TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/012891/01289910.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.7 KB | 88 lines

                                                                                THE GULF WAR, Page 63

AMERICA ABROAD

An Ally Deserves Better


By Strobe Talbott


    ANKARA

    An aide whispers to President Turgut Ozal that his Prime
Minister and senior military advisers have arrived, no doubt
to discuss the latest American request for the use of Turkish
bases in the attack on Iraq, now only hours away. "Let them
wait a moment," says Ozal. "The war is important, but so is the
nature of the peace that comes after."

    Ozal calls for an atlas and opens it to a map of the region.
"Look where we are and what is going on around us," he says.
As he traces the boundary of his country's giant neighbor to
the north, Ozal reaches with his other hand into his pocket and
pulls out a string of jet-black worry beads.

    No wonder. The immediate menace of Iraq may soon be
eliminated, but the disintegration of the Soviet Union will be
an ugly fact of global life for a long time to come. Last
week's focus of anxiety was the Baltics, but passions for
secession and instincts for repression run at least as deep in
the Transcaucasus and Central Asia. Much of the population
there is Muslim and speaks languages closely related to
Turkish.

    "As the Russian system of empire collapses and new
structures take its place," says Ozal, "we can serve as a
counter to the influences of religious extremism coming up from
here" -- he points to Iran -- "and from here" -- he indicates
the Arabian Peninsula. He believes he has persuaded the
Kremlin, through its former Foreign Minister, Eduard
Shevardnadze, that "Turkey can play a stabilizing role inside
the U.S.S.R."

    Then he gestures from Pakistan to Algeria: "In all these
countries, too many people have too little hope." Hence their
susceptibility to Islamic fundamentalism as well as the kind
of anti-Western militancy Saddam Hussein personifies but by no
means monopolizes. Both those threats, Ozal warns, will survive
the present conflict, and they will grow worse if the poor and
the helpless feel that the rich and the powerful have prevailed
again.

    This crisis-prone, autocracy-ridden area needs a model to
emulate in the coming period of postwar reconstruction and
realignment. Arab victors and vanquished alike will need in
their midst an Islamic country that, whatever its faults, is
a secular state with a democratic political system, a
market-oriented economy and close security ties to the West.
Turkey is not just the best candidate -- it's the only
candidate.

    Yet Turkey has too often been snubbed or patronized by its
more prosperous NATO allies, whose interests it defends and to
whose company it aspires. A year ago, the European Community
fended off Turkey's bid for membership. In 1993, when the E.C.
is again open to outsiders, Turkey should be at the front of
the line.

    For decades, large Greek- and Armenian-American lobbies in
the U.S. have frequently let grievances against the Turks going
back to the days of the Ottomans get in the way of sound
policy, common sense and simple fairness. Congress has insisted
on apportioning military aid to Greece and Turkey by a rigid
and arbitrary formula that links the two, even though geography
has assigned Turkey a far more active and vital mission on the
front line of international peacekeeping.

    Ozal was one of the founders of the coalition against Iraq.
Last week his government agreed to let the U.S. conduct bombing
strikes as well as search-and-rescue missions from Turkish
bases. For its staunchness in this crisis, Turkey will not only
want new respect and lasting acceptance -- it will deserve
them.