Uniqueness (US-Turkey Relations Good)

Uniqueness (US-Turkey Relations Good)

On his first presidential trip abroad in April 2009, Barack Obama, addressing the Turkish parliament, said: "Turkey and the United States must stand together -- and work together -- to overcome the challenges of our time." But a few weeks ago Turkey, in a U.N. Security Council vote, opposed a sanctions resolution against Iran, one of the Obama administration's top foreign-policy priorities. The no vote, in addition to the fallout from the deaths of eight Turks and an American at the hands of Israeli commandos aboard the Gaza-bound Mava Marmara, has many raising questions about the U.S.-Turkey relationship and the direction of Turkish foreign policy. Turkey has been a staunch NATO ally since 1952, fields its second largest military, and is the alliance's sole Muslim member-state. It has nearly 2,000 noncombat troops serving in Afghanistan. Bases along its southern border with Iraq are a crucial transit point for the American military, and it has played an important role in maintaining stability in the region. The U.S.-Turkey relationship is not in freefall. Turkey is an emerging power of 90 million people in transition. The economy will grow at close to 7 percent this year, and Turkey could even pass Japan, France and Germany to become the world's ninth largest economy in the distant future. The origins of Turkey’s rapid economic ascent were free-market reforms in the 1980s that gave rise to a more conservative and religious middle class in central and eastern Anatolia, in contrast to the historically secular power-brokers of Istanbul and Ankara. With economic clout came political clout, manifesting itself in the election of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This was a significant development in a country whose founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, enforced a strict state-sponsored secularism to signify what he called Turkey's "place in the modern world." The AKP has sought to redress the historic power imbalance between weak politicians and a strong, interventionist military -- the guardian of Ataturk's secularist legacy -- through a series of constitutional reforms and legal actions. However, other Turks, more secular and moderate -- though not well organized as an opposition-- have charged the government with abusing power and are skeptical of the AKP's commitment to a secular state and strong relations with the West.

Uniqueness (US-Turkey Relations Bad)

U.S. Turkey relations are already deteriorated- Gaza flotilla and Iran relations prove

Butler June 26, 10(DESMOND, journalist, Associated Press, “US: Turkey must demonstrate commitment to West”, http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5infX83Qg20idVFtW3FcluMFJNncgD9GIR8780)

The United States is warning Turkey that it is alienating U.S. supporters and needs to demonstrate its commitment to partnership with the West. The remarks by Philip Gordon, the Obama administration's top diplomat on European affairs, were a rare admonishment of a crucial NATO ally. "We think Turkey remains committed to NATO, Europe and the United States, but that needs to be demonstrated," Gordon told The Associated Press in an interview this week. "There are people asking questions about it in a way that is new, and that in itself is a bad thing that makes it harder for the United States to support some of the things that Turkey would like to see us support." Gordon cited Turkey's vote against a U.S.-backed United Nations Security Council resolution on new sanctions against Iran and noted Turkish rhetoric after Israel's deadly assault on a Gaza-bound flotilla last month. The Security Council vote came shortly after Turkey and Brazil, to Washington's annoyance, had brokered a nuclear fuel-swap deal with Iran as an effort to delay or avoid new sanctions. Some U.S. lawmakers who have supported Turkey warned of consequences for Ankara since the Security Council vote and the flotilla raid that left eight Turks and one Turkish-American dead. The lawmakers accused Turkey of supporting a flotilla that aimed to undermine Israel's blockade of Gaza and of cozying up to Iran.
Relations bad- went sour over genocide vote

Kinzer 10 (Stephen, Northwester Univ journalism, The Guardian, Genocide Harms US Turkey Relations, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/mar/05/turkey-armenia-genocide-us-vote)

For the US house of representatives foreign affairs committee to decide that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 constituted genocide, as it did Thursday by a one-vote margin, would be acceptable and even praiseworthy if it were part of a serious historical effort to review all the great atrocities of modern history. But the singling out of Turks for censure, among all the killers of the 20th century, is something quite different. This vote was a triumph of emotion, a victory for ethnic lobbying, and another example of the age-old American impulse to play moral arbiter for the world. Turkey recalled its ambassador in Washington immediately after the vote, which was broadcast live on Turkish television. The resolution now goes to the full House of Representatives. Given the pull of moneyed politics, and President Obama's unwillingness or inability to bring Congress to heel on this issue, as Presidents Bush and Clinton did, it could pass. That would provoke much anger in Turkey, and might weaken the US-Turkish relationship at the precise moment when the US needs to strengthen it. In the past few years, Turkey has taken on a new and assertive role in the Middle East and beyond. Turkey can go places, talk to factions, and make deals that the US cannot. Yet it remains fundamentally aligned with western values and strategic goals. No other country is better equipped to help the US navigate through the region's treacherous deserts, steppes and mountains. Would it be worth risking all of this to make a clear moral statement? Perhaps. What emerged from Washington this week, though, was no cry of righteous indignation. Various considerations, including the electoral power of Armenian-Americans, may have influenced members of Congress. It is safe to surmise, however, that few took time to weigh the historical record soberly and seek to place the Ottoman atrocity in the context of other 20th century massacres. Two questions face Congress as it considers whether to call the 1915 killings genocide. The first is the simple historical question: was it or wasn't it? Then, however, comes an equally vexing second question: is it the responsibility of the US Congress to make sensitive judgments about events that unfolded long ago? The first question is debatable, the second is not. Congress has neither the capacity nor the moral authority to make sweeping historical judgments. It will not have that authority until it sincerely investigates other modern slaughters – what about the one perpetrated by the British in Kenya during the 1950s, documented in a devastating study that won the 2006 Pulitzer prize? – and also confronts aspects of genocide in the history of the United States itself. Doing this would require an enormous amount of largely pointless effort. Congress would be wiser to recognise that it does not exist to penetrate the vicissitudes of history or dictate fatwas to the world. This vote has already harmed US-Turkish relations because it has angered many Turks. If the resolution proceeds through Congress, it will cause more harm. This is lamentable, because declining US-Turkish relations will be bad for both countries and for the cause of regional stability. Just as bad, the vote threatens to upset the fragile reconciliation that has been underway between Turkey and Armenia in recent months. In this episode is encapsulated one of the timeless truths of diplomacy. Emotion is the enemy of sound foreign policy; cool consideration of long-term self-interest is always wiser. Congress seems far from realising this.

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