U.S wants to manage Erdoğan

From our perspective the most important point was that Hillary got to know Turkey and stressed cooperation with Turkey.

From this point of view, what was very important were announcements made during the press conference and especially her chat with me on Kanal D Prime News and CNNTürk. To some extent is has become clear how the new U.S. administration perceives Turkey.

In order to explain to you exactly what I mean, I would like to go back and touch on how Turkey was perceived by the West during recent terms.

Developments since the beginning of 2008, and especially when the AKP government started to make changes to the Constitution regarding the liberation of the headscarf at universities, caused a perception slowly signaling an alienation of Turkey from the West. Be it in Washington or different capital cities of Europe, Prime Minister Erdoğan is being evaluated differently compared to the past.

Attention is being drawn to the alienation from the European Union and the shelving of reforms. The increasing spread of opposition to the U.S. and the discourse of Israeli opposition together with the Davos dispute, especially spread by the prime minister, stir criticisms in public. And of course, what is accentuated is the intensification of Islamic values in the Turkish public.

Even if one could not take a hold of it, the press writes that Turkey seems to leave the Western harbor, which it was holding onto tightly.

Amidst the criticism is Prime Minister Erdoğan whose popularity in the country progressively increases. He is a leader who shows brisk reaction once he becomes upset, who fights with the media, who slams the opposition and who is the administration by himself.

This is the atmosphere that Clinton entered.

If you were to pay attention you’d notice that all announcements and new politics of the Obama administration in regard to Turkey aims at three things:

w To regain the heart of the Turkish pubic, balance the increasing opposition to the U.S. and create an impression of a new start.

w Contrary to the Bush administration, instead of characterizing Turkey with slogans such as a moderate Islamic country, to reconnect to the secular democratic Western world in which human rights are put first and to ensure that Ankara does not step out of the American line regarding the Middle East.

w And while doing this managing Erdoğan by not arguing with him, not bothering him and fine tuning the relations together.

Let’s take a look at what Clinton said to me and the public in her announcements regarding these three targets:

w She never criticized Erdoğan. On the contrary, she said she knows him from the past and thinks he is successful.

w She said Turkey’s role in the region continues as is and there will be no problems as long as it supports the American attitude. She further set forth that neither our close connection to Iran and Hamas nor the tension in our relationship to Israel causes any unease to them.

w She said at least this year there won’t be any development regarding the Armenian issue that would agitate Ankara.

w She set forth that they are in agreement and accord with Ankara regarding Iraq and the PKK.

w She did not hide her request for increased need of Turkish military power in Afghanistan.

This means, she exhibited a give and take attitude. She showed Turkey the bait and specified what she would give in return.

After this visit, we might say that winds of the new U.S. administration blow in favor of Turkey. The prime minister will also be able to profit from these winds as long as he does not step over some fine lines like democracy, freedom of the press, secularism and human rights.

Just like a new approach in overall relations, and foremost with Europe, is predicted with the empowerment of the Obama administration, a new brand new page has also been turned in Turkish-American relations. A visit by Obama to Turkey will fine-tune the level of this new relationship.