Cuneyt Ulsever: Erdogan is meeting with Bush

As you read these lines, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be meeting with US President George W. Bush. For Turkey, meetings between a Turkish Prime Minister and a president of the US has always been an important thing. And it is no different this time! In fact, taking the recent relations between the two countries into consideration, this meeting may be more important than ever!  *** The Turkish Republic entered the period of AKP administration with an important aspect as far as the US was concerned: A strategic partnership!  There was special closening in relations between the US and Turkey within the framework of the "Gulf War" which took place under deceased leader Turgut Ozal's time. The foundation for a strategic partnership was laid at Camp David.  The strategic partnership meant that Turkey, along with Israel, become the most trusted country in the Middle East.  On the other hand, Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the White House before he actually became Prime Minister, and, in meetings whose photos were published in the newspapers, got approval from the President himself. A model for democracy which was formed under Ozal and brought back to life by Erdogan, who came himself from an Islamic background, was going to be put into place as a model for other Islamic countries. The US wanted to name this experiment the "Islamic Model."  *** But, things never work out quite as planned!  Developments took place quite differently from intentions.  The US, in its preparations for the invasion of Iraq, bargained with Turkey, trusting it and all the while making huge concessions. But the March 1 bill in the Turkish Parliament didn't have anyone behind it, and the Turkish Parliament wound up rejecting it.  The situation surprised both sides, and created an overwhelming sense of disappointment in the US. The strategic partner had "led the US on"!  *** In this last period, we have witnessed Turkey trying to developed a supposedly new approach to foreign relations: "strategic depth"! According to this new stategy, Turkey develops individual relations with other countries, with a focus on Muslim countries, and each relationship is taken into consideration and developed on its own, without ties to any other country.  Along these lines, Turkey will not examine the question of whether its relations with a third country do or do not make the US uncomfortable.  Turkey will just examine its own interests.  And this way of thinking has brought us to today. The US, not receiving word for 8 months on its requests regarding Incirlik, had to look around outside Turkey, and developed alternatives in Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania.  After examining the developments, and after a speech by the Head of the Turkish armed forces, a speech which drummed in the importance of NATO, the Turkish Prime Minister made his most American speech to date in the Turkish Parliament on April 27, wanting to create the impression that he had finally gotten the message.  Now today will be a test of "strategic depth" versus "strategic partnership."  And the key question is Iran.    Â