Who are the Turks that have surprised Washington?

That view was expressed by Pentagon circles as well as the State Department and Congress circles. One hears frequently that as long as Bush remains in power and as long as bilateral relations do not undergo a change, it would be very difficult for the Turkish president to enter the White House.

Erdogan-Gul
They mention the names of the Erdogan-Gul duo as well though, curiously, they do not refer to them as anti-USA figures. Gul, especially, gets blamed for realizing the gravity of the situation too late, for wasting precious time and for being caught unprepared by the AK Party deputies’ surprise decision.

Saying, "We know that that was a road accident. However, Gul-Erdogan should have been able to prevent it in any case," many U.S. officials criticize that duo for being inexperienced and for failing to take this issue seriously.

They say that though Erdogan never made them any promises he had made it clear beyond any doubt during his talks with the U.S. officials that Turkey would act together with the USA against Saddam.

The way they view Erdogan-Gul has hardened because Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc played a highly effective negative role — together with President Sezer — on the outcome of the parliamentary vote. They keep saying that they cannot understand why Arinc was not persuased to change his stance.

One State Department official says, "The Erdogan-Gul duo has not surprised us much but it turns out that we did not know Arinc at all. We realized that — albeit belatedly. In fact we have become aware of the fact that we hardly understand Turkey, the Turkish society, as a whole."

The military
Pentagon, especially, blames the Turkish General Staff’s "passive stance" for the fact that the National Security Council (MGK) took no decision on the "motion" issue during the meeting it held on the eve of the parliamentary vote — though they do know that President Sezer played a very effective role in preventing the MGK from taking such a decision.

Pentagon believes that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has the conviction that it has a say on all major issues, that, as a rule, it does not hesitate to exert that influence when important issues are at stake.

This time the TSK has adopted a reticent stance or, to say the least, Washington has that impression due to certain incidents — involving the bad treatment U.S. troops were given, Incirlik’s being omitted from their theater of operations and prevention of the shipment of supplies in some cases.

I do not know to what extent this impression is justified or how much of it is an exaggeration.

All I know is that whatever has happened has triggered an enormous adverse reaction from Pentagon. What I found most interesting was the way the U.S. circles that criticized the TSK kept Chief of Staff Ozkok outside of all that. Without naming names they kept sayimg, "certain commanders".

CHP
The main opposition CHP too gets blamed a lot. They believe that CHP officials, party leader Deniz Baykal especially, influenced the public with extremely strong-worded propaganda speeches.

They believe that the CHP is pushing the Kemalists — considered to be one of the most influential circles in Turkey — increasingly towards an ant-West, anti-American, pro-Third World policy.

The names of Sukru Elekdag and Kemal Dervis come up frequently in this context.

I too am surprised — by the USA
In Washington I was surprised by the way American officials kept saying they had not known about the president and about Arinc. Where is that enormous mechanism, the dialogue that have been maintained all these years? Obvously the U.S. side has failed to get to know the TSK and Turkey’s civilian cadres and vice versa. Let us try to change this situation from now on.