Thread: Washington wants Turkey on its side against Iran and Syria

IDEF TURK-US
US condemns PKK terrorism, but Turkey wants more. Washington wants Turkey on its side against Iran and Syria

ANKARA/WASHINGTON – TDN Defense Desk

Deeply divided over the Iraq war, Turkey and its closest Western ally, the United States, are working hard to put their vital but bruised relationship back on track amid an ongoing rift over measures to be taken against the presence of separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists in northern Iraq.

In the latest top-level contact, U.S. President George W. Bush sent National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley to Ankara on Saturday to discuss Turkish-U.S. ties, signaling an improvement in strained ties.

Hadley, on his first foreign visit since taking office early this year, met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Ozkok.

�The PKK is a terrorist organization. We condemn its activities," Hadley said. "We understand its activities in northern Iraq affect Turkey and cost Turkish lives."

Hadley is not the first U.S. official to recently denounce the PKK, but Turkey wants much more than words from the United States.

Turkey's military says that nearly 4,000 PKK militants are using mountains in neighboring northern Iraq as a safe haven at a time when the group is carrying out terrorist attacks on members of the Turkish security forces and civilians. More than 100 Turkish troops have been killed since the summer of 2004. The PKK also attacked holiday resorts in western Turkey this summer, killing civilians -- including foreigners.

In attacks targeting security forces, the PKK mostly uses improvised explosive devices like those employed by Iraqi insurgents against the U.S. Army and Marines.

Turkey has been urging the United States to take active measures against the PKK presence in northern Iraq. Although Washington recognizes the PKK as a terrorist group, American officials say that U.S. forces in Iraq at this time have a higher priority fighting a Sunni Arab insurgency in the country's central areas.

"Our expectations (from the United States) about the PKK continue, and I can tell you that no concrete steps have been taken so far," Erdogan said Sept. 16 in New York, where he was attending a U.N. summit of world leaders. "Since the Iraqi security forces are too weak, U.S. and coalition forces should help to act against the PKK."

Up to 40,000 people, including members of security forces, PKK militants and civilians, had been killed in fighting with the separatist PKK between 1984 and 1999. The clashes subsided in 1999 when PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in Kenya with U.S. assistance. But the PKK broke its five-year unilateral cease-fire in June 2004 and fighting has resumed since then.

In recent weeks, the Americans' anti-PKK rhetoric hardened and Washington pledged to work to cut off the PKK's financial resources worldwide. "We need to do more to disrupt fund-raising and other activities elsewhere that support the PKK," Hadley said.

"Americans stand together with their Turkish brothers and sisters to condemn the PKK and its murderous violence, just as we together condemn al-Qaeda. Together let us announce to the world that there can be no safe haven and no hiding place that is beyond our reach. For together we will hunt down and destroy the terrorists who seek to destroy us and the values that we cherish," said Nancy McEldowney, U.S. chargé d'affaires in Ankara.

"There can be no division between us and no double standard in our words or in our deeds. It makes no difference whether the bomb explodes in Istanbul or in New York... And it makes no difference whether the name is Osama bin Laden, or Abdullah Öcalan, or al-Zarkawi," she said on Sept. 11.

"These are good words, but what we want to see is action, not only words," said one Turkish Foreign Ministry official.

Traditionally close Turkish-U.S. relations were badly damaged when Turkey's Parliament in March 2003 rejected a bill under which tens of thousands of U.S. troops would have used Turkish territory to attack Iraq from the north. Since then top U.S. officials said that had the Turkish front been used, the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq would have been weaker and a smaller number of American lives would have been lost.

Some Washington analysts see the present PKK problem in northern Iraq as a casualty of Turkey's move not to help Iraq's invasion by U.S.-led coalition forces.

Turkish-U.S. relations witnessed a fresh low in July when Washington sternly warned Turkey against military intervention in Iraq.

Under public pressure after PKK bombing attacks in Turkish holiday resorts, Erdogan said on July 13 that Turkey might consider cross-border operations into northern Iraq to fight the PKK there. "There are certain things that international law allows. When necessary, one can carry out cross-border operations. I hope such a need will not emerge," he said.

But the United States said any Turkish cross-border assault into Iraq would be a bad idea. Dan Fried, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, on July 18 warned Turkey against pursuing PKK militants across the border into Iraq, saying such a move could lead to "unintended consequences." He did not clarify what he meant by unintended consequences, but said, "I don't think that hot pursuit is the best course of action."

In the late 1990s under Saddam Hussein's regime, Turkey's army occasionally carried out anti-PKK cross-border operations in northern Iraq.

But this time Washington referred Turkey to the Iraqi government. "I think the difference now is that they (Turkey) are dealing with a sovereign Iraqi government, and a lot of these discussions will have to occur between Turkey and Iraq, not between Turkey and the United States," said then-Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers on July 14.

Talk over Turkish intervention in northern Iraq subsided since this exchange of words.

On Iraq, the United States wants Turkey's full cooperation with the Iraqi government and urges Ankara to improve relations with Iraqi Kurds. But Ankara has its own concerns over Iraq's potential disintegration in the future, with a Kurdish state emerging in the north that could threaten Turkish territorial integrity.



Syria and Iran woes:

There are other Turkish-U.S. disputes over the Middle East.

When Bush and Erdogan met at the White House June 8, the two men failed to agree on what to do regarding Syria.

The United States wants to keep strong international pressure on Damascus, which, among other things, it accuses of backing Sunni Arab insurgents in Iraq. "More American soldiers are getting killed in Iraq simply because Syria lets terrorists infiltrate into Iraq. This is totally unacceptable," said one U.S. State Department official. Washington also is urging Syria to fully stay out of Lebanese politics.

However, Erdogan opposes isolation of Syria, Turkey's southern neighbor. "We don't want to push Syria away," he told reporters after meeting with Bush.

On Iran, Turkey shares U.S. concerns over Tehran's possible moves toward obtaining nuclear weapons. But at a time when Bush says that all options are on the table, Erdogan's government insists on only a peaceful solution.

"Iran will be key topic determining the future of U.S.-Turkish relations. The United States will want to see Turkey on its side, and Turkey will be faced with very difficult decisions," says Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington.

Another snag in ties is what the United States sees as rising anti-Americanism in Turkey. In all high-level talks U.S. officials have been urging Erdogan's government to assume a leadership role in fighting these tendencies.

While denouncing anti-Americanism, Turkish government officials say the matter is exaggerated in Washington.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/a...?enewsid=24351