Alliance Based on Shared Interests

August 3, 2010
“Prime Minister Erdogan, and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have changed Turkey fundamentally. They do not simply seek good relations with their Arab neighbors and Iran. Instead, they favor the most radical elements in regional struggles, hence their embrace of Syria over Lebanon and of Hamas over Fatah, and their endorsement Iran’s nuclear program. ...

“For too long, American diplomats and officials in both the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations have been in denial: They have embraced Turkey as they wished it to be rather than calibrate policy to the reality of what Turkey has become. This is neither realism nor the basis of sound foreign policy.”
—Michael Rubin, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute, hearing, “Turkey’s New Foreign Policy Direction: Implications for U.S.-Turkish Relations,” House Foreign Affairs Committee, July 28, 2010.
  • “We hear a lot these days about Turkey’s so-called drift from the West, drift from democracy, drift from secularism. But that’s not surprising because there are multiple agendas at play in the world today. Some raise fears about the so-called Islamist influence, they speak of losing Turkey, as if Turkey were about to spawn a new caliphate and destroy the Christian West. How absurd. The fact is that the United States and Turkey have cultivated a long-term, solid relationship that has been critical in support of American national interests, as well as Turkey’s. ...

    “Absent Turkey, Iran would be a hegemon in a region where the United States has vital national interests. The alliance will persist because it’s in our interests and it’s also in Turkey’s interests. Of course, there are changes ongoing in Turkey, and in its relationship with its neighbors. ...

    “The simple fact is that the alliance between America and Turkey has served our national interests for over 60 years, and let’s not delude ourselves: we need Turkey and Turkey needs us.”
    —Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA), hearing, “Turkey’s New Foreign Policy Direction: Implications for U.S.-Turkish Relations,” House Foreign Affairs Committee, July 28, 2010.


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