[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 161 (Wednesday, October 18, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1972-E1973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                FORSAKING A VALUED BULWARK TO EXTREMISM

                                 ______


                             HON. JIM BUNN

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 18, 1995

  Mr. BUNN. Mr. Speaker, the Government of Turkey has, for several 
decades, been one of America's closest allies. They have stood by us 
throughout the cold war, during Operation Desert Storm, and the crisis 
in the Balkans. Unfortunately, some in Congress have failed to 
recognize Turkey's friendship and strategic importance in recent weeks.

[[Page E 1973]]

  As the Foreign Operation Subcommittee prepares to enter into a 
conference with the other body, I hope that my fellow conferees will 
take a moment to read the following editorial, which appeared in 
today's Washington Times.
  This editorial illustrates the danger of basing our foreign policy on 
ethnic head counts in our districts, instead of the national security 
concerns of the United States. I sincerely hope that we can pursue a 
policy of friendship and cooperation with the Government of Turkey, and 
thereby ensure a long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationship 
between our two nations.

                Forsaking a Valued Bulwark to Extremism

                          (By Amos Perlmutter)

       It's generally acknowledged that Turkey is one of the key, 
     critical strategic states in the Middle East, yet that 
     acknowledgement seems to have escaped the United States in 
     recent times.
       Challenged by both internal and external forces, Turkish 
     Prime Minister Tansu Ciller resigned after losing a vote of 
     confidence on Sunday. The future of her Government--Turkey's 
     friendliest to the U.S. in a long time--poses serious 
     challenges to American foreign policy in the Middle East.
       As far back as 1954, the United States and Great Britain 
     helped engineer the Northern Tier, a North Asian political 
     bulwark and fortress against the Soviet Union in the depths 
     of the Cold War. The leading elements of the tier then were 
     Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Iraq, seen as partners to the West 
     in the Cold War against the Soviet Union.
       Turkey, which stands between Europe and Asia and controls 
     the Black Sea passage to the Mediterranean did more than its 
     part. It made a real and still vivid contribution to the 
     Korean Way by delivering its legendary tough soldiers, who 
     displayed conspicuous heroism. Turkey today remains a 
     critical member of NATO and stands in key contrast to Iran, 
     Iraq, Syria and the Muslim states of the former Soviet Union.
       Given its critical importance and its basically steadfast 
     history, it seems more than passing strange that the United 
     States has never fully acknowledged or rewarded the 
     contributions and importance of Turkey, including its key 
     participation in the Gulf war, by allowing the use of its air 
     space.
       Why this casual treatment of Turkey? Some of the 
     explanations for the American failure to recognize the 
     importance of Turkey's strategic role in the Middle East have 
     their roots in the workings of Congress, where the domestic 
     lobbies of Armenia and Greece hold sway in a ferocious battle 
     against Turkish influence. In fact, the specter of Sen. 
     Robert Dole's candidacy bodes no good for Turkey. Mr. Dole, 
     who was horribly wounded in World War II, was saved by the 
     heroic medical efforts of an Armenian physician, a personal 
     fact that appears to have influenced Mr. Dole's policy toward 
     Turkey. Even without Mr. Dole, the Armenian lobby has been 
     very effective in preventing Turkey from gaining the full 
     economic fruits and benefits of the European Economic 
     Community.
       The even more powerful Greek lobby has managed to help 
     relegate Turkey's image in the public eye to that of a non-
     European Muslim and Ottoman state that bears little 
     resemblance to the reality of modern Turkey. In fact, 
     Turkey's civic culture since the Kemalist revolution after 
     World War I is that of a secular state, even if it is, like 
     so many other countries in the region, burdened by the threat 
     of an emerging radical, Islamic and Kurdish opposition.
       The problem for Turkey is that it has so far displayed no 
     gift for the kind of lobbying and public proselytizing that 
     is characteristic of the Greek and Armenian efforts. Turkish-
     Americans are spread throughout the United States and form no 
     cohesive voting or social bloc. The absence of a natural and 
     organized lobby and the challenge presented by the organized 
     Greek and Armenian lobbies have combined to result in a 
     hesitant U.S. support for Turkey, despite its history and its 
     strategic importance, which is greater than Greece.
       The persistent complaint is that Turkey is not a real 
     democracy, an argument that can be applied more correctly to 
     the corrupt regime of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreau of 
     Greece, a former sympathizer of the Soviet Union and of anti-
     American Third World radicals and terrorists. It's true that 
     neither Greece nor Turkey are complete democracies on the 
     order of the United States or Britain, but a good case can be 
     made for Turkey on its substantive political and social 
     culture, which is characterized by a history of civility, an 
     absence of racism and anti-Semitism and a certain 
     steadfastness to allies ever since the collapse of the 
     Ottoman Empire.
       It's true that the Ottoman Empire, once called ``the Sick 
     Man of Europe'' was an abusive and corrupt empire. Yet even 
     then, its system of vilayat rule allowed considerable 
     autonomy and achieved more tolerance for religious groups 
     than other empires of its time.
       Today, Turkey is marked for its civility, and is important 
     as a strategic partner. Most of the vestiges of the Ottoman 
     Empire have long since vanished in the wake of the work of 
     the model military reformist Kamal Ataturk, who is the father 
     of modern, secular Turkey. Turkey, in fact, is the only 
     secular Muslim state in the world today, a not unremarkable 
     feat and status.
       Turkey ought to be rewarded instead of ignored for its 
     secularization efforts. True, Turkey must find a better way 
     to deal with its Kurdish problem, although its current 
     approach is relatively moderate, compared to the way Iraq 
     treats its Kurdish minority. The Turkish government should 
     probably do its utmost to recognize the Kurds, although not 
     the PKP revolutionary Marxist group, as equal citizens.
       Still, the reasons for American disinterest have more to do 
     with domestic American lobbying activities than any real or 
     perceived Turkish failings. It's high time the United States 
     woke up to the strategic and critical importance of Turkey. 
     The easiest way to do that is to imagine Turkey in the hands 
     of fundamentalist Islamic forces. The opposite is true 
     today--Turkey stands as a real and honest bulwark to the 
     forces of radical and fundamentalist Islam.

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