Turkish Daily News: Obama-Biden administration will hardly endanger relations with Ankara

PanARMENIAN.Net - Embedded in its own high-tension agenda, Turkey did not concern itself too much with the details of the U.S. presidential elections until recently. Likely winner Barack Obama was highlighted for the promises he made to anti-Turkish Greek and Armenian lobbies in America, Turkish Daily News observer Semih Idiz writes in an article titled "Turkey chooses Obama."



"His choice of candidate for vice president, Joseph Biden, on the other hand, raised Turkish eyebrows. Biden was not known, after all, to be a great friend of Turkey's, especially due to his closeness with the anti-Turkish lobbies mentioned. Conditions, however, have the habit of forcing reality on people vying for positions of power, especially as they get close to their ultimate aim. This is what appears to be happening with Obama and Biden as far as the issue of relations with Turkey is concerned.



In a foreign policy paper titled "A Stronger Partnership with Europe for a Safer America," they spell out precisely what they think about Turkey and Washington's relations with this country. Putting aside a whole paragraph, under the title of "Restoring the Strategic Partnership with Turkey," they openly spell out their belief "that a close relationship with a stable, democratic, Western-oriented Republic of Turkey is an important U.S. national interest."



They go on to indicate that this relationship "has been deeply strained in recent years, most importantly by the Bush administration's misguided and mismanaged intervention in Iraq, which has helped revive the terrorist threat posed to Turkey by the separatist Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)."



This sentence shows insight and indicates that Obama's and Biden's foreign policy advisors are alert to what is a key issue in bilateral ties. This was a fact that was not properly understood by the Bush administration, whose mistaken assumptions about Turkey strained relations badly as Obama and Biden indicate in their policy paper.



There were many occasions, both in Ankara and Washington, when we tried to get across to our American interlocutors that you cannot underestimate the importance Turks attach to the PKK issue. "Overlook this matter and watch Turkish-American relations plummet" was our refrain at the time.



After all the time lost, the Bush administration finally and belatedly came around, due more to "force majeur" than anything else, to understanding this simple point, and started cooperating with Ankara on this score. However, much damage to ties would have been avoided if this was done at the very outset.



It is clear that Obama is better prepared on this score and understands the reasons why Turks have turned anti-American, a fact, which his camp clearly believes has to be overcome as a policy priority. It is equally clear, as their policy paper indicates, that they consider it vital that Turkey "a strategically important NATO ally and the most advanced democracy in the Muslim world" is kept in the Western fold.



Within this context, they vow to "support the promotion of democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression in Turkey and support its efforts to join the European Union." These are positive and proactive remarks that may not go down too well among anti-Turkish Greek and Armenian lobbies in the United States. Leading members of this lobby must be aware that the Obama-Biden administration will hardly endanger relations with Ankara by openly and officially pandering to their anti-Turkish sentiments.



It is equally certain that the Obama administration will not want to rock the boat as far as welcome developments in ties between Turkey and Armenia, and also those taking place vis-a-vis the search for to the Cyprus dispute are concerned.



It is obvious, therefore, that this stance of the Obama-Biden team has been welcomed in Ankara where the preference, as far as the American elections is concerned, has swung radically towards them. Undoubtedly the gun-toting and aggressive talking approaches of the McCain-Palin team promises to be a continuation of the Bush administration, and this fact alone is enough to make Turks prefer Obama.



Under Bush, Turkish-U.S. ties took a great blow. There is now a chance to restore them and perhaps unfold a second Clinton era in these ties. The bottom line is that Turkish-American relations are too important and strategic for both sides to let fall by the wayside.



The Obama administration, which, just like many Americans, we are looking on as a foregone conclusion, could be the harbinger of better days between Washington and Ankara and a warming of the chill in ties that we have had since 2003," the article reads.