Who Lost Turkey?

What to do about America's unfriendly allies

Doug Bandow | April 1, 2003

The United States is the world's only superpower. It dominates the globe militarily, economically, and politically. But it has found itself almost alone in the war against Iraq.

Washington wasn't able to win the UN Security Council votes of countries like Angola, Chile, Guinea, and Mexico. Even the offer of some $30 billion in aid did not procure basing rights from Turkey, a long-time ally. The war has barely begun and already plans are being made to punish not Washington's enemies, but its friends who did not support it in Iraq. Popular boycotts are being mounted against France and Germany; the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, has suggested that America's northern neighbor might pay a price in trade for its perfidy.

Before treating the entire world as their enemy, Americans might reflect on why international support was so hard to generate.

A case in point is Turkey. The Turkish parliament's narrow rejection of a government- supported measure to accept up to 62,000 American soldiers, 255 planes, and 65 helicopters was a particularly bitter disappointment, since it hindered America's ability to set up a second front in Iraq's north. Only under great pressure did newly inaugurated Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the undisputed leader of the Justice and Development Party (JDP), win legislative approval for aircraft and missile overflights.

Even so, Congress has declared itself ill-disposed to provide the $1 billion in grants now proposed by the Bush administration. Prime Minister Erdogan rather plaintively penned an article entitled "My Country Is Your Faithful Ally and Friend" for The Wall Street Journal. But few Americans seem to agree.

Ankara is a democracy, however imperfect, and according to some polls 94 percent of Turkish citizens oppose participation in America's war against Iraq. Unprecedented protests by a wide variety of groups preceded the vote; equally vigorous were the celebrations after parliament said no. Although many people in Washington "wanted everyone to believe that Turkey would eventually support the U.S.," notes Abdullah Akyuz, Washington representative of the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association, they weren't "paying attention to political differences in Turkey."

Ankara has had a rough political and economic ride over the last three decades. Unstable democracy, formal military coups and informal military rule, international conflict involving Cyprus and Greece, and economic crisis.

Until elections last November, Turkey was ruled by a weak coalition between left-wing and nationalist parties. As the ruling majority melted away, parliament voted for elections in which most major parties were destroyed, failing to meet the ten-percent minimum for representation in parliament. Celebrated politicians—Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, Economic Minister Kemal Dervis, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem—all found themselves out of power.

Only two parties, garnering about 55 percent of the vote, survived. With little more than one-third of the vote, the JDP took nearly two-thirds of the seats in parliament. Although Islamist in orientation, it has spent its first five months in office attempting to prove its centrist bona fides.

That included providing basing rights to the U.S. for the war against Iraq. Washington was so certain of the decision that it had two dozen cargo ships sitting off-shore awaiting Turkey's okay to begin unloading equipment. But to no avail.

Although the administration's public reaction was muted, others in Washington were more free in expressing their bitterness. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) suggested that Ankara was trying "to blackmail us." Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, complained that "We spent the last 50 years defending them in NATO. And along comes this opportunity, and by three votes they decline the opportunity to allow us to come in through the north."

Sen. Rockefeller might call the war an "opportunity," but Ankara sees it as anything but that. Akyuz, a vocal friend of America who has immersed himself in Washington's political community, points out that for Turkey the war will bring only costs and risks.

"Turkey has never perceived Iraq and Saddam as a threat," he observes. Indeed, "being a Muslim country creates general sympathy for Iraq." And while the U.S. has emphasized the issue of weapons of mass destruction, "Turkey has never feared possible attacks on its soil."

Thus, a vast majority of Turks—on what issue have 94 percent of Americans agreed in years, if not decades?—are highly suspicious of Washington's motives. "The current government felt it had to side with the U.S.," notes Akyuz, but the decision was solely opportunistic, "not based on principle or the merits of the war." The goal was "minimizing the cost—the political, military, and economic cost."

No one, he adds, defends the war "on principle, to bring democracy or freedom to the region. As in Europe, it is seen as a war to control the region, it is seen as part of a bigger plan of the Bush doctrine. Many believe that control of energy is a major concern. And many believe that security of Israel is a major concern."