Turkish – American relations were commenced following II. WW due to Turkish need for economic and military assistance. The Soviets demands on Turkish Straits, Middle East and East Europe determine the American – Turkish relations during the 1945 – 1960. In 1945, Soviets rejected to prolonge the Frienship Agreement signed in 1925. MOroever, Soviets came to table to demand more privileges on Straits. That forces Turkey to choose one of the power, US vs Soviets. Turkey preferred the Western side. With this choice, the American – Turkish relations started to sit on structural base.
United States of America deleted the debts Turkey borrowed during the II WW. Moreover Truman stated that “Turkey is a vital country in Middle East for American interest” was a clear message to Soviets. Turkey started to persuade more determined attitude against the Soviets within two years. For this determination as an award, Turkey received 352 m USD American aid under the umbrella of “Marshall Aid”. These binary relations led Turkey to send its military troops to South Korea under the decision of United Nations (UN) and made Turkey a member of UN in 1950. Moreover Turkey became a part of NATO in order to stop the Soviets expansion in Mediterranean Sea with Greece in 1950. Following the launch of “Sputnik” to space, Turkey, UK and Italy have accepted to emplace medium-range American nuclear missiles in their lands. This move made Turkey indispensable to United States of America among its allies.
1960s were the years where United States of America and Russia came to agreement. In this decade, there were two events made importance to Turkey. First one is Cuba crisis. Soviets want to emplace missiles in Cuba due to missiles present in Turkey. That was a counter move by Soviets and of course it created a national security to United States of America. Behind the back doors, Soviets and Americans reached a deal for the missiles in Turkey. That was a shock to Turkey since the deal is directly related to Turkish security and Turkey was kept outside of this agreement all way along. The second shock started in 1964 when Turkey informed United States of America that Turkey would intervene in Cyprus. President Johnson strongly opposed the intension since it might signal Soviets to launch a military operation to Turkey. Johnson wrote a letter to Turkey stating that Turkey would not be protected by NATO in case Turkey preferred intervention to Cyprus and Soviets would launch militarily to Turkey. These two incidents gave a serious warning to Turkey about “West Oriented Strategy”. Turkey had to diversify its strategy to its security obligations and this did not happen until 1974. Turkey had launched a military action into Cyprus due to Cypriots extremism on Turkish minorities. United Stated of America placed military and economic embargo against Turkey. This embargo continued for 3.5 years and ended with great loss to Turkish economy. This compelled Turkey to diversify its strategy for economic and security reasons.
Turkish policy had reshaped itself with Ozal administration starting with 1983. Soviets intervention to Afghanistan and American interest in Middle East boost the strategic importance of Turkey. However the Kurdish separatist terror group (PKK) started increasing the intensity of the terror attacks in Turkey. This forced Turkey to deal with domestic and international conflicts at the same time. This was totally new to Turkey.
The relations between United States of America and Turkey were tense time to time from 1990 to 2000. The effect of lobbies in American policy is vital. In American lobbies activities, Armenian and Cypriots hold a great weight. Their lobby’s actions tested the American – Turkish relations. Their actions caused Turkey not to access the military tools which were vital against the terrorist actions.
AKP (Justice and Development party) was elected to run the country. Between 2000 and 2008, AKP had prioritized the EU norms to be adopted into Turkish economy and democracy. It was the time where Turkey kept continuous economic growth. Moreover, Turkey has developed a new foreign policy “Zero Problems”. This new policy aimed to design new relations with existing neighbors on economics and security grounds. However the 2001 September attack in United States of America forced a great change in American foreign policy. At first, America has launched a military operation into Afghanistan and then Iraq. Following those, the Libyan leader Kaddafi had been removed from its post. In fact, United Stated of America wanted to design the Middle East. However, lack of strong political environment and loss of power in the region caused the terror organizations to spread in the regions. Turkey was directly affected with these actions. Especially lack of power after Saddam caused ISIS to control the northern Iraq and northern Syria. ISIS wanted to infiltrate into Turkey from these regions and launched missiles from the ISIS controlled regions. Being tied up as militarily, Turkey turned to NATO for “Patriot” missile defense system. However Germany and Netherlands hampered the request. This also caused Turkey to develop its national defense industry and compel Turkey to set national defense industry based on high-tech equipment.
However Turkey was restrained once again by the coup attempt in July 2016. Following the defeating the coup attempt, Turkey has commenced purging the terror group from its administration and organizations. Turkey prioritized the security organizations such as military and police forces. Ultimately, it was necessary for any State to be clean from foreign effects and so for Turkey, too. Without doubt, the administration and its organizations shall be under the command of the leader, not people connected with foreign intelligence service. Thus, the investigation has expanded including the Foreign Service affects. The visa crisis with United States of America is an evidence for this. The local employee of US Consulate in Istanbul was arrested due to suspicious link with coup attempt terror group. Although the existing crisis between Turkey and United States of America would ease, the tense in the relations will likely to continue for some time since the underlying reasons remain intact. United States of America lost the full control of Turkey as it was starting from 1950s till 2000. This happened due to actions in the past such as Cuba Crisis, Cypriot military action and American intervention into Middle East without a strong policy. Turkey therefore developed its own national policy and started implementing it. Thus two nations interest conflict clash caused the diplomatic crisis.
Turkey’s self-determination in developing regional policy clashed with its allies time to time. A state which develops its own defense industry and economic benefit zone in the region, should concentrate to set up its national policy in the region without the global power affect. Therefore conflicts in dealing with PKK and Peshmerga or dealing with Iranian aggression would appear as crisis between Turkey and United States of America in next decades. The next crisis would likely to arise due to Turkish ambitions on accessing cheap energy due to its weight in economy.
Nevertheless, Turkey needs American assistance due to lack of high tech industry and fragile economy more than America needs Turkey. It does not construe that America does not need Turkey. Although both states have different approach on PKK and Kurdish problems, United States of America need Turkey to be alliance to a certain degree in this conflict if United States of America wants to protect its interests. Moreover, United States of America need the intelligence and Turkish sources in the northern Syria. When United States of America deal with North Korea nuclear missile program and Chinese ambitions on maritime trade routes, American administrations would not likely to lose Turkey as an ally. Therefore, America has to work with Turkey who has strong military presence and stable political environment in Middle East.
Considering the condition today, we believe that there would be time where conflicts would arise and there would be time where both states would be compelled working together. Different approaches on Northern Iraq and Northern Syria would be the areas where tensions would be high. On the contrary, Black Sea and Eastern Europe conflicts would be the areas where they are forced to work together. For its assistance, Turkey would likely to demand technological transfer especially in TFX program (its national air fighter program). While dealing with Chinese aggression in Eastern trade routes and Northern Korea nuclear missile program, United States of America cannot afford to have global problems in different regions which would eventually weaken its military power and economy.
As summary, relations between United States of America and Turkey cannot be set up on long term goals but on strategic need and political necessity. Thus, would be bumpy road which might cause road accident.
