Business group offers ’model economic partnership’

The Turkish Industrialists' And Businessmen's Association, or TÜSİAD, has urged both the United States and Turkish governments to put determined and concerted efforts into making economic relations a relatively significant component of their partnership.

TÜSİAD Chairwoman Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ, introduced TÜSİAD’s "Reconstructing the Alliance: A New Era in Turkish-US Relations Ğ A Turkish Perspective" report at a seminar in Washington on Monday. The TÜSİAD report, covering various issues such as Turkey's European Union bid, regional security, the Armenian issue, energy policies and economic relations, as well as concrete policy proposals on these issues, was announced at the Brookings Institute.

Those who participated in preparing the report included Soli Özel, professor at Bilgi University and advisor to the chairman of board of TÜSİAD, and Şahnaz Yılmaz, associate professor of international relations at Koç University and Abdullah Akyüz, TÜSİAD’s Washington representative.

"In our view the United States continues to be Turkey’s indispensable partner in transatlantic relations," the TÜSİAD report said. "By the same token membership in the European Union remains Turkey’s most important strategic and civilizational goal. The role of the United States in promoting closer links between Turkey and the EU had been critical in the past. Therefore, even if there are limits to American influence over the EU in decisions concerning ’deep integration,’ we expect that Washington will continue to play that constructive role," the report said.

"Being the largest and most dynamic market economy in the region, Turkey now plays an important role in Eurasia and the Middle East in promoting the economic foundations of liberal democracy in a distant future," said the report, adding that particularly the United States often underestimated the economic aspects of Turkey’s increasing soft power in the region.

Therefore, TÜSİAD called upon the U.S. government to underline the importance of Turkey’s role in the integration of its neighboring countries into the global markets. Programs need to be developed and implemented to encourage Turkish and American companies located in Turkey or its surrounding countries to engage in joint ventures. TÜSİAD also urged the Turkish government to establish a special unit that would only focus on the increasing amount of trade relations between Turkey and the United States. The Turkish government should also provide further support for Turkish companies investing in the United States, said TÜSİAD.

Assistance to the US

"From this perspective, we come to the conclusion that Turkey can be of significant assistance to the United States in dealing with the problems of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and the Caucasus, as well as in moving the moribund Middle East peace process forward, which will be crucial for rebuilding Turkish-American partnership in a new era," said the report.

From energy to enhanced trade to cooperation in attracting foreign investment, common economic interests are likely to proliferate if and when Turkey’s neighboring regions can enjoy a political environment that is conducive to economic development, said the report.

TÜSİAD urged the U.S. government to address the issue of the Armenian resolution not only as a matter of domestic politics with respect to the Armenian-American population. "Keep in mind the extremely adverse effects on Turkish- American and Turkish-Armenian relations if it passes," said the TÜSİAD report. The United States was also encouraged to support the idea of forming a "Joint Historians Commission" for an objective analysis of historic facts and for encouraging the discussion of this issue on a more academic and objective international platform. "Rather than focusing on the claims of the Armenian diaspora in the United States, try to foster cooperation between Armenia and Turkey, which will be more constructive and will be more likely to yield strategic as well as political results," said the report.

Iraq and Nabucco

"A premature departure, particularly if the Iraqi state is still incapable of providing security for all, will destabilize the country and lead to a promiscuity of violence," TÜSİAD said on the issue of Iraq. The United States was also urged to cooperate with Turkey further to cut off all supply routes and logistical support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

TÜSİAD also requested that the U.S. encourage economic integration of Turkey and northern Iraq through energy projects, trade and investment. "Provide support for the Nabucco project, by facilitating the formation of the necessary legal and infrastructure framework to plug Iraqi natural gas to Nabucco before the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq."

The United States was also urged to be more actively engaged in the Middle East peace process. In the Middle East, the United States should make use of Turkey’s accumulated experience in the region, said the report, adding that the country should also focus on finding a formula to integrate Hamas into the political process and assist the Palestinians with nation-building practices and institutions.