Most importantly, I wrote: "We hope that you will restore the popularity of the US among the Turkish public at least to its level during the Clinton presidency, when the vast majority felt the US to be a true ally of Turkey and a force for good in the world. This requires before anything else that your administration gives full support to the consolidation of democracy in Turkey, and its accession to the EU. Turkey deserves to be the first country you intend to visit and speak to in the Muslim world."I, therefore, personally much appreciate President Obama's coming to Turkey as the first Muslim-majority country he promised to visit within the first 100 days since assuming office and for giving a most forceful message of support for continued democratization in this country with every word he said and every gesture he made in Ankara and İstanbul. This is surely a new page in Turkish-American relations, considering that all military interventions in the democratic process in this country since the transition to multiparty politics in 1950 -- that is, all the outright coups, soft coups and e-memorandums -- were tacitly approved of, if not encouraged, by the US administrations.
Obama, during his visit, forcefully conveyed the message that the enemies of democracy in Turkey, ranging from those who conspire to overthrow the legitimate government to those who despise democratic rule, will from now on find no sympathy in the White House. There will be no Wolfowitzes in the American administration who will criticize the Turkish military for failing to provide "leadership" or neocons who agitate for a military regime in Ankara. The relationship between Turkey and the US from now on will hopefully not simply be a military relationship but, in the words of President Obama, a "model relationship" of two democracies committed to world peace.
We live in a globalized world, and no country is an island in itself. The current struggle going on in Turkey between forces who are in favor of the consolidation of a liberal and pluralistic democracy and those who want the regime to remain under military-bureaucratic custody is greatly affected by the international environment. Between 1999, when it was declared a candidate for European Union membership, and 2005, when the EU decided to start accession talks with it, Turkey managed to achieve political and economic reforms that have been rightfully dubbed a "Silent Revolution."
Ever since the rise to power of the likes of Nicolas Sarkozy in France and Angela Merkel in Germany, both of whom turn their backs on commitments and declare that Turkey has no place in Europe, however, the soft power of the EU that has greatly encouraged the country to democratize has sharply declined, if not yet evaporated. The responses of Mr. Sarkozy and Mrs. Merkel to Obama's call at the EU-US summit in Prague for the EU to embrace Turkey, reiterating their opposition to Turkish accession, signals a new phase in Turkey's foreign relations in which the major outside force encouraging democratization will be the US. During his visit to Turkey, President Obama boosted hope that he will help bring much-needed change not only to America, but also to this country.
In my open letter referred to above, I also advised President Obama to not adversely affect the ongoing Turkish-Armenian reconciliation effort by endorsing the Armenian genocide resolution to be taken up in the US Congress. In his address to the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, President Obama did not fail to call on Turkey to reckon with its past and face the "terrible events of 1915," but he also wisely made it clear that he was "not interested in the United States in any way tilting" the ongoing negotiations for the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia. It is highly important that the Obama administration does everything in its power to assist not only efforts toward normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia, but also those between Armenia and Azerbaijan, if the South Caucasus region is ever to achieve peace and stability.
During the Bush years, every time I was faced with neocon-inspired arguments that Turkey had under the "Islamist" Justice and Development Party (AKP) become the most anti-American country in the world, I responded by saying that it was not anti-Americanism, but anti-Bushism that was rampant in Turkey and that the vast majority of the people were not opposed to the values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law the US claims to stand for, but to the arrogant, unilateralist and militaristic Bush policies. The approval rating of the US in Turkey was over 60 percent during the Bill Clinton presidency. It shrunk to around 8 percent with G.W. Bush. With Obama in the White House barely three months, that rate is already over 50 percent, according to recent surveys. The unusually gifted and intelligent US President Obama has surely won the hearts and minds of most Turks.
