The first could not be achieved except in the limited localities of coastal regions where the rich and the prominent presently live. But the latter became a reality overshooting the goal. Several millionaires were produced in every family due to high inflation rates as the lira swelled to the mark of a million. You had to pay more than a million for a cup of coffee. Then, Turks were infatuated with the American way of life. Every American idol was readily adopted in Turkey as well.
This love affair was tainted with the advent of the left. The Turkish left, just as its foreign counterparts, was anti-American because the US was the dominant world power and its foreign policy was perceived as imperialist. Needless to say, the American governments did everything to reinforce this perception.
The left was crushed with the cooperation of the Turkish right, a military-civilian establishment and American support. The gap was filled readily filled by rising religious politics that hated American influence with much more ferocity.
The Americans were at first baffled by the vigor and extremism of religious politics (maybe not as much now after they witnessed their own Evangelist fundamentalism twist American foreign policy during the former administration) and began to reconcile with Islam in ways to balance its more radical tones. They discovered that the majority of Muslims were peaceful, devout citizens of their countries and were equally threatened by extremists. This discovery led American policymakers to seek allies among the Islamic countries that they could cooperate with against religious fundamentalism and possibly increase the capacity of those moderate Muslim governments that are more receptive to popular demands and a little closer to the rule of law.
Turkey was rediscovered in this process. President George W. Bush made the first advance on Nov. 5, 2007, and President Barack Obama, who campaigned on the note of “change,” made his first trip to Turkey that promised many important developments.
During his visit to Turkey, instead of using the term “strategic partnership,” President Obama used the term “model partnership” to define the new phase of Turkey-US relations and expressed his determination to carry bilateral relations to a new level.
Areas of mentioned partnership are Turkey’s EU membership bid, security and military issues, economic and commercial matters including making Turkey an energy hub and transportation center, cooperation against terrorist threats and organizations, acting in harmony in the post-American period in Iraq, normalization of relations between Turkey, Armenia and the Cypriot Greek government, stabilizing Afghanistan and curbing Iran’s appetite for nuclear arms.
This is a broad spectrum and needs multi-layered cooperation. Former US allies can neither cooperate nor carry the complexity of a US alliance in a volatile region, where Egypt does not have the capacity and where Israel is an “external actor” that has no diplomatic clout in the Middle East.
Now Turkey must be groomed to play an active and able partner’s role both in security matters, peacekeeping and economic issues. For this Turkey must maintain and upgrade its democracy. It must solve its internal conflicts as well as end conflicts of interest with neighboring countries. Then Turkey will first be a model in the Middle East and Central Asia, then a model partner of the US.
