Last week, not only did I receive a confirmation of my assumption, I also found out that the victims of Turkish foreign policy are not only our political leaders. Turkey’s hyper-dynamic internal and external environment are also big challenges facing diplomats who are serving in Ankara. I learned this fact while we, as five columnists from different newspapers, were chatting with the American Ambassador Ross Wilson in İstanbul. There were very serious issues on the agenda: the PKK, a cross-border operation, the so called Armenian resolution in the US Congress, Kirkuk, Iran, Palestine, etc. One of the questions posed to him was the number one issue for Turkish foreign policy (the PKK, Cyprus, EU membership, the Armenian question or the Kurdish issue) and the nature of his reports on Turkey to Washington?
Surely, it was a confidential matter and as expected, he said it is better not to describe his diplomatic reports to journalists but he did not hesitate to reply to the questions in a different way.
He shared a very interesting experience from his Senate confirmation hearing before being sent to Turkey as an ambassador; he was expected to answer questions about his career and perspective on Turkey. Wilson was not the only candidate ambassador partaking in the hearing; there were 3 other candidates who were assigned to other countries. Here is how he related the rest of his story:
“We were four candidate ambassadors to four countries. The Senators’ first request from all of us was ‘describe your priorities in regard to the country you will be sent as an ambassador to’.The other three ambassadors would go to Cyprus, Finland and Iceland. My friend ,who would go to Cyprus, said that his number one priority will be to settle the Cyprus problem.
The candidate who would go to Iceland said that his priority would be to deal with the closure of an F-16 squadron which had existed there for decades and he would work on an agreement to close it down.
The candidate for Finland had very hard time in describing the biggest issue she would deal with. She did, however, refer to the role of Finland -- term president of the EU in improving relations between United States and the EU at the time.
I was the last one to answer the same question. At that time, my first priority in regard to Turkey was: “to juggle a bunch of different balls while moving forward without making any of them fall. That is how I see Turkish foreign policy which has a whole bunch of issues, all equally important. This country and its leadership unfortunately find themselves in a very awful predicament.”
During our conversation, it became clear that Ambassador Wilson was very much aware of the delicate situation in Turkish-American relations today. As we all know, there are very high expectations that are very difficult for him to deliver. On one hand, he is under pressure to prevent Democrat controlled Congress’ attempt to recognize Armenian allegations as genocide, a move which has a tremendous potential to destroy all relations between two countries. He is also well aware of the challenges that such a move would have on American interests in Turkey. For that, he asks Turkish official’s and civil society’s aid in convincing the American Congress. On the other hand, he is under pressure to satisfy the Turkish public in regard to PKK terror emanating from Northern Iraq.I am not sure if any diplomat would like to be in his shoes today. But it may be because of this difficult task that American ambassadors, who have Ankara experience under their belt, are usually granted higher upward mobility in Washington.
