A strong agenda for Americans: I asked the Americans a question and offered to answer it as well. The question was: Turkey has been a strategic ally of the US for more than 50 years, but US hostility toward this ally country is higher than in Iraq, which it is occupying. The gap widens every day. There is an alliance the people are not comfortable with, and it is impossible for this to be sustained. As long as these people live on these lands and if there is going to be democracy from now on, even if it’s a little blind and crippled, it is impossible for the US to receive the kind of support it wants from any government in Turkey.Filling in the details of model partnership: Putting aside the need to fill in the details of a “model partnership” with Turkey, the homework list the US needs to follow in order to clean its gallery of sins in the eyes of the people is provided below in short.
1. Repair its respect and pride: Turkey is a remnant of a significant part of history, and its people cannot forget, ignore or accept a sack-over-head scenario.
2. The US must stop being a junta supporter: The position the US has in the Middle East is one that supports dictatorships. In Turkey, however, the people’s awareness of democracy and hatred of an oppressive and imposing regime is forcing the US to make an absolute decision on this matter. According to the people’s perspective, there is a strong conviction that coups in Turkey were also approved of by the US. It is believed that the Turkish army, which matured under NATO and US discipline from a young age and has every kind of ideological and military allegiance, will not, with some exceptions, conduct business in spite of the US.
3. We want democracy: The Turkish people now know the world, their income level has increased, their expectations have varied and heightened and, most importantly, the generation has changed. Anatolia has started to take control of its own fate. The US must prove to the Turkish people that it truly wants democracy in Turkey.
4. Outpost period over, regional interests must be respected: The historical and civilization-specific weight of this nation, especially in the region, must be accepted and acknowledged. It should not be subject to “outpost” treatment. The regional interests of Turkey and the US may not always overlap; in fact, they may even conflict with one another. The US should not cross the oceans and come to the region to issue orders by disregarding our interests in the region. It must see Turkey, which is an old heir to the region, as an equal consultation and decision-making entity. The US’s preference to keep Israel under one arm and Turkey under the other against the huge Muslim world is, inter alia, irreconcilable. The US must urgently abandon the “I will be next to Israel atrocity until the very end” image and take concrete steps.
5. US friendship led to regional isolation: Turkey’s alliance with the US during the Cold War period made Turkey enemies with its neighbors. While Europe, the US and Japan developed owing to commercial, production and financial integration in their respective regions, Turkey could not even trade “matches and water.”
6. Political and economic losses should be compensated: To compensate for Turkey’s economic losses the US did not pursue anything beyond Marshall Plan aid, which is based on the procurement of archaic goods, and conditional International Monetary Fund (IMF) support. While Russia’s contribution in Turkey’s major infrastructure and heavy industrial projects such as petrochemicals, dams and railways was visible, the US was involved in almost none. There are no noteworthy technological transfers from the US to Turkey in weapons or in civil production. The goal was to intensify dependence. The US never competed to top the list of countries that make the most foreign capital investment in Turkey.
7. Must repair the image they damaged: The US was never among the countries that sent the most tourists to Turkey, for Turkey does not have an esteemed image in the eyes of Americans. It is known as a country that provides soldiers for cheap when needed in countries such as Korea, Afghanistan, Sudan and Jordan, that has camels in the desert, belly dancers and rakı. The US administration has as much responsibility as us in the making of this image.
