Political Blunders
How did the US and Europe push Turkey towards Syria, Iraq, Iran? Turkey was supposed to be a member of the European Union, but their work has not succeeded for the last 50 years. Europe is trying to find every little reason to say no while not requiring same diligence for other new members of the union. This is making Turkey look elsewhere in Middle East and Asia. Turkey still gets most of it's tourism from Europe. Especially Germans and recently Russians travel to Turkey. Istanbul has panaromic city views and Aegean and Mediterrenean coast is the Turkish Riviera. But almost nobody from USA visits Turkey. It is too far. Turkey's exports are 90% industrial. Europeans who can afford this output are in excessive debt and Turkey's exports have plunged due to the economic crisis in Europe. Now Turkey wants a prosperous Middle East to be able to sell their products. They hope that some day Syria, Iraq, Iran can trade more with Turkey.
When US invaded Iraq, it was not a NATO operation. Turkey had no obligation whatsoever to open her land for US use. The Turkish government tried to make it happen through democratic channels but the parliament rejected it by small margin. Had Bush was smart enough to throw in a carrot, maybe it would have been approved. But no, the US military did not even want to buy their bottled water from Turkey, army bought it from Germany. We did not want to pay the tax on the gas our soldiers would be using in Turkey. We demanded that the Turkish laws would not apply to US soldiers on their own soil. We asked asked asked, gave nothing in return.
In the first Iraq war, Turkey supported the UN operation because it was United Nations. In the second one, US did not go through United Nations, or the NATO. This was the mistake of George Bush. After the first Iraq war, US asked countries to support embargo against Iraq. Who trades with Iraq? 30% of Iraqi trade was with Turkey. Turkey has stopped trading with Iraq and asked the US and allies to pay for the trade losses. US did not even agree to reduce import quotas to increase trade with Turkey. For two decades now Turkish population in the region lost it's trading partner. US wants Turkey to shut doors to Syria, to Iran. Iraq is wiped out. We go to Turkey's neighborhood and destroy it, and then we want support from Turkey??? Why would they support us wiping out their trading partners? What is the trade volume between Turkey and USA? For Turkey, US is a nobody. Instead of buying all we got from the communist China, had we invest little bit in our trade with Turkey, maybe they would care about what we had to say.
When US invaded Iraq, it was not a NATO operation. Turkey had no obligation whatsoever to open her land for US use. The Turkish government tried to make it happen through democratic channels but the parliament rejected it by small margin. Had Bush was smart enough to throw in a carrot, maybe it would have been approved. But no, the US military did not even want to buy their bottled water from Turkey, army bought it from Germany. We did not want to pay the tax on the gas our soldiers would be using in Turkey. We demanded that the Turkish laws would not apply to US soldiers on their own soil. We asked asked asked, gave nothing in return.
In the first Iraq war, Turkey supported the UN operation because it was United Nations. In the second one, US did not go through United Nations, or the NATO. This was the mistake of George Bush. After the first Iraq war, US asked countries to support embargo against Iraq. Who trades with Iraq? 30% of Iraqi trade was with Turkey. Turkey has stopped trading with Iraq and asked the US and allies to pay for the trade losses. US did not even agree to reduce import quotas to increase trade with Turkey. For two decades now Turkish population in the region lost it's trading partner. US wants Turkey to shut doors to Syria, to Iran. Iraq is wiped out. We go to Turkey's neighborhood and destroy it, and then we want support from Turkey??? Why would they support us wiping out their trading partners? What is the trade volume between Turkey and USA? For Turkey, US is a nobody. Instead of buying all we got from the communist China, had we invest little bit in our trade with Turkey, maybe they would care about what we had to say.
