Consul General Deborah Jones' Interview at NTV

Istanbul, November 17, 2006

NTV:   Welcome to the studio of NTV

CG: Thank you very much for having me.

NTV: Well I have already mentioned some countries you have been to.  Tell us, where have you worked?

CG: Well I have been very fortunate in my career. I have worked in all of our regional bureaus now in the Department of State:  Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and now Europe.

NTV: What is your favorite town so far?

CG:  A very difficult question.  Without doubt, the most beautiful residence I have had is here in Istanbul. 

NTV:  Do you mean the very concrete and fortified U.S. Consulate Building?

CG: No, actually that is a much warmer building inside, than it looks from the outside.  But in fact, my residence is in Arnavutkoy, and I think I have the best view of the Bosphorus in all of Istanbul.

NTV:  [inaudible]

CG: Yes

NTV:  You arrived to Turkey in 2005, August. How long are you going to stay after this?

CG: Normally it is a three year assignment.  In this case -- I have been asked to do something.  We’ll see… I expect to be leaving next summer, but I will certainly be back to Turkey often, I’m sure.

NTV: I’d like to take your impressions about Istanbul and Turkey.  First let me ask you: What was your first impression when you arrived at the airport, off the plane? What did you feel?  Where did you think you were going in?

CG: First of all I think that even though I had never been in Turkey before, or in Istanbul before, Istanbul is a city that resides in our collective memory, much the same way that the pyramids of Egypt do, or that other world monuments do.  We all grew up studying art history and architecture and of course the work of Mimar Sinan, The Hagia Sofia, The Blue Mosque -- all of these are images that are in our minds.  And of course as a child I had seen the movie Topkapi.  So I was familiar with the outline of Istanbul which is of course one of the most famous outlines in the world.  What I think surprised me a little bit when I arrived was to see how enormous the city was, and how much variety and texture was in the city.  How you had together with the very old-- the very new, the very modern.  But also the mix and the texture of people who were here, from all kinds of socio-economic backgrounds, all kinds of activities.  Very colorful, very textured, very active, a lot of traffic.  And a beautiful setting.  The most magnificent setting in the world, I think.

NTV: You are talking about the texture. The variety of texture.  Tell me a bit more.  How many people have you met so far?  Are you meeting new people?

CG:  I think it is no exaggeration to say I have met thousands of people.  That is the privilege and the good fortune of my position.  To meet academics, to meet artists, to meet politicians, to meet prominent industrialists, to meet simple people, real people.  The other thing that struck me about Turkey --like in the United States-- was that you are a very diverse society just as we are a very diverse society in the United States.  And I often say to people, if you are to arrive in the United States and go to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and see only the Amish people, you’d come away with a very narrow perception of what the U.S. is, but that is part of the U.S. as well.  Just as people of the southeast are a part of Turkey --just as much as the most sophisticated cosmopolitan industrialist from Istanbul is. 

NTV:  Talking about variety.  The U.S. Turkey relations, they bring some kind of variety too. You’re living in Istanbul and you have a [inaudible] about Turkey.  Tell us about your [inaudible], what are you up to?

CG:  What do we try to do here. Sure.  In Istanbul of course, because it is the largest city in Turkey, we’re kept very busy.  We have a number of jobs here.  First and foremost of course, is always the protection of U.S. citizens.  That is always the first responsibility of the State Department overseas.  And of course Istanbul has a least a quarter of a million American tourists every year coming through. We hope that there will be many more.  It used to be half a million.  We also of course have a visa function, because we like to welcome Turks to the United States as well.  We can talk about that later.  We have more Turkish students in higher education in the United States than from any other European country.  That is important for us.  We have a very large Fulbright program here in Turkey as well. 

NTV: Fulbright?

CG: Senator Fulbright, William Fulbright, in the 40’s after World War II, created a program that would enable Americans to get to know other countries, and other countries to know America as well.  So it is an exchange of scholars and students.

NTV:  I’ve got some idea. Can I apply? [laughter]. How important is Turkey for the U.S. administration, do you think?

CG:  Turkey is hugely important for the United States.  I have often said that we need Turkey’s success as much as Turkey needs the U.S. support for its success.  We can’t afford for Turkey to fail.  I think Turkey will succeed with our support as well.  Obviously Turkey’s location in the world --as well as who and what Turkey is-- are two things that make Turkey very important for us.  You are a secular democracy, stable in a very difficult region of the world.  We have a long relationship as NATO allies, as partners.  We have a relationship that is not only a matter of looking back to the Cold War period when it developed, but it is a relationship that we are building for the future. And that’s why –again- one of the other things we do here as a consulate is to try to reach out to all sectors of Turkish society -- what we call the “broad audience”-- because we also have a broad audience in America; a diverse society.  We want Turks to know who we are as much as us getting to know who they are. We also support Turkey in its efforts to build institutions, to reform, to continue the economic reforms that Turkey has undertaken, which have been very successful. To help Turkey as it moves also into the 21^st century with us.

NTV:  You already mentioned that you met thousands of people since you have arrived.  It must be quite difficult to choose who said what and to remember these people.  And, it’s a no-go area, but I will ask you: Obviously you have been taking the pulse of public opinion.  What are the topics when you speak to people?  What do they bring up? 

CG:  Well, a variety of things.  Obviously many Turks are concerned about the nature of the relationship right now.  Following the Iraq war, following the parliamentary decision-- that’s March 1^st 2003.  For us, we have moved beyond that.  We have moved way beyond that.  Obviously, PKK is a concern.  We are working on that.  We understand and appreciate terrorism and the impact of terrorism on people.  It is a serious problem for us.  Obviously, we understand the importance of having a stable Iraq that is at peace with its neighbors.  These are the areas we work with the Turks on.  These are the areas and the issues that Turks raise with me.  I believe in my heart that Turks and Americans have much more in common, than we have differences.  I think that when Turks go to the United States, they feel very welcome, and they feel very integrated into our society.  And I think the same for Americans here.  When they come here they appreciate again the richness of the Turks, in terms of hospitality, their warmth and friendship, and the fact that this is a country that works.  And I remind people: This is a successful country.  You have a strong, dynamic society, you have a good sense of who you are, historically.  You have strong institutions in the military, in your government.  You are a democracy.  You have the right to change your government.  The challenge of any democracy is that people have to participate, and make it work. We just saw that in the United States. Democracy doesn’t happen by itself.  It happens with participation.  I have a lot of confidence in Turkey.  I was a student in Spain in the 1970’s when Spain was looking at EU membership.  And many of the same things that I hear said about Turkey now, I was hearing said about Spain.  It was a country that had the ETA terrorism problem, it was a country that had a very conservative society.  They are very catholic, much more conservative than the rest of Europe.  It was so close to North Africa that there was going to be an immigrant issue.  High unemployment, had come out of a dictatorship, and had authoritarian traditions.  Now Spain is an enormously successful member of the EU.  It is a net importer of labor. I am optimistic.

NTV:  Thanks for taking the question.  I hope I won’t put you in trouble. 

CG: You might, but…. No. [laughter]

NTV: This building on the hill top of Istinye. For people who do not live in Istanbul-- it is like a huge concrete, fortified building. It seems from outside.  You are a petite person living in that fortified huge building.  How does it go?

CG:  Well, right.  As you know we moved to that building in 2003 because of security concerns.  And our security concerns were justified by the tragic bombings that took place, in fact just about three years ago this week, in Istanbul.  And we know that we had been a target of those attacks, or would have been, had we not moved.  The building itself, it’s true, it’s on 9.3 hectares, it is an 84 million dollar building.  It is actually a rather beautiful building.  The size of the building, I think, reflects the importance of the relationship.  I often remind people that Istanbul is more populous and more economically active than a number of European countries.  So the mission here has to reflect the importance of the relationship and the importance of the city.  We have, for example, a large Drug Enforcement Agency component in the building that covers a region.  So we have a large staff, reflecting the importance of the relationship.  Within the building, I think once people come up and they come into the building, and they see that one of the things we have done is to take five percent of the budget to have original Turkish art and original American art, representative of the relationship we have. They see how beautiful it is.

NTV:  How many people are applying to go to the U.S?

CG:  That’s a good question. Well, literally thousands and thousands.  My consul could answer that question.  I know that we have had a very successful work/travel project with Turks.  We have had over 6,000 students apply for that program alone.  That is only a small percentage of the tens of thousands of people who apply for visas. And I am pleased to say that I hear very positive feedback about the service that we provide.  I think it goes rather quickly and I think people feel -- and I know I have a very courteous staff who are very -- it is very important to us to show Turks -- that is the first face of America many Turks see, it is important.

NTV:  Yes exactly.  What is the U.S. offering these people?  What does the U.S. offer these people?

CG:  To visitors or to students?

NTV: To people who would like immigrate to the U.S.?

CG: Immigration is a different issue.  One of the things that we have always tried to offer to immigrants and to legal immigrants -- I mean, the United States is a place where you have the freedom to experiment with what you want to do, to fail, and to ultimately succeed.  I think for the individual who is intent on succeeding, you have many opportunities in the United States to do that.  We hope that most Turks when they go as students, will go, study, learn who we are, and come back and use that knowledge to develop Turkey.  We have a lot of students here as well, not by comparison, there are more Turks of course in the United States.  But that kind of exchange, educational exchange, is probably more important than any diplomacy we do otherwise, because it allows people to see us firsthand. 

NTV: Thanks for answering that question. You must be watching closely what is going on in Turkey on the press. You must have a press briefing maybe every morning.

CG: Every day, sure.

NTV: What are your topics. What topics are you reading?

CG:  Obviously in addition to following internal developments in Turkey, your presidential elections, parliamentary things, because we look at that -- your economic developments.  Obviously we read the polls, the opinion polls that talk about anti-Americanism or the concerns about the relationship.  You know I drive by some other Consulates in town, I don’t see the kind of interest and the queues that I see in front of ours.  And as long we continue to see the interest in our programs and the queues … I have to hope that people see the totality of America for who we are; that they recognize that there maybe difficult political issues in the relationship, but the fundamentals are sound.  Like any good friendship, or even like a marriage, it doesn’t mean we’ll always agree on everything, or even on the approach.  But it does mean that we share fundamental values, and fundamental goals. And I think that is safe to say that Turkey and the United States share fundamental values and fundamental goals.

Democratic, free societies, open markets, free exchange of people and ideas, respect for the law, institutions that work. 

NTV: I’d like you to listen to us, not translated into Turkish.  [in Turkish] Cünkü size soracağım: Türkçe konuşuyor musunuz? [Because I’d like to ask you, do you speak Turkish].

CG:  Türkçe konuşmuyorum, ama ders alıyorum.  [I don’t speak Turkish, but I’m taking lessons].

NTV: Türkçeniz sanki biraz Rus aksanlı gibi geldi. [It sounds as though your Turkish has a bit of a Russian accent.]

CG:  No – you want me to do my Russian accent? No, not on the air. [laughter]

NTV:   I just would like to thank you very much for coming to our studio.  I appreciate it.

CG: Thank you.

NTV: Thank you very much