During election debates in Myrtle Beach (South Carolina) one of the presidential candidates of the Republican Party, Texan governor Rick Perry suggested that the long-term ally of the US, Turkey, is "being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists." He also suggested that Turkey’s membership in NATO should be revised.
This demarche caused quite an uproar – however, mostly outside of the US. Turkish Foreign Ministry responded by a harsh note, saying, among other things, that American voters should not listen to the candidates who know nothing about the country’s allies. The US State Department had to put itself right with Ankara. State Department spokesman Mark Toner denounced Perry’s allegations and said that the US believes Turkey to be a ‘stalwart ally within NATO, as well as bilaterally’.
Turkish ambassador to Washington summed up the incident saying that “while it was unfortunate, we do hope this episode in last night’s debate leads to a better informed foreign policy discussion among the Republican Party candidates, one where long-standing allies are treated with respect not disdain.”
It is not the first and not the last scandal that Rick Perry got himself into by his ill-conceived statements. The latest incident was connected to the notorious video where US soldiers urinate on the bodies of killed talibs. The actions of the soldiers caused an uproar in the Muslim world and were harshly condemned by official Washington. However, Perry suggested that the US administration condemned the actions of the soldiers too harshly, even showed disrespect to the military. According to Perry, the soldiers deserved a reprimand but there are now grounds for legal action against them. This statement was the last straw that broke the camel’s back, and Rick Perry had to remove his candidature from presidential run.
It seems there are no formal reasons to be concerned with Perry’s claims about the US-Turkish relations as the politician is known to like scandalous and ungrounded statements. However, it is still possible that the opinion so harshly voiced by him is in fact a real new trend in the US establishment.
Of course, the claim of ‘Islamic terrorists’ ruling Turkey makes no sense, especially when the US doesn’t mind having Islamist regimes that are much more radical (for example, Saudi Arabia) in the rank of its allies. The League of Arab States’ support of NATO actions in Libya contributed a great deal into the campaign’s image. So it is unlikely that Islam as an official religion could affect US’ attitude towards any given country on its own. The thing that matters for the US is the county carrying out its ‘duties of an ally’, and even a single episode could be regarded as a violation of these duties. Relations with Pakistan are a great example to that – the US could forgive Pakistan for creating a nuclear bomb, but the condemnation of American raid resulting in Osama Ben Laden’s death by Pakistani authorities almost ruing the long-term partnership.
It seems that the factor of Iran could have played the fatal role in the cooling off between Ankara and Washington. Of course, Turkey is an important ally of the US and EU as an alternative gas transit route – a territory where the ‘Nabucco’ project should be carried out. Turkey tries to play the role of a major regional power, an authority for all Muslim states and the protector of Islamic values (even at a cost of its relations with Israel, as we have recently seen).
On the other hand, ‘Nabucco’ is still nothing but a sheet of paper, while the threat of Iran getting an atomic bomb or blocking one third of world oil traffic by cordoning off the Strait of Hormuz. That would deepen the economic crisis and have many other unfortunate consequences. Obama needs a short and victorious war with Iran to get re-elected, but Turkey – an ally that has always been ready to support the US – refused to back the US in its aggressive plans. Ankara even refused to support economic sanctions against Iran, and there is no guarantee that in case of a military strike against Iran Turkey would allow the US to use its bases. It doesn’t mean that Turkey is supportive of Iran; it is concerned with possible retribution from its neighbor, who could just invest more money into Kurd terrorist cells.
And of course one can’t exclude the possible influence of pro-Israeli lobby that traditionally has a strong hold over Republican Party. And it is a good moment for Israel to remind Washington who is its only true and faithful ally in the region. By trying to ruin Turkish relations with the US Israel could execute revenge for Ankara’s pro-Palestinian position.
It is quite possible that Rick Perry’s words about Turkey are not just an eccentric opinion of a scandalous politician but an early warning to Ankara to be more compliant with the US wishes than it is now – it is quite common to use ‘dispensable’ politicians for such delicate massages.
A threat of excluding Turkey from NATO isn’t realistic. But there is yet another implication: over the past few year Turkish army generals who stand for secular state and who had always had a great deal of political influence in the country have been removed from power by the Islamist ruling party. Of course, the military elite doesn’t like that, and it has close connections with the US – so organization of a military coup d’état is not too hard a task for the US that isn’t concerned by possible interior problems it might cause in Turkey…
Yuri Kramar, exclusively to VK
