Readers know that I love Turkey. It is singularly situated at the strategic crossroads of east and west. It has long offered hope that secular modernity can coexist with Islam, as it has been the case over many decades now of Kemalism. It is also a country filled with extraordinary cultural history, if we actually take time to understand and cherish it.
I recall sitting outside Istanbul's Hippodrome, where 100,000 people would gather for chariot races, wrestling, and political rallies in what was then the ancient Byzantine capital Constantinople. As I enjoyed the sight of the adjacent Blue Mosque there, sampled an Efes Pilsen beer, and cautiously took a whiff of a raki aperitif at a sidewalk cafe, I was impressed both by the beautiful weather and the high regard Turks had for Americans.
Girls outside the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul.
How painful it has been, therefore, to watch Turkish public opinion of the United States plunge over the last five years. The June 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project showed only a 9 percent favorable rate against 30 percent in 2002 and, others have written well over 50 percent in the 1990s. The same poll showed that 83 percent of Turks hold an unfavorable view of the United States today - even before the latest Armenian genocide vote in Congress - against a 54 percent unfavorable rate in 2002.
It seems we have worked very hard to alienate the Turks, our longtime NATO ally and Iraq War logistical enabler. The war certainly plays a central role behind this enmity, but there is much more to it such as our lukewarm support of Turkey's ascension to the EU. Now the U.S. Congress has decided to declare that the 1915 Armenian massacre at Turkish hands was, technically, a genocide. Nothing makes Turkish blood boil more than outsiders opining on this sore subject so many years later, as the Democrat-led Congress has seen fit to do.
A simit vendor outside Istanbul University.
Now, let's face it, the Ottomans have Armenian blood on their hands. Whether or not it was a systematic effort to eliminate the Armenian race, which is required to meet the genocide definition, it was certainly a murderous episode of almost unimaginable proportions. The Turks have refused to account for their ancestors' criminal behavior, akin to the Japanese failure to come to grips with its own WW II atrocities. For this, the Turks are profoundly wrong. Yet how far should an outside government and purported ally go in condemning a nation for its history? Imagine Ankara somehow condemning our own Native American purgings?
Congress has no right to raise this issue. It is simply none of our business. The Democrats are pushing it, of course, because of the influence of the Armenian lobby and the many Armenian contributions to their coffers. Instead, Congress should focus on how to help Turkey join the EU, ward off Islamic extremism, deal with the growing PKK insurgency, and reengage with us in a mutually productive manner. Yes, somehow, Turkey must come to grips with its Ottoman atrocities, but this is not the way to do it. The French were wrong to impose themselves in this issue last year, as the Democrats are today. The Bush Administration has created most of the Turkish ill- feeling toward the United States, but it is right in condemning these Democrat manipulations. The search for wisdom continues.
Some of the offerings at Istanbul's fabled Spice Bazaar.
I recall sitting outside Istanbul's Hippodrome, where 100,000 people would gather for chariot races, wrestling, and political rallies in what was then the ancient Byzantine capital Constantinople. As I enjoyed the sight of the adjacent Blue Mosque there, sampled an Efes Pilsen beer, and cautiously took a whiff of a raki aperitif at a sidewalk cafe, I was impressed both by the beautiful weather and the high regard Turks had for Americans.
Girls outside the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul.How painful it has been, therefore, to watch Turkish public opinion of the United States plunge over the last five years. The June 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project showed only a 9 percent favorable rate against 30 percent in 2002 and, others have written well over 50 percent in the 1990s. The same poll showed that 83 percent of Turks hold an unfavorable view of the United States today - even before the latest Armenian genocide vote in Congress - against a 54 percent unfavorable rate in 2002.
It seems we have worked very hard to alienate the Turks, our longtime NATO ally and Iraq War logistical enabler. The war certainly plays a central role behind this enmity, but there is much more to it such as our lukewarm support of Turkey's ascension to the EU. Now the U.S. Congress has decided to declare that the 1915 Armenian massacre at Turkish hands was, technically, a genocide. Nothing makes Turkish blood boil more than outsiders opining on this sore subject so many years later, as the Democrat-led Congress has seen fit to do.
A simit vendor outside Istanbul University.Now, let's face it, the Ottomans have Armenian blood on their hands. Whether or not it was a systematic effort to eliminate the Armenian race, which is required to meet the genocide definition, it was certainly a murderous episode of almost unimaginable proportions. The Turks have refused to account for their ancestors' criminal behavior, akin to the Japanese failure to come to grips with its own WW II atrocities. For this, the Turks are profoundly wrong. Yet how far should an outside government and purported ally go in condemning a nation for its history? Imagine Ankara somehow condemning our own Native American purgings?
Congress has no right to raise this issue. It is simply none of our business. The Democrats are pushing it, of course, because of the influence of the Armenian lobby and the many Armenian contributions to their coffers. Instead, Congress should focus on how to help Turkey join the EU, ward off Islamic extremism, deal with the growing PKK insurgency, and reengage with us in a mutually productive manner. Yes, somehow, Turkey must come to grips with its Ottoman atrocities, but this is not the way to do it. The French were wrong to impose themselves in this issue last year, as the Democrats are today. The Bush Administration has created most of the Turkish ill- feeling toward the United States, but it is right in condemning these Democrat manipulations. The search for wisdom continues.
Some of the offerings at Istanbul's fabled Spice Bazaar.