A panel of experts at the University of Wisconsin argued Wednesday the United States’ involvement with Turkey and Cyprus stinted both countries, and the relationship will only continue to unravel.
Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, said due to differences between the government in Turkey and President Barack Obama, the relationship between the countries will not move anywhere fast.
“2010 will go down as a point where there is a growing chill in the relationship between Turkey and the United States,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter said that the Obama administration, in particular, wanted a different approach to dealing with the nuclear crisis and showed little enthusiasm for Turkey’s choice of direction.
Matters between the two countries have been going downhill ever since the Persian Gulf War, where U.S. officials deemed Turkey an unreliable ally, Carpenter said.
Continual differences of opinions regarding the war in Iraq have further exacerbated the opposition. Carpenter said U.S. officials view Turkey as an unstable ally, causing many problems, while Turkey considers U.S. policies to be insensitive and damaging to its interests, fueling this strain.
Van Coufoudakis, rector emeritus at University of Nicosia, Cyprus, said he believes the stereotypes dating back to President Harry Truman in 1947 depicting Turks as proud, independent people have turned Turkey into a state with an over-inflated ego that blames everyone except itself for national and international conflict.
Conflict analyst and conflict resolution practitioner Eleftherios Michael said Turkey claims every time they violate international law that the U.S. is just being insensitive to Turkey’s needs and they ignore the true nature of the support the U.S. is extending.
“The statements coming from Washington are ones of support for the peaceful settlement of Cyprus,” Michael said.
Turkey and Cyprus have had a strained relationship through the years, ever since Turkey invaded the country in 1974 and has since refused to remove its occupying forces from parts of the island.
Approximately 40 UW students and community members gathered to hear the talk, held at Memorial Union.
UW sophomore Scot McCullough came because he said he believes, as an engineering student, global relations will affect him in the future.
“They did a good job,” McCullough said. “But it was clear they had their own opinions.”
UW freshman Jenny Martel also believed the speakers had the same opinions.
“I thought their sayings were legitimate but a little biased,” Martel said. “They all seemed to be giving negative facts towards Turkey.”
