U.S.-Turkish Relations Take A Hit

As a secular Muslim country, staunch NATO member, and regional power in the strategically important Middle-East, Turkey is a tremendous asset to U.S. foreign policy. But now the alliance, tried and tested throughout the Cold War, is showing signs of strain.There are two primary causes: the Kurds in Northern Iraq and the Armenian genocide.

In the run-up to the Iraq War, the Turkish Parliament narrowly defeated—by one vote—a measure allowing U.S.-led coalition forces to invade Iraq via Turkey. Government officials clearly had the Kurdistan question on their minds during the vote. They feared that overthrowing Saddam Hussein could open Pandora’s box and confer upon the Kurds—a nation without a state—semi-autonomy in Northern Iraq, which would confound Turkey’s own Kurdish problem.

For years, rebels in southeastern Turkey, under the banner of the PKK (Kurdish Worker’s Party), have conducted bloody terrorist attacks in the country in the hope of creating an independent Kurdistan.

Now, with a relatively sovereign Kurdish region in Northern Iraq, PKK members, Ankara claims, are using the area as a safe-haven and base for cross-border attacks in Turkey. Thirty Turks have died in such attacks over the past two weeks, according to the government. Nationalists in the Turkish military have long called for an incursion into Iraq to stamp out PKK. Washington has so far been able to convince Prime Minister Erdogan to refrain from doing so. However, his patience is wearing thin.

Which brings us to the second point of contention—Armenian genocide. When the Ottoman Empire fell in the beginning of the 20th century, hundreds of thousands of Armenians, at least, died in what is now Turkey. Turks and Armenians are at historical loggerheads over the cause of death.

The former assert that the dead succumbed to circumstances surrounding the war—such as famine—while the latter allege that they were victims of genocide at the hands of Turkey’s early founders. Stubborn nationalists in Ankara refuse to concede any wrongdoing on the part of their forefathers, let alone deem it genocide. And Armenians will call it nothing else.

In this strange historical fight, Armenians have attempted to enlist the help of foreign governments. They are aided in this struggle by a strong lobby. A cabal of ex-pat Armenians, wealthy, organized and obsessed by this single issue, has assisted in persuading the governments of various countries to do their bidding. France, in similar legislation to that regarding the holocaust, even went so far as to proclaim Armenian genocidal-denial a crime.

Washington followed suit this week. The U.S. House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, despite the opposition of the Bush Administration, just passed legislation labeling the Armenian casualties, roughly from 1915 to 1917, as genocide. Ankara, unsurprisingly, did not take this very well, temporarily withdrawing its ambassador from Washington.

Turkish officials now appear to be linking the two issues. Aside from recalling its U.S. envoy, Ankara has also followed up the congressional legislation with calls for a ground raid into Northern Iraq, as the Turkish Parliament prepares to vote on a resolution granting authority to the prime minister to use military force in Iraq.

Suat Kiniklioglu, MP from Prime Minister Erdogan’s AKP Party, recently declared: “The prime minister feels that our policy of restraint (on the PKK) has to end.” He also warned, after the vote in Washington: “When we look back in 20 years we might see this as a milestone in the way Turkey and the U.S. have drifted apart.”

All three parties involved have contributed to this unfortunate state of affairs. Armenians, with all due respect, should try to move on. Going on a crusade against Turkey, and campaigning for foreign governments to legislate on their behalf, for tragic circumstances occurring almost a century ago, is unproductive.

For Ankara, it would help alleviate concerns if it were to give up some of its stubborn resistance and concede that some Turks—before Turkey was created in 1923—contributed to the slaughter of Armenians. Also, Turkey should not connect the U.S. resolution with the more serious and volatile Kurdish problem.

Washington, to be sure, needs to try to halt PKK operations in Northern Iraq, and solicit the help of the Kurdish Regional Government in this effort. The fervently secular—or Kemalist, in reference to Kemal Ataturk, the country’s founder—Turkish military, fresh off an electoral loss to the mildly Islamist AKP, appears itching for a confrontation with the Kurds.

U.S.-Turkish relations, usually quote strong, lie in the balance. Given the advantages of having a largely secular, democratic, Muslim country—which could be a model for the region—on Washington’s side, the choice should be simple.

With all the troubles in the region, opening up a Kurdish-Turkish front in Northern Iraq would be hazardous, to say the least. Hence, patching up the alliance and preventing a war in Northern Iraq, rather than making it illegal to deny the Armenian genocide, should be an immediate priority.