The Senate Site: Turkey: The Road Forward

By John Valentine
President of the Utah State Senate

“It is indeed time to rejuvenate and restore American’s relationship with Turkey.”

- Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs at the U.S. Department of State

In the past, Turkey was an unwavering alley of the United States. During the cold war, the main threats to Turkish security came almost exclusively from the Soviet Union. Times are different today; Turkey faces diverse challenges such as Kurdish separatism in its Southern region, violence spill-over from Iraq, the rise of Iran and continued problems in Lebanon fanned by Syria. Turkey’s relations with the U.S. have also become strained, largely because of the invasion of Iraq. 7% approved of the U.S. invasion. 81% disapproved. Only 12% of Turks “admire Americans,” making our group of senate presidents somewhat unpopular visitors to the region. For the most part, Turks believe the same as the rest of the Arabic world: that this is a war on Islam, not terrorism and that the invasion of Iraq was more about oil than it was of spreading democracy.

At the same time, Turkey’s ties with the West have also deteriorated. Their application for membership in the European Union

has been blocked by Germany and France, over the sheer size of the Turkish economy and issues such as Cyprus and immigration. Turkey has suffered a upsurge of violence by the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group. In fact in the last decade, over 30,000 Turkish civilians and military have died in attacks in the Southern region of the country, 600 to date in this year alone. A bombing occurred in the marketplace just after we got onto the bus. Fortunately, we only suffered being caught in the traffic jam that occurred in the aftermath. I've posted three pictures of the market here, before it was hit by the bomb. I hope the people we met were unhurt.

Our speaker for dinner that night was Ross Wilson, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. His comments were "off the record" but very insightful into the present situation in which the U.S. finds itself. He did observe something that was becoming evident to all of us: The ruling elite are in direct conflict with fundamental Islam, but the opposition represented by the fundamentalist were so conservative that they have little chance of becoming the ruling party by election.

What does that mean for us? We have some work to do. We need to earn back the moral high ground with this country and in the entire Middle East. To do this, we must understand and respect the people of this land. We have to change the nature of the debate on the war on terrorism so it is clear we are fighting Al-Qaida not Islam, as most in this part of the world believe. We need to be prepared to send strong and meaningful signals that were are not going to be in Iraq for the long haul. Finally, we need the world’s help, in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian impasse.

I hope these brief reports are helpful. My next post will be about the Kyrgyz Republic, a world untouched by McDonald’s, Burger King or KFC.

Unofficial Voice of the Utah Senate Majority

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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Turkey: The Road Forward

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