Statements by U.S. Officials

BBC:  Let’s talk about Turkey in Europe, because this obviously engages so much of your diplomacy here.  How do you think the Turkish government will react to this idea that there might be a delay in the opportunity to join the EU?

Ambassador Wilson:  All of the indications that we get from the Turkish authorities and from the EU Ambassadors in Ankara are that both sides remain committed to pursuing EU accession talks.  The Turkish government in particular continues to have this as a high priority.  We all knew that the issues related to the Customs Union protocol were going to be complicated and that they would be complicated in the latter part of this year.  And that quite obviously is the case.  I think there are a number of efforts under way, including in the diplomacy that was in Riga earlier this week.  There will be further multilateral discussions, bilateral discussions that various countries will have, including Foreign Minister Gul’s travels next week to Athens, among other places, which I think can see their way forward.  I am fairly optimistic, certainly as a long-term proposition, that these talks will go forward.

BBC:  Long-term means that there may be delay, that it won’t go the way it was supposed to.  Let’s talk about Cyprus and the problems of the Cypriot vessels coming into Turkish ports.  What solution can you see to that?

Ambassador Wilson:  What I think we have been looking for, the United States has been trying to look for, is some kind of a solution that enables Turkey’s EU accession talks to go forward, to get started, to get airborne, without being unduly encumbered by issues that ultimately do have to be addressed and resolved before Turkey can get into the European Union, but whose solution or at least an important part of the solution resides in the UN negotiation process that in 2006 because of the change in the Secretary General position we’re not going to get going again anyway.  I still think that there is some prospect of putting something like that together.  We’ll see.

BBC:  It’s important to give the Turkish people the signal that they are still on track.  That is what you are saying.  That if you start talking about delays and problems, that will make it harder still. 

Ambassador Wilson: I think our preference is not to focus on delays and problems.  It is to focus on prospects, the work that Turkey needs to do in order to accommodate itself with EU standards.  There is an enormous agenda and it will take a long time.  I think we should be patient and I think we should also be very persistent and try to make this happen.

BBC:  What is the significance to U.S. policy in this region of Turkish closeness, growing links, with Europe?

Ambassador Wilson:  Well, the United States and Turkey have been close allies since the early 1950’s.  We were close allies in part for the same reason NATO was established in the first place.  We were concerned about the Soviet threat, what that represented to our way of life.  So Turkey was important then because of where it was located.  Right on the front lines in the fight against communism.  Turkey is still important because of  where it is, not because of communism, but because of Iraq, Iran, the Middle East, uncertainty and instability in the Caucasus, among other problems.  It is also important because of what it is.  A strong, vibrant, diverse, democratic and free society, stable country, prosperous country, in a part of the world where there aren’t a lot those things, where those are all rare commodities.  That makes Turkey very valuable to us.  We think it also makes Turkey valuable to Turkey, because it is strong, it is dynamic, it’s growing, and it is located in a part of the world that is extremely important for European interests.

BBC:  Is Turkey becoming more Islamic?  Is it being radicalized? Are its people being radicalized by the events in the region and by this kind of discussion which the Pope has stumbled into on the relationship between Islam and the West?

Ambassador Wilson:  That is a tricky question to answer, to be honest.  And you hear from, I hear from Turks that I talk to answers more or less all across the scale about what is the nature of change here, and the political orientations and personal orientations of people.  Long-time visitors to this country, some of my predecessors, note that on the streets of Istanbul they are much more likely to see the headscarf than was the case 10 years ago, 20 years ago.  Is that a big manifestation of Islam or political Islam or of huge change in society?   I don’t know; I am not sure it is.  I think it is going to run deeper than that.  And there, when you look deeper at it, I think you see all kinds of different views and interpretations.  The important part for us I think is that this is a democratic society, it is a free society, it carries out free and fair elections on a regular basis.  There is widespread freedom of speech and freedom of expression here.  Although there have been some issues, it doesn’t concern freedom of speech in public debate.  And it has made, and is making and I think will continue to be make Turkey much, much different from many of the other countries in this part of the world.

BBC:  You spoke about the warm relationship between Turkey and the United States, somewhat chilled by events across the border in Iraq.  What would you like Turkey to do now to help with what is obviously a growing effort to incorporate neighboring countries into some kind of  a solution for the Iraqi government?

Ambassador Wilson:  You know there is a policy review going on in Washington now, both within official channels and the work of the so-called Iraq study group that Secretary Baker heads up. And I don’t want to get ahead of what may be Washington’s decisions or recalibrations of American policy or reconsideration of how we ultimately want try to achieve our aims.  What we look for from Turkey though I think is its continued support in developing the capabilities of the Iraqi state and the Iraqi government, its continued support for unity, its continued support for inclusive politics.  Turkey played an important role in the latter part of 2005 in drawing some of the Sunnis into the constitution process and the parliamentary elections.  That has been very important.  Turkey has played an extremely important economic and commercial role.  It is probably the biggest foreign investor in Iraq.  Certainly it has one of the largest, if not the largest foreign business community here.  So in some of those indirect ways Turkey has contributed immensely to the success of that country.  Clearly there is an immense amount of work to do here.  And we need, the West needs, the world needs for Turkey to be with us. 

BBC:  There has been a lot of attention paid to, any potential role for Syria and Iran, but of course Turkey could make a military contribution.  Do you think it might?

Ambassador Wilson:  Well, as you may be aware, in 2003 Turkey proposed providing I believe it was about 5000 troops for coalition forces in Iraq.  For a variety of reasons, the Iraqi authorities decided that they did not want to see that happen.  I think there are people in Washington, people in allied capitals who will be looking for a variety of ways how best to go forward, recognizing both some of the political sensitivities within Iraq and political sensitivities in the region, trying to figure out the right way forward.

BBC:  Just to finish on one of those sensitivities, which is the relationship with Northern Iraq, with the Kurdish area.  Of course, the authorities in the Kurdish area of Northern Iraq say that they are opposed to the PKK, they try to stop them operating, but when you get the stories from there it is clear that in many cases they are turning the other way.  Or the people themselves are turning the other way as the PKK operates.  You must be concerned about that.

Ambassador Wilson: We are very concerned about the relative freedom of action that the PKK appears to have in Northern Iraq.  We have discussed this with the Iraqi authorities.  We have discussed with the authorities in the Kurdistan regional government.  We believe the PKK is a terrorist organization.  We do not believe that Northern Iraq should be a base from which terrorist attacks are organized and launched against Turkey.  The Iraqi authorities agree, and the authorities in the North agree with us.  The question is how we are going to make that happen, bring about a situation where Turkey no longer is threatened in this matter.  It is a complicated job and it is something we are working on right now.

BBC: Thank you.