Turkey’s new card in its relations with the US

Erdogan and therefore Turkey, took very important steps through the meetings in New York. Erdogan met with Orthodox Patriarch Dimetrus and leading American businessmen with Greek origin. One can ask why this meeting is so important.

First of all, the Jewish, Greek and Armenian lobbies are very important in US foreign policy and especially by the Congress. Turkey was very close to the Israeli lobby in both its regional relations and relations with the US. Even if it is claimed that Turkey and Israel have problems on some regional issues like the Kurds in northern Iraq, the Jewish lobby in the US has a major importance for Turkey. But relations with the strong Greek and Armenian lobbies are disregarded. As a new vision, Prime Minister Erdogan started a process of close relations with the Greek lobby. The Turkish-Greek rapprochement initiated by Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and Ismail Cem created an important pleasure in the public opinion. Bur this rapprochement caused neither a development in the Cyprus problem nor a solution to the Aegean problem.

It seems like this dialogue and rapprochement, initiated by Erdogan will lead to more concrete results. A new process may also begin with the Armenian lobby after this stage.

As a matter of fact, Turkey with its historical mission in the region remains stuck in its relations with neighboring countries. Of course the problems we lived through during the establishment of the republic and the Cold War pushed Turkey to these necessary options. But in the changing regional conditions and US big game in the Middle East, Turkey has to begin to use its cards. For this reason Erdogan’s meeting is a very important step.