Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

2 Turkish Prohe October 19, 1993
...and Washington backs Tansu Çil1er
IInur Çevik
Prime
Minister Tansu Çiller's trip to Washington
has been marked by a series of declarations
by the Clinton administration supporting
her "as the new generation of leader who is capable
of finding solutions to the problems of Turkey."
President Bill Clinton was quite open about his
support for Çiller on the eve of the True Path Party
(DYP) convention when he declared in a statement
from the White House: "The prime minister (Çiller)
represents a new generation of leadership in Turkish
politics at a time when the world needs new
leadership for a new era. At a point when our relationship
with Turkey is evolving into a new enhanced
partnership, it is reassuring to me to know
that someone is at the helm in Turkey who understands
the needs of the ordinary citizens of that
country -- their hopes, their aspirations -- and is pursuing
policies that will give them a chance to fulfill
their dreams."
These remarks seemed to signal to people in Ankara
that the White House believes "Çiller is our
man (or woman)" and that the U.S. will back her "all
the way." Both Clinton and Vice President AI Gore
were apparently very impressed with Çiller's performance
at the White House -- so much so that U.S.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher, while addressing
a meeting over the weekend on Middle
Eastern issues, publicly praised Çiller "as a very impressive
person" and said the U.S. believes "we will
hear muchof her in the international arena in the
years to come." Çiller was accorded a similar warm
welcome on Capitol Hill where several leading congressmen
and senators turned out to meet her, and
most of those who in the past were rather outspoken
about Turkey seemed to go out of their way to be
kind to her.
Lee Hamilton, the powerful Foreign Relations
Committee chairman of the House of Representatives,
who last week presented a motion to the Clinton
administration asking whether Turkey was using
American-supplied arms against Kurds in southeastern
Anatolia. seemed to forget his concerns as
he welcomed Çiller. Other congressmen and senators
also followed suit, none of them posing any critical
questions, especially on Turkey's human rights
record and the Kurdish issue. The prominent guests
of the White House usually stay at Blair House, the
guest house, for two nights and then depart. Çiller
was scheduled to leave Blair House and move to
the nearby Willard Hotel after the official portion of
her visit to Washington was completed on Friday;
however, in an unprecedented gesture, Clinton
asked her to stay on at the Blair House until she left
the capital.
So it seems there was a concerted effort in the
American capital to make Çiller feel at home and
send a message back to Ankara about the political
preferences of the U.S. in Turkey. Whether the True
Path Party convention in November agrees with
Washington or not remains to be seen.
THE IRA QI ISSUE- More than a month ago when
Prime Minister Çiller publicly said she wanted the international
economic sanctions lifted on Iraq, she
had everyone in the West up in arms with charges
that she was disrupting the international coalition
forged against Saddam Hussein. The Americans
were clearly extremely unhappy.
At that point there were even claims that Çiller
called Foreign Minister Hikmet Çetin to her office
and said she would test his success as minister on
the basis of his ability to convince the Americans to
scrap the embargo.
Then Çiller visited Moscow and surprised everyone,
including her own Foreign Ministry crowd,
when she declared at a press conference that she
had agreed with President Boris Veltsin to work together
to convince the Americans to lift the sanctions.
So Ankara was buzzing with speculation that
Çiller was now trying to make amends with Saddam.
The Americans apparently asked Ankara for clarification
on Çiller's statements. Then when Çiller was
flying to Washington, she finally decided to correct
herself, saying she did not really mean the sanctions
should be lifted but that Turkey had suffered
and was still suffering heavy losses because of the
sanctions on Iraq and wants to be properly compensated.
Just as Çiller was flying to the U.S., one
mass-circulation newspaper said that Turkey's losses
up till now because of the sanctions were to the
tune of $16 billion. Even Turkish experts said this
was a clear exaggeration.
However, it was true that Turkey was stfll losing
several hundred millions of dollars because it could
not receive transit fees from the twin pipeline pumping
Iraqi crude to the Mediterranean, and that the
economy of southeastern Turkey that was heavily
dependent on trade with Iraq was also still suffering
badly.
Clinton, in his White House address, acknowledged
this as he declared: "Turkey was a steadfast
member of the worldwide coalition that drove Saddam
Hussein from Kuwait and instituted international
sanctions against Iraq. And for that, the United
States remains grateful. We've all had to paya price
for enforcing the will of the international community,
and Turkey in that regard has certainly done more
than its share. And we are grateful for its contribution."
When asked what the U.S. would do to compensate
Turkey for its losses because of the continuing
sanctions on Iraq, Clinton replied: "I guess I should
say for the benefit of the American press something
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