ULI358U-AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
Chapter 8: Turkish-American Relationships
Introduction
At the end of the Cold War, however, many analysts questioned whether Turkey could preserve its relevance and importance for the US global policymaking. After so many years, Turkey’s importance is a qualified one. Turkey is no longer needed to contain Russia, which it has even developed a rapport recently, nor to become a model to the Middle Eastern countries as it has increasingly developed problematic relations with many of them. Moreover, the US reliance and somewhat dependence on Turkish military bases has also been declining with the development of other US bases in various countries in the region. The history of Turkish-American relations is a complicated one; no doubt the future will also be challenging.
Historical Beginnings of Us-Turkey Relations
The visit of the USS George Washington to İstanbul in 1800 may be considered as the starting point of bilateral relations between Turkey and the US.
Earlier Ottoman-American Connections
Establishment of Turkish-American relations could be traced as far back as the first official visit of an American officer, Captain William Bainbridge, to the Ottoman capital in November 1800 on board of American frigate USS George Washington. Through the years, Turkish- American relations have gone over a number of watersheds and its components have evolved to better suit to the underlining necessities of the time. During the early days, the relationship was more of a convenience, encouraged by curiosity on the Ottoman side and need to protect American merchants in the Mediterranean on the US side.
Relations During the First World War
The First World War brought important changes for both states and their bilateral relations: while it marked the end of the Ottoman Empire, it opened the way for the US to ascend to world supremacy. Moreover, in 1919 US President Woodrow Wilson proposed his “Fourteen Points” that affected the international system, upsetting Britain and France as colonialist powers because it sought to prevent secret diplomacy and defended the principle of self-determination. Especially Point 12 of the Fourteen Points was employed by Ankara to justify its demands for full independence.
Relations During the Second World War
Relations became even more strained when Turkey concluded a new agreement with Germany for the sale of chromium on October 9, 1941. Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill, who had a better grasp of Turkey’s delicate position and believed that Ankara should be strengthened to resist the German pressure, wrote to US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt on October 20, urging him to restore the aid to Turkey. Turkey was on the agenda on February 10, 1945, when Stalin raised the issue
of the Straits and the status of the Montreux Convention at the Yalta Conference. As Roosevelt and Churchill were favorably disposed toward the Soviet position at the conference, it was decided that the Soviet proposals regarding the Straits would be submitted to the forthcoming meeting of the foreign ministers of the three countries.
Relations During the Cold War and Détente
The ensuing Cold War brought about enticements for ever closer Turkish-American relations. The rule of the game was simple: Turkey provided the US with bases to monitor and encircle the Soviet Union. Even this revised relationship could not withstand the storm created by the Turkish intervention in Cyprus in 1974 and the American response in the form of an arms embargo. It took five years to create a new set of rules to delimit Turkish- American relations: The Defense and Economic Cooperation Agreement (DECA), signed in 1980, set new parameters for the new period. It included economic and defense industry cooperation component for the first time and signaled that Turkish-American relations were slowly passing beyond “aid in return for military bases” equation.
Relations During the Second Cold War
Turkey’s relations with the US especially during the 1960’s were overloaded with various disputes and disagreements. This became increasingly evident as the détente process evolved and the common threat felt from the Soviet Union diminished. Turkey’s attempts to reach out to nonaligned countries and eventually to the Eastern bloc countries started to pay off in the early 1970s.
From the Opium Poppy Question to the Arms Embargo Over the Cyprus Issue
Turkey was one of the traditional and, after the Second World War, the UN-sanctioned legal opium poppy producers in connection with the Geneva Opium Convention. As the illegal use of narcotics increased in the US during the 1960s, President Nixon came under pressure to do something to stop the entry of illegal drugs into the US. Although most of the heroin entering the US came from countries that were illegally producing opium poppy, especially Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), and Laos, the Nixon administration started to put pressure on Turkey in 1969 to reduce its production, claiming that some 80% of the heroin illegally entering the US came from Turkey.
The Signing of the DECA and Bilateral Relations in the 1980s
The DECA repeated the JDCA’s restrictions on the use of the bases and installations on Turkish soil, including their availability only for NATO purposes as well as the limitations on American military personnel’s movements and behavior at and out of the installations. Moreover, it was agreed that the arms, munitions, and main items of equipment needed for the operation of installations could not be removed from Turkey without a prior notification
and that the lands allotted to bases and all structures built on these lands would become the property of Turkey.
Reassessing Turkish-American Relations Since the end of the Cold War
The disappearance of the USSR in 1991 changed the basic geo-strategic parameters of both the alliance and the relationship between the two countries. During the Cold War Turkey played a major role in containing the USSR. The end of the Cold War significantly altered this. As Turkey’s geo-strategic reach was no longer limited to its role in the NATO’s southern region and poised to play an increasing role in a wider geography, covering the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Middle East (Aydın, 1996: 158), Turkey-US connection became strategic partnership by the early 1990s.
The discussion at this time over the new European security architecture that might leave Turkey out also affected Turkey’s move toward the US for its security arrangements. As Turkey’s place in the emerging European security arrangements were ambiguous, bilateral security relationship with the US, the NATO link, and cooperation with Israel became more important for Turkey (Aydın, 2003: 175-181). The visiting US President William (Bill) Clinton talked about the emerging ‘Turkish century’ in the Turkish parliament in November 1999; this was taken as a clear indication of the emerging ‘strategic partnership’ for the first time in two hundred years.