September 10, 2006
Editorial   New York times

After a Kurdish group claimed responsibility for a series of recent bombings in Turkey that killed three civilians and injured many others, the United States appointed a retired Air Force general and former NATO commander, Joseph Ralston, to work with Turkish authorities.

 General Ralston will be responsible for coordinating American antiterrorist efforts with Iraq and Turkey, both of which have sizable Kurdish minorities — and minorities within those minorities who have resorted to terror.

The Turkish foreign ministry hailed the appointment as a “new opportunity” for cooperation between the United States and Turkey.

The United States would be wise to create many more and varied opportunities to engage with Turkey, a longtime ally, and a uniquely important one. Turkey is a predominantly Muslim, secular democracy, situated between Europe and the Middle East. After years of trying to make amends for having suppressed its Kurdish population, often brutally, Turkey has seen violence resume of late. The United States needs to frankly acknowledge that instability in Iraq, on Turkey’s southeast border, has fomented instability in Turkey. That morally obligates the United States to help with corrective action.

Equally important, a renewed focus on Turkey is in the United States’ self interest. Last week, the nonprofit German Marshall Fund of the United States released the results of its annual survey of public opinion in the United States and 12 countries in Europe, including Turkey. The survey’s most striking finding is the degree to which Turks now question their ties to the United States and Europe, and have warmed to Iran, their neighbor to the east.

The discontent appears anchored in Turks’ overwhelming disapproval of President Bush’s handling of international affairs and growing disapproval of European Union leadership. Both are manifest in waning Turkish support for the institutions that have bound Turkey to the West. Though Turkey has been a staunch NATO member since 1952, only 44 percent of Turks in this year’s survey agreed that NATO was essential for Turkey’s security, versus 52 percent in 2005. Even though Turkey opened official membership talks with the European Union last year — after strenuous efforts to meet the union’s criteria — only 54 percent of Turks now view membership as a good thing, versus 73 percent in 2004.

As Turks see it, their support over decades for the West and for democracy has been rewarded with severe regional tension brought on by the United States, and by a cold shoulder, particularly from France and Austria, ever since Turkey qualified for European Union accession talks.

The appointment of General Ralston may help the United States to re-engage with Turkey, though ending Kurdish violence and tensions requires mainly political solutions. The United States can also help to keep Turkey’s aspiration to join the European Union on track, by advocating more openly for resolution of the division of Cyprus between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

The United States must not ever take Turkey for granted.