11.04.

2010

A LOVE STORY

Firstly, I want to congratulate Aslı Aydıntaşbaş for the name she found to the relationships between the USA
and Turkey. Certainly, this relationship resembles a marriage anymore. Ok, what changed the relationship?
Can’t Turkey really split up with the USA? Or why can’t Turkey find alternative countries to flirt maybe to get
married? I agree that the relationships among the USA and Turkey are important and also necessary for both
Turkey and other’s interest. But I don’t think that it’s obligation to maintain this marriage.

A philosopher, I think he is Heraklitos, said that a human will never be bathed in the same place of the river
twice. Because river always flows like time. That’s why, everything change and nothing remain in the same way.
Since the Cold War Turkey has been changing like the world and the USA. Expectations and interests of these
states, Turkey and the USA, and the world have also been changing. Everybody realize that Turkey isn’t the
same as Turkey in the Cold War years anymore. Why does Turkey have to remain while everything change?
According to me, by taking note of this situation and historical events in these years we can understand and
explain this relationship.

What are the situations or reasons which damage this relationship? The first reason is terror fact. The USA is
accepting that El-Kaide is a terrorist organization and he is struggling with it. But even though the USA is
accepting that PKK is a terrorist organization, he left Turkey alone at Turkey’s struggle with it. This situation, in
fact, is showing that the how much USA respect to Turkey and its interests. This is immediately regarding to
that the snake which doesn’t touch me can live a thousand years. The second is Iraq Occupation in 2003.
Turkey knows that Saddam Hüseyin doesn’t have nuclear weapons and after the occupation of the USA, Iraq
will get more unstable. That’s why, Turkey didn’t allow that the soldiers of the USA pass from Turkey’s land.
Turkey didn’t want to be part of this situation. The third reason is regarding to this, the event of the sack. That
is that Turkish Soldiers in Iraq was arrested and behaved badly by the soldiers of the USA. Another is nuclear
problem in Iran. Turkey doesn’t want that Iran have nuclear weapons like the USA and others. But Turkey
knows that it isn’t a solution to impose an embargo on Iran and to exclude from international society (IS). Let’s
think Germany after Versailles Treaty and things John Maynard Keynes said in Versailles. Keynes said that if you
load up economics responsibilities to Germany, you can’t protect Europe as a whole. In 1929 the great
depression happened in Europe. If we exclude from IS and impose embargo on Iran, Iran will become aggressor
like Germany after 1939s and maybe, make nuclear weapons. Besides, Turkey didn’t forget its economic losses
when big states imposed embargo on Iraq. The last reason is the war in Afghanistan and others. Turkey
believes that the conflicts in Afghanistan won’t solve with the war. It knows that single solution is to get along
with the society in Afghanistan. Because the conflicts that exist in one place bear new conflicts in that place.

In conclusion, Turkey has been changing like the world. Anything hasn’t been remaining the same. Why does
Turkey have to be that old Turkey in the Cold War? Firstly, the USA and others have to know this and accept
new Turkey. And secondly, I disagree that it is an obligation to maintain this marriage among Turkey and the
USA. I think it has to be done by Turkey. For example, Turkey has to flirt with other countries like China, India or
Brazil in order to save its marriage. Its name is balance in foreign politics, according to me.

ERAY ARIK

2008636009

DEPARTMENT OF IR