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Face
it America, Turkey's Just Not That into You
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Originally published under the title, "Obama's Model
Partner Thinks Israel, U.S., Biggest Threats."
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President
Barack Obama with his Turkish counterpart in 2009.
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This is how the Turkish foreign ministry's official website describes
Turkey's relations with the United States:
From a historical point of view,
relations between Turkey and the United States are multidimensional and
based on mutual respect and interest. As NATO allies, Turkey and the
U.S., carry out their bilateral relations on the basis of universal
values, including democracy, freedoms, respect for human rights, rule of
law and free-market economy.
It then further beautifies the "model partnership" that U.S.
President Barack Obama once portrayed:
During the visit [in 2009], President
Obama defined Turkish – U.S. relations as a 'model partnership' and the
leadership of both governments reached a high level consensus to bring
the bilateral economic, commercial, investment and technologic dimension
of the relationship to a level proportionate with political, military,
and security cooperation. The concept of 'Model Partnership' reflects the
advanced level that Turkey and the U.S. have reached in the relationship.
Really? Does Obama still think he found a "model partner" in
a country that once was a staunch ally of both his country and of NATO?
Over one-third of Turks view the
U.S. as the greatest security threat to their country.
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A recent study on the
Turks' foreign policy perceptions reveals that Obama's model partner
nation has a totally confused mind -- not just over Turkish-American
ties, but also over its own identity and security concerns. The research,
unveiled on May 27 by a team of academics from Istanbul's Kadir Has
University, shows that the Turks view the US as the second biggest security
threat to their country (35.3%, just after Israel with 42.6%). Reflecting
a similarly negative mindset, 32.3% of Turks think that the U.S. has
colonial ambitions.
According to the same study, however, 74.3% of Turks think that Turkey
is cooperating with the U.S., and 44.3% think the cooperation is of a
military nature. Further, 53.3% of Turks think Turkey "has no
problems with the US."
Interesting mindset: More than half of Turks think their country has
no problems with the U.S., and nearly half think their country has a
working military cooperation with the U.S., yet they view the U.S. is the
second most dangerous country to the security of their country.
Even more strangely, the U.S. ranks second in the list of countries
with which Turks believe their country should most cooperate in
overseeing foreign policy. 14.2% of Turks cite the U.S. as necessary for
foreign policy cooperation, compared to 12.4% who say Turkey should
cooperate most with Islamic countries.
42.6% of Turks think the biggest security threat to Turkey is Israel
(only 0.4% view Israel as a friendly country). By contrast, they view the
European Union (12.8%), Armenia (7.2%), and Cyprus (3.9%) as the biggest
security threats after the U.S.
According to a popular saying in
Turkey, "A Turk has no friend other than a Turk."
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It might sound paradoxical that 12.8% of Turks view the EU rich club
as the biggest security threat while 47.5% of them approve of Turkish
accession into the EU. If not paradoxical, it might at least sound
paranoid, given that the combined population of the three countries they
cite as top their security threats after the U.S. -- Israel, Cyprus and
Armenia -- have a combined population of barely 12 million, compared to
Turkey's population of 78 million.
But this paranoia should be normal in a country where the popular
saying "A Turk has no friend other than a Turk" is a national
dictum. The study also found that 38.7% of Turks think that their country
has "absolutely no friends."
That is the "Turkish delight" -- a bit bitter, but very
Turkish. Nearly two-thirds of Turks think that their national identity is
either "Islam" or "Middle Eastern" while nearly half
of them wish to join Europe's "Christian" club (only a quarter
of Turks view themselves as "European").
Ironically, Turkey is located in one of the world's most violent,
unstable and turbulent regions. While the Turks' most tangible threats
are their Muslim neighbors -- and the Islamists they have overtly or
covertly supported in their country's "neighborhood" -- they
tend to look for enemies in unlikely territories.
This is not the first time that research has found that the Turks seem
confused. Once again, the Turks seem to feel lost. They seem not to know
which countries pose a real security threat, where their country or they
themselves belong, or where they should belong.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is
a columnist for the Turkish daily Hürriyet and a fellow at the Middle East
Forum.
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