Turkey-US ties face ‘breaking point’ over vote

[FarCenter]

By Daniel Dombey in Washington and Delphine Strauss in Ankara

Published: June 8 2010 18:31 | Last updated: June 8 2010 18:31

The turbulent relationship between the US and Turkey – allies for more than half a century – is about to reach a decisive moment when the United Nations Security Council votes on whether to tighten sanctions on Iran.

Tensions between Ankara and Washington have increased after last week’s Israeli raid on a Turkish aid ship, which claimed nine lives, but US officials say that Iran is the bigger issue.

The UN vote on a new sanctions resolution, which could happen this week, has become perhaps the biggest US foreign policy priority, following President Barack Obama’s promise that Iran will face “consequences” over its nuclear ambitions.

Turkey, a temporary member of the Security Council, is leading the case against sanctions. US officials say the most they can hope for is that Ankara might finally abstain. Even that would greatly complicate Washington’s efforts to highlight international unity against Iran.

“The moment when the Turkish ambassador at the UN fails to raise his hand in support of the Iran sanctions vote may be a breaking point,” said Bulent Aliriza of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank.

He argues that Ankara has failed to take account of the Obama administration’s shift from emphasising “engagement” with Iran last year to the current push for sanctions, which overshadows US relations with Russia, China and other countries. US officials describe what they say is constant pressure from the White House to secure a sanctions resolution and put “something in the ‘win column’. ”

A rift with Turkey on such a crucial issue would be a heavy blow to what Mr Obama described last year as “a model partnership”. On a trip to Turkey, he hailed the country’s potential as a bridge to the Muslim world, as well as its status as a democratic, secular Nato ally.

<SNIP>http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b156578e-731d-11df-ae73-00144feabdc0.html

[EFerrari]

1. Why is the administration praising secularity in Turkey but

supporting faith based initiatives at home?

Things that make me go hmmmmm.

[cascadiance]

2. And they won't comment on murders of Turks but call Helen Thomas a bigot...

Obama's administration needs to show a lot more value to the Turks or they're going to lose them as allies!

Barack, at some point you need to make some real moves when you play chess. You don't have an infinite number of pawns to lose!

[Chulanowa]

3. Because despite politicians saying otherwise...

Islam has become the new communism of the United states wehrmacht.

[Pavulon]

5. classy. How about the ukrainians of the communist stalin

lots more dead there. you know people write books on these subjects. reading them prevents posts like yours.

[Chulanowa]

7. Come again?

"How about the ukranians of communist stalin lots more dead there" - say what?

I can tell that the words you're using are English, but I can't for the life of me figure out how you're trying to use them here.

[Pavulon]

8. Stalin a communist, starved many more people than the germans killed

on purpose in the ukraine (thats a country in europe). Since we are the german army are our enemies the soviets, or what. You confused me.

[Chulanowa]

9. Oh. Well, allow me to explain

See, between the latter days of 1945, and the early years of the 1990's, the US devoted pretty much all of its military, economic, and military might to "defeating communism." Old news for you, I'm sure. Us foreign policy revolved entirely around this concept. We fought hot wars in Southeast Asia and Korea, shadow wars in Africa and the middle east, and staged violent, bloody coups in Latin America and Africa all in the name of "containing communism." We were, without a question, at war with the ideology.

But now Communism's gone, and we still have this gigantic war machine - wehrmacht, I chose the term because it conveys the same words with a sense of the ideological crusade being conducted appended - that needs to be used and justified.

The United States has shifted towards fighting an enemy that the right-wing and christian fundamentalists can get behind slaughtering, just as much as they did when we were killing commies and pinkos in Vietnam and Chile and Angola; We're fighting Islam. Our politicians love to wave their hands in the air and say we're not, we're fighting "terrorism" or "extremism" - but there is a lot of terrorism and extremism in the world that is not Islamic in nature, such as the PKK or even the Nepalese Maoists, who we do not even look at in our "war on terrorism." It's all-Muslim, all the time. We demand secular reform of nations like Turkey and Iran, but not from Israel or India and certainly not from our own country. Again, only Muslim countries are subject to this demand.

My point is, Muslims are the new "communist" for the united states war apparatus, politicians, and propagandists.

And... Am I reading funny, or are you basically trying to make the Nazis look like the good guys? "Oh, they only massacred twelve million people in a systemic genocide, they're not so bad compared to the fucking Ruskies!" - bwuh.

[Pavulon]

12. Nope just setting the scales for you.

The PKK and Nepalese maoists are not exploding themselves in NYC, bali, yemen, saudi, pakistan, and other places. That would be islamic extremists.

There are many many muslims who view these people as filth, tarnishing their religion with their violent acts.

I see no real use in cutting the grass in Afghanistan, the world has a large supply of stupid people willing to die. The money people, logistics, and planning guys are the key.

Turkey has been secular for a long time.

All war is over money and power. Everything else, including their mythology, is just a mechanism to motivate people to die in war.

[pschoeb]

10. What an idiotic statement

The high estimate for the death toll for starvation and extra disease in all of Russia(not just Ukraine) for the holodomar is 6-8 million, with 4-5 million from Ukraine. The more accurate modern studies say deaths were about 3-3.5 million in Ukraine.

Nazi Germany killed

6 million Polish civilians, including 3 million Jewish Poles

15 million Russian civilians including 1 million Jewish Russians


That's just to start, I'm not even listing military deaths, or all the other countries with dead and I already have 21 million

[Pavulon]

13. Not defending the Nazi state, only pointing out the comrade stalin dwarfed

their senseless killings. Also killing millions of his own people. 20 million is a common accepted number.

[SoCalDem]

4. Kind of puts the kibosh on the EU thing too.

messy messy world we live in ..

[FarCenter]

11. The notion that Turkey should be part of the EU was more US than European

The US has the idea that the EU will grow into some wider association defined by NATO membership.

Therefore, Turkey, being a charter member of NATO should belong in the EU.

But there was pretty strong resistance to that idea by a number of European countries.

It's unclear whether Abania will be admitted.

[skeptical cynic]

6. We've woven a tangled web

A nation with only 5% of the world's population with so little moral authority that it's forced to do 50% of the world's "defense" spending.
Afghanistan just become the longest war in US history, with no end in sight.
Still occupying Iraq, with soldiers working hard to fill more and more sandbags and their forces are reduced towards a final pullout that will unleash anarchy.
A divided and conquered electorate on the verge of tearing the nation apart.
A two-party system with two parties that are less and less distinguishable.
Oil spills resulting from corporate corruption and greed allied with a lapdog government.
9.7 percent unemployment, with the highest long-term unemployment in half a century.
National debt about to surpass the GDP.
Global wars against terror, drugs and civil liberties.