Speeches
Turkey and The United States
Great Allies, Great Challenges
Remarks by Consul General Sharon A. Wiener
At Haliç University
December 3, 2008
It is a great pleasure to be here with you today at Haliç University. I would like to thank your founder, Professor Doctor Gündüz Gedikoğlu, for his kind invitation, and for your Rector, Professor Doctor Engin Türe, for hosting me here today.
As the U.S. Consul General in Istanbul, my job is to preserve and strengthen the U.S.-Turkish relationship. But it is more than just an official responsibility for me; this is a relationship to which I feel personally linked because of my own life experiences.
I first came to Turkey 39 years ago, in 1969 when, like you, I was a university student. For my junior year at Ohio Wesleyan University, I decided to study at the American University in Beirut. While I was there, a friend and I thought it would be fun to join the international folk dance club. It turned out that there was an international folk dance festival at Boğaziçi University, which of course was then Robert College. My friend and I decided that this would be an excellent way for us students to enjoy a free trip to Istanbul. So we came here to Istanbul -- where we performed a traditional Lebanese national folk dance.
Of course, I fell in love with Istanbul. It’s impossible not to be fascinated and amazed by this city with its natural beauty and its layers of history. But this initial exposure to different cultures also left a lasting imprint on me. Here I was, an impressionable young student from America’s Midwest, in Lebanon and Turkey. For the first time in my life, I was confronted by foreigners’ ideas and conceptions of the United States. It was an eye-opening experience. A life-changing experience.
The year I arrived in Beirut – 1968 – was a turbulent one. The Vietnam War was in full force. Soviet tanks invaded Czechoslovakia and crushed the democratic movement there. Student protests in France and elsewhere turned violent. In the United States, there was a great struggle for racial equality, and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated outside his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee, sparking riots across the country. The brother of former President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Jr., was assassinated in June while delivering a campaign speech during his own run for the White House. Protests against the Democratic National Convention that took place in Chicago in August turned into clashes with police. The turmoil never seemed to end.
I have to admit, looking back, that even as an incredibly optimistic student, like each of you, if you had asked me to predict the future in 2008, forty years later, it would have been hard for me to imagine the events that unfolded before our eyes one month ago. We had a long, grueling campaign that lasted almost two years, which began with twenty candidates and included more than 40 debates. Finally, on November 4 Americans left behind what has been called “the noise of democracy” for the silence of the voting booth and elected Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, and as our first African-American president, with the highest voter turnout in a century.
President Bush said when he spoke to the nation the day after the election: “No matter how they cast their ballots, all Americans can be proud of the history that was made yesterday. Across the country, citizens voted in large numbers. They showed a watching world the vitality of America's democracy, and the strides we have made toward a more perfect union. They chose a President whose journey represents a triumph of the American story – a testament to hard work, optimism, and faith in the enduring promise of our nation. Many of our citizens thought they would never live to see that day. This moment is especially uplifting for a generation of Americans who witnessed the struggle for civil rights with their own eyes -- and four decades later see a dream fulfilled.”
As great an achievement as this was, winning the election was just the first test for our new President. As the headline of the International Herald Tribune newspaper read the day after the election: “Big Victory, Bigger Challenges.” President-elect Obama faces the tasks of taking on the economic crisis and tackling a range of international issues – the global war against terrorism, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran; the search for peace between Palestinians and Israelis; and the need to confront climate change and find alternative sources of energy, just to name a few.
The buzzword of the presidential election was “change,” but the hallmark of our presidential transitions has always been “continuity.” One of the things Americans are most proud of when it comes to our democracy is the peaceful nature of our political transitions, as laid out in our Constitution. President Bush has pledged his full support to the incoming administration as they prepare to take office, and President-elect Obama has stated on multiple occasions that there is only one President at a time, and that he will not undertake any new policy initiatives while President Bush is still in power.
I want to just take a moment here to explain what is happening during this time. There are eleven weeks between Election Day and Inauguration Day. Why such a long period of time? In fact, it used to be longer – the inauguration was originally in March, but in the 1930s our Constitution was amended to move the date to January 20. This period gives time for the Electoral College votes in each state to be certified – a process that isn’t actually complete until Congress reconvenes in January.
It also gives time for the new President-elect to get ready to take office. To do so, first, the President-elect names a “transition team” to oversee the process. The “transition team” receives office space in Washington, and President-elect Obama and his staff have already begun to receive briefings on national security issues and the work of each of the Cabinet departments (or ministries). Second, the team must lay out what its policy priorities will be upon taking office – President-elect Obama has said that dealing with the economic crisis will be at the top of his list. Third, the President-elect has to select his cabinet and begin to staff a range of political appointments.
The process of filling government posts takes time, but the work of the U.S. government will continue. Of the 2.6 million government employees, only 8000 are “political appointees,” that is, people who are not career government officials but are appointed by the new administration. The vast majority of government jobs are filled by career public servants and diplomats like myself. Some of these career officials will temporarily fill those positions while the new administration is moving in. Most senior positions require the approval of the Senate.
Political appointees serve at what we call “the pleasure of the President,” and appointees from the Bush Administration will all submit their resignations effective January 20, 2009. This is even the case for all American ambassadors, who serve at the President’s request, even though about two-thirds of them are career diplomats. It has been the practice of most presidents to keep most career ambassadors in their positions to ensure continuity in the conduct of American foreign policy. The new president will then have the option of accepting those resignations or asking the appointees to stay for the new administration.
On Monday, President-elect Obama announced his national security team, including his intent to nominate his former campaign rival, Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State; to keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates in his current position; and to appoint former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and Marine General Jim Jones as his National Security Advisor. Senator Clinton, along with others named to the Cabinet, will not be formally nominated until Barack Obama is inaugurated on January 20. She will undergo hearings in the United States Senate, who will then vote to confirm her appointment.
There has already been much speculation about why the President-elect has or has not chosen certain people to be part of his cabinet. I will not add to that today. That would not be my place, and frankly I know as much as you do by what the President-elect has said publicly. Regardless, the potential nominees for the national security team will bring to their offices decades of experience in the fields of diplomacy, intelligence, the military, the legislative process and other aspects of public service.
Aside from the speculation about presidential appointments, there has been plenty of public discourse, including in Turkey, about how President-elect Obama might conduct foreign policy. I have no crystal ball and I will not predict what the new president might do on one particular issue or another. As I have already noted, even the President-elect has said there is only one President at a time. As career diplomats, my colleagues and I serve the current president and his administration until the day they leave office. We will do the same with the new president, but only once he is inaugurated.
One thing I can tell you: the challenges America faces are not America’s alone, and America cannot face them alone. As President-elect Obama said Monday, “The common thread linking these challenges is the fundamental reality that in the 21st century, our destiny is shared with the world's. From our markets to our security, from our public health to our climate, we must act with that understanding that now more than ever, we have a stake in what happens across the globe. And as we learned so painfully on 9-11, terror cannot be contained by borders nor safely provided by oceans alone.”
Turkey has been a strategic ally of the United States for 58 years and our friend since the founding of the Turkish republic in 1923. The strength of the relationship is that it is not based solely on our long NATO alliance, as important as that is. A few weeks ago I was interviewed by a journalist from Zaman newspaper, who asked me, “What are the common values that lie at the heart of the U.S.-Turkish partnership?” I answered, "Democracy, economic prosperity and peaceful relations." Throughout history, both Turkey and the United States have struggled to be true to these values. And while we have each made many advances, many struggles lie ahead. We will not agree on every topic. Great allies will always face great challenges.
After my first brief trip to Istanbul in 1969 as a university student, I came back in 1975 with my husband, when he was a lawyer with the Air Force and I was working on my doctoral dissertation and teaching courses for the University of Maryland for military personnel. We lived in Adana and Ankara for three years. The world today is different than the world when I was here in 1975. The Cold War was a way of life and Turkey played a critical role in the strategic balance between the United States and the now-defunct Soviet Union. Gerald Ford was President of the United States and Suleyman Demirel was Prime Minister of Turkey. The United States and Turkey were grappling with a crisis over Turkish troops entering northern Cyprus in 1974. Just a few weeks after I arrived in Turkey in 1975, the U.S. Congress imposed an arms embargo on Turkey.
That was thirty-three years ago, and we can all say without a doubt that the relationship between Turkey and the United States survived that crisis and many more crises because both our countries have been committed to the relationship. In the last year we have written a new chapter in the history of our cooperation with the establishment of an intelligence-sharing mechanism that has been extremely successful in undermining the PKK’s capabilities to strike Turkey.
If you look around the region, you see that the interests and views of the United States and Turkey largely coincide. As the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Ross Wilson said last year, “Our countries want the same things, and we need each other to achieve those things and to advance our countries’ interests in freedom, prosperity, stability and peace in this region and the world.”
Turkey has a role only it can play in the many overlapping neighborhoods in which it resides: the Black Sea, the Balkans, the Caucuses and the Middle East. During the Cold War, Turkey mattered because of where it is, it now matters perhaps more so because of what it is. Turkey’s geographic location is an undeniable asset. Its status as a secular, democratic country with a dynamic, modern free market economy makes it a critical anchor in all of these regions.
We face an uncertain world where one fact is certain: Turkey's importance to America is even more pronounced at a time when the Middle East in the 21st century has replaced Europe in the 20th century as the most critical region for U.S. core national security interests. Peace in the Middle East is vital to us both. Turkey is a key regional player that works effectively with all of its neighbors. Turkey's influence is substantial and unique. As such, Turkey is an indispensable partner to the United States on issues related to the Middle East.
No country has more to gain than Turkey by having a secure, stable, democratic, prosperous, and peaceful Iraq next door. Turkey can make a unique contribution to ensuring peace, freedom, prosperity and stability there. The United States deeply appreciates the contributions Turkey has made to this effort. Turkey has worked to bring rejectionist elements, especially Sunni groups, into the Iraqi political system and facilitated large-scale movements of food and fuel through Habur Gate. We are working with Turkey and Iraq in a trilateral mechanism to work through issues of mutual security and we are greatly encouraged by Turkey’s outreach to the Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq.
Turkey is also the largest foreign investor and business partner in Iraq, which provides a critical measure of support separate from the government.
A stable Afghanistan is in both our interests and there our troops and our diplomats are working side-by-side to solidify the democratic changes that have taken place and fight back a resurgent Taliban. We also greatly appreciate the Turkish government’s efforts to bring together the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan to address a situation involving the use of Pakistani territory by the Taliban to launch attacks against Afghanistan -- one remarkably similar to that involving the PKK presence in northern Iraq.
We face a world where too often terrorists strike at the innocent, as we were reminded in Mumbai last week. Turkey and the United States both want to see an end to terrorism, particularly the end of the PKK and its attacks against Turkish citizens. I want to stress that we deeply sympathize with and understand the frustration that Turkish citizens feel about PKK violence. The PKK is the common enemy of the United States, Turkey, Iraq, and all people who want peace and freedom. The United States was the second country – only after Turkey – to declare the PKK a terrorist group. Our nations, together with our European partners, are pursuing a comprehensive strategy to eliminate the PKK’s safe haven in northern Iraq and to cut off its criminal and financial networks in Europe.
More broadly, Turkey and the United States are working together to face the global economic crisis. Prime Minister Erdoğan attended the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy in November, where leaders pledged cooperation to facilitate global credit and trade. We have also worked together to realize the energy potential of this region. Turkey occupies a strategic location in the region’s energy supply chain. Eight percent of the world's oil transits Turkey each day, and its position becomes increasingly important with the construction of each new pipeline on Turkish soil. Turkey and the United States are now building on the success of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, and we are developing a new generation of natural gas infrastructure that will help Europe secure its energy supplies at prices set by markets, not by monopolists, by connecting gas supplies in Azerbaijan and the Caspian Basin with Turkey and other European markets. We also look forward to Iraqi gas flowing through Turkey.
The United States strongly supports Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. Turkish membership in the EU would afford it economic opportunities and cement its reform process. Europe has much to gain from Turkey as well. Turkey has a population which is, on average, much younger that that of the rest of Europe, and can provide the labor force and dynamism the European economy will need to meet the challenges of globalization.
In the long run, our relationship will get stronger as the ties between our people grow stronger. My experience studying abroad in Beirut in 1968 changed my life by opening my eyes to the rest of the world. Our experience living in Turkey in the 1970s led my husband and me to seek diplomatic careers; in fact, we took the Foreign Service entrance exam in Adana. Without those experiences, I would not be here today as the U.S. Consul General in Istanbul.
In this light, I want to encourage you to think about studying in America when you are finished here at Halıç University. The United States is anxious to accept qualified students from abroad. Nearly 600,000 students and professors from virtually every country are studying in the United States. This diversity is a key strength of our system. Many schools offer scholarships and financial aid to qualified students. The Fulbright scholarship program also makes it possible for the best candidates to pursue graduate study in the United States.
You may think getting a student visa is painful at best or impossible at worst. This simply is not true. Each year about 12,000 Turks study in American universities, more than from any other European nation and the eighth-highest figure in the world. The U.S. Mission to Turkey issued approximately 20,500 student and exchange visitor visas between October 1, 2007 and September 30, 2008, which represented a 25 percent increase over the previous year. We give priority appointments to these visa applicants. In the vast majority of cases, applicants learn the decision about whether they will get the visa at the end of their interview with the consular officer, and have the visa in their hands three to four days later. While not all applicants are able to qualify for a U.S. visa, an impressive 85 percent do.
In summary, I know that no matter what the future holds, the relationship between Turkey and the United States will remain solid because we want the same things. We believe in the same values: democracy, respect for human rights, rule of law, market and open economies, and the spread of peace and stability throughout the region.
Thank you very much.