in Syria because Turkey is a member of NATO .
In these sensitive days, flying into Syrian airspace and provoking Syria is a mistake. You shall think possible consequences before acting such air space violation. Because Syria is very unstable. Now Turkey lost one plane, and missing pilots. And best case scenario Syria will apologize, so what?, Turkey is the looser here anyway unless being strong enough to attack Syria directly which is never going to happen… in practice Syria is supposed to warn before shoot, but they did not follow it… As a Turkish citizen, I like to question why we were in Syrian air space before anything else? now are we seeking help from comedy NATO members? no strategy here.
You should ask Moamar Quadaffi about the “comedy NATO members”. Oh, that’s right, he’s gone and his country is liberated. You don’t have a clue about what NATO could do to ANY country on this planet if they unleashed their full force and furry upon someone. You should be far more informed before making such a weak statement and thankful that NATO and it’s members show such strong restraint.
Moreover I haven’t say NATO is not strong. NATO is capable of doing lots of thing. Turkey is one of its founder country.
I used the term comedy since NATO member countries tied up before taking action. Lots of conflict of interest between those countries can naturally happen. NATO is useful against global treats and greedy dictators which have plenty of oil.
Syria has less oil so not really interesting… like any other African or far eastern countries. If you have oil, NATO helps
Hey Murat…. nobody is arguing about state leaders being liked or disliked. The difference between Libya and a free democratic country is that you can vote your leaders out of office if you don’t like them. In Libya there were no elections to get rid of Gadafi, so the citizens protested, and he started killing them. Isn’t this pretty much what is happening in Syria? Al asad needs to go, and if he won’t listen to reason, and if he keeps killing his own people, then someone needs to step in and remove him from power, that’s all there is to it.How can anyone just sit there and watch him kill innocent women and children day after day?
I don’t see how anyone with a brain can say that NATO is laughable? If we didn’t have NATO, there would have been a 3rd world war, and the USSR and USA would have been on opposing sides…. That war would have been the end of any society as their are now known.NATO has been a great deterrent to wars between super powers. If the West had not had the collective fighting power of NATO, the USSR would have surely been bold enough to attack us during the cold war.
I do however believe we can do without the UN, especially when somehow weak idiots keep ending up as it’s leader.
Terry i don’t understand why you talk about democracy in Libya. I am not denying Qaddafi was a dictator and he deserved. Please read carefully, what I am saying NATO is acting on Qaddafi because that country has plenty of oil that can not be left on its destiny. Same like Qaddafi or even much more worst dictators are there in other countries in Africa or Aisian countries and they are also killing their nations and there is no democracy there as well. is NATO acting on them? or Syria is under similar threat as you said, but NATO is waiting. So what you are saying and telling me like I don’t have brain is showing is you have very narrow thinking. Erdogan was trying to take attention of NATO and world countires what’s happining in Syrica since a long time and there was no action similar to Libya by NATO. WHY??? because not really rich country by its resources. That’s what I am saying.
Also I already mention NATO is strong and effective against global threats. As you give axample 3rd world war. So no brain to repeat my words back to me, But yes I laugh NATO countires are funny because controlled by mainly US and also only acts where there is patrol or there is interest for them.
Kaddhafi was knocked off by the same bum who shot Bin Laden.
Libya has been destroyed and will never be the same in this century.
Murat, you act like someone is denying the fact that we do tend to protect countries that are rich in OIL. Think about why we do this. Take Iraq for instance. Iraq is very OIL rich, but the people of Iraq never benefited from it, it was the Husein regime that benefited, not the people. Same with Libya. We don’t go in and take over a country and then take all of it’s oil. If we did then don’t you think the U.S. would not be in the economic bind it’s in? Like it or not, oil makes the world turn. Oil rich countries need to have non-corrupt governments so that the entire country can benefit from the oil. I do not deny that we tend to help oil rich countries. In fact, I have never ever heard any person or government deny this fact. The sad thing is that someone has to do it.
Murat, first NATO is not controlled mainly by the U.S., the U.S. just happens to be the most militarily capable member of NATO. Let’s not forget that Turkey was NATO commander during the Lybian issue.To answer why the U.S. has not taken action thus far…. Here’s the answers, Obama is too busy trying to push his stupid healthcare plan, Obama is too busy making sure Gays can be in the military, Obama is too busy with his re-election campaign. What has Obama actually achieved that was helpful to the U.S. Economy, or Foreign relations, or anything helpful for anyone in America? Has he actually kept any of his campaign promises….. this is what we have to deal with in this country, Obama is a lame duck. He does nothing!
Terry, you wrote: you act like someone is denying the fact that we do tend to protect countries that are rich in OIL
—-
this shall not be the fact of NATO, maybe its fact of US and some other benefiting countries around US, mainly England, France and etc. Turkey hos no oil or gas, and has no rich oil companies like US and only possible hope of Turkey as a member of NATO would be a stable neighbor so Turkey can stop terrorrist groups feeding from these countries and also start some trade with these countries. If Turkey is following up US in NATO is only reason is trying to have a stable middle east. Nothing else. Lion share goes to US as a lion contributor to military actions. US also wants stable middle east but under ONE MAJOR CONDITION: OIL WILL BE THEIRS. Otherwise they will take the oil anyway but result will be like Iraq
actually we agree on help goes to rich countries…
Irak is a good example
Do you think now Iraq public is happy
By the way I would like to see the oil usage agreements between Iraq and America after invasion and before invasion.
cheers…
Comedy .
MURAT arkadas …Senın mantıgına gore Yunanıstan ıle IT DALISINDA her gun bır ucak dusurulmelıydı ..Neredeyse her gun Yunanıstan ıle sınır ıhlalı oluyor.VE F16 ıle bunlar SURIYE ucagı gıbı sılahsızda degıller.Bılmem anlayabılıyormusun ! Burda tek 1 ucak bıle dusmuyorken .Sılahsız bır kesıf ucagı hıc bır ıkaz olmadan dusuruluyor.Ellerındekı cıhazlar ucagı tanımlamıs sılahsız oldugu ‘KABAK GIBI’ tabırıyle bılnıyrken onu dusurmek BIR ZEVK gıbıdır…(SURIYE ) mantalıtesıne sahıp KAN EMICILER ıcın .Sen kımın yanındasın bunlar nasıl sozler anlamadım .Nusayrı dıye GOOGLE yaz .Onların nasıl bır DINI YOLA sahıp olduklarını görursun.ISRAIL den hıc bır farkları yokSurıyenın
Kenan, not many of us speak Turkish here, so your words were pretty much wasted if in fact you wanted your opinion to be known to all readers.
Kenan, actually I am not able to express mysely clearly I beleive.
Yes I agree with you similar violations happens between neighbor countires 100 times, especially Turkey-Greece and never happens such case, HOWEVER, Greece or any other neighbor is not similar condition. We have recently completely finished all our diplomatic relations with Syria, all ambossadors etc was taken back from both sides.. Syria is not only controlled by Esad, Esad has very limited effect on their military forces, Syrica in fact has multiple heads. Esad is the official face. There are commanders in Syria which acts totally after individual interests. They might be even happy to have some action on there. However Greece was never unstable like that, there was always some powers holding back the military actions back..
Moreover look at the consequences now, let’s say we are right, we did no do anything wrong, so what? what we will gain from this? are these pilots can be easly grown in Turkey. If I would be the commander of these piltos, I would command them ‘stay away from any possible violation that can give damage the existing condition’ If we can not declare war against Greece, than we shall not violate the borders. I don;t believe pilots violtaed the border by mistake, they were just thinking or being instructed nothing happens to us. Nobody thought possible consequences..
Anyway, this discussion goes nowhere, I am a guy who likes to take every and each measure before it happens, i wouldn’t take any step that I couldn’t finish. Let’s see what will happen now..
Doug, Gaunt and Jeff.
Turkey is simply meeting and consulting with NATO members, not asking for help, do not interpret it differently and take it out of context. They will not ask to activate Article 5 and they have no interest in initiating an attack to Syria, as long as there is no further hostility from Syria which warrants a war.
Read the article, people. Clearly, it states that the Turkish UNARMED jet was shot down in INTERNATIONAL waters. Rules are rules, people. The UNARMED Turkish jet was supposed to get a WARNING and this did not happen. This is a BRAZEN act and it underscores international law. Given that both countries neighbor each other, it is LIKELY this will happen and possibly again. Ignorance annoys me.
I fully agree with you. Military jets are -by virtue of their speed- allowed to violate a neighbouring air-space slightly. Also in the case of Syria, international waters extend up to a yard of their coastline. Not to mention the Turkish F4E (RF4E) was friendly and not armed to the teeth.
Isn’t this headline a bit ridiculos? Why would NATO respond militarily to the downing of a Turkish plane? The plane did fly into Syrian airspace, besides, if you are looking for help NATO is not the place to ask for it. If I were a foreign dictator, NATO would be the last thing I would fear. NATO has always been a joke.
Go tell that to Muammar Gaddafi dude
NATO and the UN ARE a joke .
What a childish comment. NATO would be the last thing you would fear? lets ask Dictators Mullah Omar of the Afghan Taliban and Gadhaffi of Libya and Milosovic of Serbia if NATO was the LAST thing they feared or not. NATO is an incredibly effective organisation that kept the Warsaw pact at bay for decades and has won every war it has ever engaged in.The UN is also an incredibly effective tool, but thats all it is: a tool and a methodology. It cannot, and was never designed to, dictate or compel its members, only to provide a forum.
Gaunt is a dirty rotten liar.
maltesefalconx9: Nah, that’s you, you’re a dirty rotten propagandist.
Mullah Omar defeated…. NATO
Article 5 of the Washington Treaty was *not* “created after the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.” Making such a statement is either very sloppy journalism and poor editorial oversight or deliberate distortion.
It was only activated once and it was for United States after 9-11. NATO warplanes, including Turkish ones, were flying in US skies after 9-11. And NATO is still in Afghanistan. That’s what they mean, it sounds correct now, not sure if there was different texting and they changed it later.
Another point worthy of clarification– Turkey can’t force anyone into war. It can ask for consultations, and that’s it. The member-states of NATO have to agree that a violation of Article 6 has occurred (attack over the member-state’s territory), THEN they refer it to the UN Security Council, THEN depending on whether or not the Security Council takes up the matter, the member-states are obligated to respond– but each gets to choose HOW they respond.
I love the idea of invoking Article 5 on what apparently was a mission to measure the Syrian reflexes. Just think of it. State A (Turkey) sends a couple of jets to overfly State B (Syria), the later shots one of them down, then State A accuses State B for aggression. Have seen wars breaking for much less than that. Given the Russian military presence in Syria, this could quickly escalate into something global, wow, I like it, get these commies before they get you.
Turkey was really stupid. Why would it fly so close to Syria? A clear provocation intended to drag the West in. i don’t think so, Turkey!
The Russians fly along the Norwegian coast from time to time, still you don’t see the Norwegians shooting down Russian jets do you?Thing is, no nation with any sense just shoots down anything that comes into its airspace, especialy not with a civil war going on and when they have only a few allies in the world. This doesn’t call for article 5, but if the Syrian side continues to provoce Turkey, they might very well take some kind of action on their own, or with the help of other Arab nations, and that would be the end of the Assad goverment.
So really, Syria is walking on thin ice here.
I agree. the space between the Mediterranean and Turkey is very small, and there is no reason why Turkey should fly a fighting jet in that region. They have to go around Cypress to even come close to Syria. That being said, I am however against the Syrian Governments extreme tactics against their own people. And I condemn the Governing Leaders for treating their people like pathetic defenseless mice. The Syrian People want a democracy, give it to them. The day’s of an autocratic society are stressed, and obsolete.
Over last year, Syria violated Turkish airspace for 5 times and Turkey never shoot down their jets. Now who is stupid, Turkey, Syria or you?
Turkey’s air space has been violated 114 separate times so far this year but each instance was quickly reso lved peacefully. It happens between neighbours, decent nations follow procedure and issue a warning, problem gets solved without any need to violence or escalation. Turkey could have downed 114 planes for airspace violations with your ridiculous logic.
Dianne, where are you getting your information from? I heard it was only 113 times.
This is a perfect opportunity for NATO to encoke article 5. The only difference is that it must be Turkey that leads the assault and the US will support them from the air and with technology. Arab nations need to resolve this conflict. European countries and the US have too much to lose if they lead the war. We already are hated in the region, and sending in grou d troops will make it worse. Drones and F- 22′s should be more than enough help that the powerful Turkish needs.
Just a minor correction for the earlier note: Turkey is not an arabic country, never been never will. Turks are central asian people span from Mongolia to to Turkey. One of the issues they face is the hatred from countries like Syria (all arabic countries have some sort of anger towards Turks) due to history. Historically Turks ruled all the arab lands, finished off all arab empires as well as the Persian empire. So Turkey has no friends in the region, the closest friend Turkey ever had and ever will is USA.
Wrong, just wrong. Until you spend 5 years in Izmir, Turkey (in the community), don’t insult the Turks by labeling their country as a non-arabic country. Has nothing to do with Asia at all, and yes, they are proud muslims who actually follow their religion.
I counter your knowledge of the regions politics with the following. Why then has the OIC & Arab League taken the same stance against Assad as Turkey? You are muddling realities of the region by making rash anti-Turkish statements which at best are out of date. A more accurate depiction, if you want to take the Turkey has no friends path, would be to explain to readers how Sunni v Shia, Wahhabi v Ottoman and Western driven Pan-Arabism has affected Turkeys image – in this day and age it actually isn’t as bad as some true Turkophobes (Greeks, Armenians, Russians) would want. I’ll give you the Persians outright though. Iran wants to be top dog. It has competed for and more often than not lost this to the Turks for a 1000yrs. Still, none of you have given a decent explanation as to why Syria is right in shooting down a Turkish jet.
Turkey crushed Persia is a very wrong statement. Look at the Otto-persian war online or read a book, the war lasted 4 centuries Persians outnumbered 3-1 the with inferior weaponry adopted a way of asymmetrical warfare that repelled three successive ottoman attack and led to a peace treaty that restored borders and ultimately caused the ottoman empire to crumble from the west. Similar incident happened to the Romans when they tried to invade Persia years before. Ottoman empire was alive for a very short period of time Persian empire had lasted over 3000 years.
It is true that Turks and Arabs historically do not trust eachother and can not make allies. Turkey sees the United States and Europe as its allies, Turks do not trust anybody to their south and east nearly as much.
John, as a turkish citizen I say “you are absolutely right !” Turkey is not an arabic country ! and has no friends in region ! only friend that Turkey has is US !
Sorry Shahun but who made the statement “Turkey crushed Persia…”?
and what about the Russian military and naval base and the aircraft carrier Admiral Kutsenov and the Russian missile defence shield protecting Syria????
Kuznetsov is an old rust bucket, very inefficent.
Pft, Russia’s millitary would not dare to engage any NATO forces, loss is inevitable if they did. The NATO nations control the most advanced and the largest armed forces in the world, and even small constributions from each member nation would be a formidable force when gathered. Added to that you have that Turkey is a power in its own right, certainly equiped to deal with the outdated and demoralized Syrian forces and more than capable of handling whatever remnants of the cold war that Russia has stored away in their port.
The US should get involved because Turkey and Syria do not have huge amounts of oil.
sorry, typo; do NOT have …
It’s official, I am an idiot…I was trying to type that the US should NOT get involved because Turkey and Syria do not have huge amounts of oil. Especially not in an election year.
What was the consequence when a US army boat shot an Iranian airliner with 205 innocent civilians out of the sky? Nothing ! Why would NATO now get involved if Turkey decides to let a warplane fly over a country where there is a civil war going on ?
Dont forget KAL shot down by USS
Sizable… Apples & oranges. C’mon man, what the? Are you actually making an effort to evaluate the facts, or are you just running full steam with eyes shut?
Why should the U.S. attack Syria for what the Turks did? It was the Turks who irresponsibly sent that warplane inside Syrian territory and now we’re supposed to be dumb enough to attack Syria for that stupidity! This is getting absurd but not to the morons here who like war, I suppose!!!
Why NATO and friends of USA attacked to Afghanistan and Iraq? Going from your point of view it was USA’s problem. If necessary NATO should attack Syria too. NATO does not exists only for USA! P.S I’m not supporting war.
The truth is, the U.S. would go in and help the Syrian people if we had a president with a backbone! And a Congress that could agree on something.
@Terry, you are right. I don’t believe that U.S will take an important role on this issue. Right now, Obama is trying to save his “seat” in White House and trying to avoid all kind of risks.
Multiple world leaders criticise Syria for effectively defending its territory – would any of their countries do any less? What a joke.
Dude, what did the Turkish plane do that’s so threatening? For Gods sake all you Turk haters get a grip!
Doug, how would you feel if Cuba suddenly sent a fighter jet over here? Would you like it? I find that dubious!
What can I say ,cry baby turkey. Hind behind your master,what can you do?
I repeat what was the Turkish threat? Has Turkey declared war on Assad? Has it opened fire on Syrian forces? From the beginning, all Erdogan has said is, Assad reform, listen to the masses or step aside. Are you suggesting that Assad seriously felt the Turks were on their way with something devastating? Or that they were going to discover something they don’t already know. Syria had no choice but to shoot? C’mon! You are clutching at straws comparing this to US-Cuba. This year alone the Turks have had 114 air space violations. Greeks, Iranians, Israelis, French, Italians. All identified, intercepted/warned. None blown out of the sky. Read the article carefully, it was a momentary incursion with Davutoglu implying that it didn’t even warrant radio contact let alone a missile response – 10 miles out at sea George!!!
Rory, I guess we’ll wait and see. I remember in 99 when Turkey lined the Syrian border with a battalion of tanks, Assad Snr didn’t take too long to notice and kick Ocalan out after years of being his champion in defiance of Ankara. If anything Putin the bald Slav is playing master of Syria and Turkey is limited in its abilities against Russia. Otherwise, the Syrian armed forces wouldn’t last a week against the Turkish Navy and Airforce – sheer numbers even if technology is fairly even.
Would Cuba be so stupid to send one of their nine fighter jets here? And I doubt we would shoot it down, as the likely reason for flying into our airspace would be to request asylum.
Who is this “Doug” from the Propaganda MInistry?
You should be able to post your propaganda without anyone posting the truth in return so that you can fool as many clueless third parties as possible, right? It doesn’t work that way. They respond with truth and they become the propagandists? Good try at turning the table around.
Unfortunately, there is no propaganda ministry. Just the facts.
Sizeable… Apples & oranges. C’mon man, what the? Are you actually making an effort to evaluate the facts, or are you just running full steam with eyes shut?
Can someone explain to me why none of this was discussed when Israel attacked the Turkish vessel in international waters and killed 9 humanitarians?Secondly, Turkey invaded Syrias airspace without authorisation. Is it not true that Syria has the right to defend its airspace from unknown threats? Why is this aspect of the situation not being explored?
It has been explored. Read the article properly. Davutoglu says there was no radio warning, no jets sent to force landing or retreat. In fact he implies there was no need for any of these measures any way as the incursion was momentary. Thus there was also absolutely NO NEED to shoot the plane down either.
I don’t understand the Support for Assad here. You’d think Turkey has some reason to peek into Syria considering its dealing with nearly 40K refugees due to the mess Assad has created and left to fester. How easy it must be for the lot of you to judge and condemn from 1000s of miles away!
Who in the world gets an editor to publish this garbage. The US is not going to get involved in this slaughter of a civil war or the problems between Syria and Turkey. Let them handle their own affairs as we are not going to be the policeman of the world. And evidently the UN is not going to either.
No, it may explode to a WW III. Let the Arab league handle this.
Ya, start a world war for one plane…
aircraft not to …
two lives.(innocent)..
As your parents…
“The clause was created after the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, and the military response to 9/11 is the only time it has been used.”
You should correct the first part of that statement. First time invoked- yes. “created” on September 12,2001 – no.
Thank you for correcting this article. It’s amazing how in the world of self-publishing this incorrect information just gets passed on as if it is fact.
Agreed.
And BTW Murat. I realize that life in Lybia right now probably sux because the government is in chaos right now, democracy is not born over night, but now that Gadafi is gone, Lybia has a chance for a bright future.