Hazar Raporu - Issue 01 - Fall 2012

INTERVIEW
Stephen Larrabee :
F. Stephen Larrabee holds the Distinguished Chair in European
Security at the RAND Corporation.Before joining RAND, Larrabee
served as vice president and director of studies of the Institute of
East–West Security Studies in New York from 1983 to 1989. He
was a distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Institute from 1989
to 1990. From 1978 to 1981, Larrabee served on the U.S. National
Security Council staff in the White House as a specialist on Soviet–East
European affairs and East-West political-military relations.
How do you see current state of
bilateral relations between Turkey
and the US
Well, I think that it has improved
significantly under President Obama and
right now I would say very good shape
in a sense that there is a very important
dialog between Prime Minister Erdoğan
and President Obama. That is I think help
to intensify relations quite a bit. I think
you can see that there has been much more
convergence of interest between the US
and Turkey over the last year. And that in
some sense there has been a kind of slightly
alignment of policy so that both are talking
from the same book right now. That does
not mean that they agreed everything but
the main aligns are I think very definitely
in the same direction.
What are the major challenges
that define US–Turkey strategic
partnership
Well, I think obviously the first one is the
Syrian Crisis itself. And here is before
the US election in November there is a
great reluctance on the part of the Obama
administration to get deeply involved
militarily in the Syrian Crisis. What will
happen after the election of course will first
depend on the election itself, who wins.
But if President Obama does win, which I
think is possible, then I think the US will
play more active incentive role in Syrian
Crisis. Of course we will want to coordinate
and consult with Turkey as well as other
key allies in the region particularly, Saudi
Arabia and Jordan. But I think we will see
much more active policy on part of the US.
But still a reluctance to get deeply involved
militarily. There is a concern that getting
too deeply involved make the conflict worse
rather than help the situation.
What were the major reasons that
triggered revolutions across the
Middle East Do you see Turkey as
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