Former US Envoy Says US-Turkey Relations In Crisis Not Seen In Last 40 Years

Former US Ambassador to Turkey Robert Pearson has said in a column on the website of the Washington-based Middle East Institute (MEI) that the US and Turkey's regional policies have never been so far apart since Turkey's intervention in Cyprus in 1974 and called on Turkey to set aside its disagreements with the US and cooperate, otherwise issues in Iraq and Syria will not be solved,

Pearson stressed that even with American support, dismantling of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) will take a long time; thus, Turkey should back the efforts to reduce ISIL's financial and recruiting network.

Pearson pointed out that both the US and Turkey have some valid points in their differing approaches to the issues in the region.

He said Turkey is right to prioritize Bashar al-Assad's removal from power due to the fact that his presence is a major factor in the ongoing instability in the region. He added that Turkey is also right to have reservations about supporting Kurdish forces in the Syrian town of Kobani as it would strengthen the hand of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey's settlement process, which aims to resolve Turkey's decades-old Kurdish issue.

He also acknowledged that the US lacks a clear strategy in the region in terms of determining who should be seen as the enemy, which territories to be targeted and what the final objective is.

On the other hand he stated that the US does have legitimate arguments that Turkey does not agree with as they are seen as challenging Turkey's interests.

“Its [ISIL's] rapid expansion threatens Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and even Turkey, because if ISIS prevails, it will expect to wrest concessions from Turkey in any post-Assad scenario. On this point the Americans have the better argument; destroying ISIS must be the first priority,” he wrote.

He went on to say that ISIL depends on polarized Muslims in the Middle East; therefore, an effective response would only come in the form of a joint initiative between the surrounding states in the region.

Pearson also stressed that unless Turkey abandons its ambivalent stance towards ISIL, it will continue to lose support internationally.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told reporters on Nov. 14 that he received strong signals from the US that it was changing its Syria policy, after his brief meeting with US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Brisbane.

Obama denied the claims that there had been a shift in his administration's Syria policy, speaking at a press conference on Nov. 16. He stressed that his administration is not actively working on plans to remove al-Assad's regime from power, he said, “For us to then make common cause with him [al-Assad] against ISIL would only turn more Sunnis in Syria in the direction of supporting ISIL, and would weaken our coalition that sends a message around the region this is not a fight against Sunni Islam, this is a fight against extremists of any stripe who are willing to behead innocent people or kill children, or mow down political prisoners with the kind of wanton cruelty that I think we've very rarely seen in the modern age.”

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)