Democratic, Secular Turkey: The Truly ‘Indispensable Nation’

(Washington, D.C.): President Clinton will meet today with Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz of
Turkey in what may be one of the most strategically critical summits of the former’s tenure. After
all, it comes at a moment when: Turkey’s secular democracy is still recovering from a near-death
encounter with Islamic extremists running the government; Turkey is under intense pressure to
restore full diplomatic and economic relations with the once-again-ascendant Saddam Hussein; the
Turkish military remains unable to deal a knock-out blow to Marxist Kurdish terrorists granted
safe havens and/or material assistance by Syria and Iran; and, most recently, Turkey’s long-standing bid to join the European Union has been capriciously rejected in a manner calculated to
give maximum offense.

A Friend, Indeed

Now is the time for a wholehearted American embrace of democratic, secular Turkey — a
truly indispensable nation for American and Western interests in a critical part of the
world.

To appreciate just how critical is Turkey’s part of the world, it is useful to employ an analytic
technique advanced by Douglas J. Feith, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and
Middle East expert on the Reagan National Security Council staff. Mr. Feith observes that when
most Americans think of Turkey, they envision a map of Europe whose centroid is usually
Switzerland. Turkey, of course, appears in the lower right-hand corner of such a map — a sort of
marginal nation, seemingly at the fringes of what matters in the world. This is certainly the way
Europeans view their Islamic Turkish neighbor.

On the other hand, Mr. Feith points out, if one conceptualizes a map that would contain most
of the countries, conflicts and potential flashpoints with which the United States is vitally
concerned at the moment — and likely to be preoccupied for the foreseeable future — it
would include: the Balkans; Russia; the southern Caucasus and Caspian Basin; Iran, Iraq and the
rest of the Persian Gulf; Syria, Israel and the Levant; and North Africa. And what nation is the
centroid, both in physical and geopolitical terms, of that map? Turkey, of course.

The Bottom Line

The Center for Security Policy has long believed that the United States has been inadequately
attentive to Turkey’s strategic importance — in its own right and as a model for pro-Western
democratic secularism in an Islamic nation whose success becomes more imperative with each
passing day.⁽¹⁾ As the attached, excellent lead editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal argues, Mr.
Clinton should use his meeting with Prime Minister Yilmaz not only to affirm U.S.-Turkish ties,
but also to demonstrate to the entire world that a country that stands with the United States
and with the only other democracy in the region, Israel, is a valued friend, indeed.

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1. See, for example, ‘Reckless Abandon(ment)’: Will Appropriators Endanger Vital Alliance
Ties With Turkey By Ending Military Aid? (No. 92-D 117, 22 September 1992) and Wake-Up
Call From Saddam: Turkey Is A Friend In Need, A Friend Indeed (No. 93-D 8, 15 January
1993).