US-Turkish Relations Go Wobbly Now Over Syria

Analysts commented that Sezer’s visit could be interpreted as support for Syria at a time when it was under mounting international pressure to end its military presence in Lebanon. Turkey largely kept its silence when USA supported by France commanded Syria to quit Lebanon forthwith.

Ankara has also kept quiet on sale of short range Russian missiles to Damascus . It would have howled over such a deal in the past. Russian Defence Minister and head of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov told Israel’s Channel 1 TV last week that Russia is ready to provide assurances that non-portable , anti-aircraft Strelets missiles with a range of 4-5 Kms being sold to Syria would not threaten Israel.

US ambassador Eric Edelman had urged Ankara to join in for an immediate and complete Syrian withdrawal. "What can be said on Syria is that the international community is completely unanimous on UN Security Council Resolution 1559," which calls on Syria to immediately pull out of Lebanon . "We hope Turkey will join the international community. Of course, the decision to do so lies with Turkey," Edelman added.

The Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul explained that his country was fully in line with the UN resolutions as "democracy and the dissemination of freedoms in various parts of the region is Turkey’s basic policy". Diplomatic sources in Damascus reportedly revealed that the US administration reacted angrily at the Turkish government’s silence over a Turkish people’s delegation visiting Syria to voice its support and solidarity with the Syrian people in the face of the US pressures and the Israeli threats.

USA has cautioned, even warned Ankara many times ,not to have close relations with Damascus , but Turkey has ignored such threats . Several bilateral high level visits have taken place, the last one was in December by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Sezer’s visit is in return for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s earlier visit to Turkey in 2004, which marked a turning point in the Syrian-Turkish relations.

Syria has begun withdrawing its forces from Lebanon near to its border as laid down in the 1989 Taif Agreement , which had ended the 16 year civil war in Lebanon in which nearly 100,000 people were killed and the nation almost destroyed . Syria had gone in to protect the Christians and the Druzes , now leading opponents of Syria. Last year US and France made UN Security Council pass resolution 1559 , which called for Syrian with drawl and disarming of various militias in Lebanon .

France became the colonial power in Syria following the First World War , which ended the Ottoman empire and its rule over the Middle East. Paris created Lebanon by detaching it from Greater Syria to give a dominant role to Maronite Christians , who had forged closer relations with France during the Crusades .

After massive but peaceful demonstrations from anti- and pro –Syrian groups ignited after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February, an early morning bomb blast on 19 March morning in the Christian sector of Beirut has rekindled fears of renewal of inter -communal violence and worse .

During the cold war , while Turkey was member of Nato, Syria was a close ally of USSR . But after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the change in international strategic scenario , specially after the illegal US invasion of Iraq two years ago , Turkey and Syria have come closer .

In late 1998 Turkey had threatened to invade Syria unless it expelled Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan and his Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK ), sheltered in Syria . Ocalan was expelled , caught up by Turkish agents in Kenya , brought to Turkey for trial and is now lodged in a Turkish jail.

The US –Turkish differences reached a high acrimonious level, when on 1March, 2003 , Turkish Parliament shot down a government proposal to let US use its territory to open a second front against Iraq from the north . Since then Turks have remained opposed to US policies in the region.

Turkish Foreign Ministry did try to lower tensions when it spokesman Namik Tan told the media on 10 March that Turkey was strongly committed to its strategic partnership with the United States. Rebuffing recent allegations that the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) had helped encourage rising anti-American sentiment in Turkey, Tan stated that Turkey was a friend and ally to the US and that such media allegations had no place in Ankara’s relations with Washington

But utterances like the recent one by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the 2nd anniversary of US invasion of Iraq do not help either . He told Fox News TV on 21 March that "Given the level of the insurgency today, two years later, clearly if we had been able to get the 4th Infantry Division in from the north, in through Turkey, more of the Iraqi, Saddam Hussein, Baathist regime would have been captured or killed." "The insurgency today would be less," he said. Rumsfeld of course understands little about insurgency, rebellion and war of independence against occupying powers through out history , Vietnam. Algeria and Kenya being recent examples.