TURKPULSE No:69..........APRIL 22nd, 2002
It has
been three weeks since Turkey announced “in principle” to take over from
the UK for six months the command of ISAF (International Security Assistance
Force), the 5000-strong multinational force to restore peace and security in
Afghanistan. So far no concrete development has taken place in this regard
despite the consensus worked out between Turkey and the Anglo-Americans on the
highlights of the status and scope of command of this force. Ankara’s
insistence on putting the agreed points in a contractual agreement and the
other side’s hesitation or refusal to comply is instrumental in this
precarious situation. The NSC announced after its March 29th
session, “Turkey has, in principle,
embraced the idea of taking over the command of ISAF in Afghanistan and
stressed the importance and priority of answering certain conditions on this
topic.”
According
to this decision, the special conditions concern putting under the Turkish
commander’s order American cargo aircraft and logistics facilities, as well
as technical infrastructure of the British headquarters in Kabul. If final
agreement is reached Turkey will increase its forces in the 5000-strong ISAF
from 261 to 1000 and command it under a Turkish general, (Maj.Gen, Akin Zorlu)
between 22 June and 22 December 2002. Its mandate will not extend beyond
Kabul. ( Breaking News, April 6th, 2002.)
Apart from
this arrangement with the Anglo-Americans, Turkey is already training over 600
Afghan soldiers to serve as presidential guards to be the nucleus of
the national army to be established in that country and this work will go on
as part of Turkey’s traditional cooperation with Afghanistan since
Ataturk’s time, with or without a written agreement with the West.
Turkey’s reasons for pressing for a written agreement about ISAF
Turkey has
had a number of bitter experiences in its dealings with especially Washington
in the past. The most prominent was General Roger’s word of honour “as a
soldier” to President Evren in the 12 September (1980) interregnum for
Turkey’s lifting its veto on Greece’s return to NATO’s military side and
non-observance of these points by the West even before General Rogers left the
position of the NATO supreme commander.
Pulse’s
guest writer Indian Ambassador Gajendra Singh (retired) occasionally quotes an
unidentified Turkish Deputy Prime Minister as having told him that far from
observing verbal commitments, Americans did not even observe written
agreements when it suited them.
The latest
example of this was seen only a couple of weeks ago over the 12 April military
coup in Venezuela. Despite the Inter-American Democratic Charter signed by 34
countries of the Americas including the United States on September 11th,
2001, a few hours after the twin towers tragedy in New York, Washington turned
a blind eye over the military coup against President Chavez of Venezuela, in
a clear declaration: “The peoples of the
Americas have a right to democracy and their governments have an obligation to
promote and defend it.” It also ignored the Charter’s express
provisions, which establish “a mechanism
for collective action in the case of a sudden or irregular interruption of the
democratic political institutional process or of the legitimate exercise of
power by the democratically-elected government in any of the organisation’s
member states, thereby fulfilling a long-standing aspiration of the Hemisphere
to be able to respond rapidly and collectively in the defence of democracy.”
Now that
President Chavez is back in office with a counter coup two days after his
removal from office with American instigation, there is a very embarrassing
situation for Washington in the Americas and the world in general.
These
examples, which partially stem from the pluralist democratic structure of the
United States, can naturally be increased. What is important at the moment is
the reason why Turkish-American relations are moving forward so slowly and
painfully, if not marking time.
Another American invention, QIZ, to further complicate economic relations
Within a
few days, on April 25th, the Turkish-American talks for economic
cooperation will be held on the basis of the principles reached during PM
Ecevit’s official visit to Washington last January. High on the agenda is
promoting Turkeys’ exports to the United States with an arrangement similar
to the QIZs that exist between the USA and Israel, plus Jordan.
On the eve
of these talks, the daily Milliyet wrote
on Saturday (20th) that Turkey has not yet brought up a draft
agreement with the American side for these zones, even though at the first
round of these talks in February such a decision was taken. A high-ranking
American Embassy spokesman told Turkish journalists in Ankara, “Less
than two weeks is left, but there is still no proposal (from the Turkish side)
about the location (of QIZs) and products (to be exported duty free to the
United States). After we reach a consensus on them the bill will be presented
to Congress. By-elections (in the United States) are in the autumn. The summer
recess of Congress is approaching. A Congress in recess cannot make
alterations in the legislation.” The same spokesman said that the
American Under-Secretary of External Trade would lead the American delegation
and significantly remarked, “We
exerted special efforts for the right people to come to the negotiations,” concludes
the Ankara datelined Milliyet dispatch.
Everything
the American Embassy spokesman told the reputable Turkish daily is correct,
but as usual dinted with incurable American disinformation.
It is true
that at the contacts between the Turkish and American sides in preparation for
the economic talks ahead it has not been possible to bridge any gap on the
respective positions.
About the
venue of QIZs, the Turkish side wanted Turkey’s free trade zones in Mersin,
Antalya and other cities to serve as QIZ. The Americans insisted on the
Southeast and other irrelevant places such as the Black Sea coast. They also
wanted Turkey to use Israel’s QIZs to avoid the compulsion to pass a bill
through Congress, but neither the Israel-Palestine confrontation nor
Turkey’s impatience with PM Sharon’s atrocities were suitable for such an
arrangement. That is where this thorny problem emerged about the tight
schedule of Congress. But even if Ankara risked such a long procedure of
passing through Congress it has still not been able to avoid the Israeli
involvement, because under QIZ arrangements, “The
product must be a substantially transformed good with at least 35 percent of
its value added in Israel, a Jordanian QIZ or the West Bank/Gaza.”
As for the
products that will enter within the scope of Turkish QIZs, the Americans
insisted that labour intensive industries should be excluded from these
arrangements. It meant excluding Turkey’s number one export items textiles
and ready-made clothing from these tariff facilities. Instead the Americans
insisted on having high-tech industries in these zones. An insider at these
talks remarked to Pulse, “Who will make
high-tech investments in the Southeast, say Sirnak, and how will he be able to
run this costly investment in this underdeveloped region?”
Is
excluding textiles and clothing industries from the QIZ treatment a common
practice for Israel or Jordan? The answer is a categorical “No,
not at all”. On the contrary, official American documents
underline, “Generally speaking, U.S.
tariffs on clothing and textile goods are relatively high, (they go up to 30
percent), which makes production of these goods in QIZs especially
attractive.” The
American side has so far denied this attraction to Turkey.
Finally,
as for the American Embassy spokesman’s remark about the American wish to
see proper Turkish officials at the 25 April negotiations, it concerns
Washington’s demand to exclude the Under-Secretary of Foreign Trade, Kursad
Tuzmen, from heading the Turkish delegation. Probably because Tuzmen has done
such a magnificent job in promoting Turkish-Iraqi trade and economic relations
that he must be in the Americans’ bad books. And now they are demanding his
exclusion from the Turkish delegation in disregard of the fact that he is the
most competent bureaucrat for foreign trade and that it is an unprecedented
practice for a country to determine the composition of the other side’s
delegation at the talks.
The optimistic outlook at US-Turkish trade, trebling American investments
On the eve
of the Turkish-American economic talks to centre on QIZ, the Head of the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Donohue, visited several Turkish cities and
industrial centres and voiced views totally in contrast to the above
pessimistic developments. He said after his meeting with PM Ecevit on Friday
(19th) that he was returning home “with a constructive report
about the Turkish economy.” Donohue said that there could be a three-fold
increase in US investment in Turkey and in mutual trade if the economic
reforms liberalising markets went on in this country. Ecevit answered that
foreign investors would no longer “knock on 40 doors, but only one.” A new
bill was underway for it, he promised.
Turkish-American
trade, which stood at $7 billion last year, may surpass $20 billion if the
American businessman’s optimism is true, but the preparatory talks for the
April 25th negotiations were not justifying this optimism. One
promising thing about the whole affair is that it is in line with the American
tactics to create pessimism before important talks, but to be more
flexible at the conference table.
uras@ada.net.tr
- April 22nd, 2002