Allergic Partners: Can the Relations be Saved?, Spring 2005

When Turkey’s Parliament on March 1, 2003 failed to approve the Bush Administration’s request for a “northern front” against Iraq, it became clear that the Iraq War would prove a watershed in U.S.-Turkish strategic partnership. Left unanswered at the time were fundamental questions of how relations would develop after such a shock. Two years later, the answers are largely in, and they are not reassuring. In such key areas as Iraq, defense and diplomatic cooperation, and economic relations, the tone and substance of U.S.-Turkish partnership has become more “allergic” than “strategic.”  Condoleeza Rice’s early 2005 visit to Ankara may be a turning point.  But it will take more than just nice words to keep this relationship from reverting to the caustic default mode of recent years...Please click here to read the text in full.