Turkey, US relations hit new rough spot

Series of recent events put two allies on the defensive.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com


In just a little over a weekend, the relations between the US and one of its major allies in the Middle East region have gone from bad to worse.
On Friday, the Turkish government said it supported the plans of the Turkish president to visit Syria in early April, despite the US warning that he should not go. On Saturday, the US ambassador to Turkey resigned, following a tumultuous two-year appointment. And on Sunday, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that by "blocking" US efforts to get into Iraq from the north two years ago, Turkey had allowed the insurgency there to "flourish."

The Turkish Daily News reported Friday that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan backed President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's decision to visit Syria in a few weeks. Mr. Sezer's visit comes after last year's visit to Ankara by Syrian President Bashir Assad. "The president has made the right decision," Mr. Erdogan told reporters.

Earlier in the week, US Ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman called on Turkey to "join an international coalition concerning Syria." But Mr. Edelman's comments were not well-received in the Turkish press, which opined that he was trying to force Sezer not to go, and "meddling in Turkish domestic politics." One columnist accused him of acting "more like a colonial governor than an ambassador." A well-known Turkish newspaper reportedly collected several thousand signatures calling for Edelman to be expelled from the country.

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In a survey of 1,200 Turks done in February by the International Strategic Research Organization’s, less than 1 percent said they supported US President George Bush's "global policies," while 91 percent said they disapproved. Former US President Bill Clinton, however, did better than his successor with those surveyed - 41 percent said they approved of his global polices when he was in office. Meanwhile, 74 percent of those surveyed said they see the US as an ally, and only 4 percent said they "hate Americans."

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0321/dailyUpdate.html


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A nice summary of all the latest developments between US and Turkey.