![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/erdogan-tayyip-obama.bmp\" "\\"erdogan")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Radikal
\nJune 11 2010
\nTurkey<\/p>\n
The [Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in
\nAsia] that was held in Istanbul on 7 and 8 June – which was marked
\nmostly by debates over Israel’s attack on the Gaza flotilla – was
\nover but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s work was not yet done.<\/p>\n
He received a phone call in the evening with a request from US
\nPresident Barack Obama to have a phone conversation with him. The
\nsubject of the requested conversation was obvious. The US-sponsored
\nresolution on imposing additional sanctions on Iran because of its
\nnuclear programme would be put to a vote in the UN Security Council
\nthe next day, that is on 9 June. Obama wanted to talk to influence
\nTurkey’s decision.<\/p>\n
Erdogan consulted with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and
\nother senior officials. His government had talked to the Iranian
\nadministration with the approval and knowledge of the United States
\nand other UN Security Council members, and these talks had resulted in
\na declaration that was released in Tehran on 17 May. As stipulated by
\nthat declaration, one week later, on 24 May, the Iranian administration
\nhad written to the Vienna Group – which was formed by the United
\nStates, Russia, France, and the IAEA – to state that it would accept a
\nuranium swap via Turkey. Nothing had been heard from the Vienna Group,
\nbut in the meantime the United States had mobilized to win approval
\nfor UN sanctions, which, as stated in Obama’s 20 April letter, was seen
\nas a parallel rather than an alternative process to the Tehran talks.<\/p>\n
Tense conversation<\/p>\n
Obama’s phone call came soon after 01:30 on 9 June in Turkey, although
\nit was still 8 June in Washington. Obama and Erdogan had a lengthy
\nand difficult conversation for 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
According to official sources who spoke to Radikal, Obama thanked
\nTurkey for its good will and mediation efforts and said that he
\nappreciates this work. However, he did not find Iran’s assurances
\nadequate. In any event, Iran was not saying anything binding with
\nregard to stopping its uranium enrichment work.<\/p>\n
For these reasons, the US President was asking Turkey to vote “yes” on
\nimposing additional sanctions on Iran in the UN Security Council. The
\nofficial sources also told Radikal that they had the impression that
\nObama was willing to accept happily a pledge from Erdogan to “abstain”
\nor not “not to vote,” although he did not say so explicitly.<\/p>\n
However, Erdogan responded that Turkey would contradict itself if
\nit voted “yes” when the agreement it signed in Tehran was still on
\nthe table.<\/p>\n
According to the same sources, Erdogan also told Obama that voting in
\nfavour of sanctions when the Tehran declaration had not yet produced
\nany results would be unbecoming of Turkey’s character. Erdogan said
\nthat he could not do that and that a “yes” vote was impossible.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, Erdogan said: “History would not forgive us.” This is the
\nbackstage of those remarks.<\/p>\n
Other side of coin<\/p>\n
When we look at the other side of the coin, we see that this principled
\nstand is a first or a turning point in the known history of Turkish-US
\nrelations.<\/p>\n
According to diplomatic sources, there is a custom in Washington’s
\nrelations with some of its allies. If the heads of state or government
\n– such as presidents or prime ministers – of a small group of countries
\nthat include Turkey – other examples are Britain, Germany, Israel,
\nJapan, and South Korea – request anything from the US president,
\nthen the US president accedes to their requests provided that they
\ndo conflict with other strategic priorities; if necessary, he asks
\nquestions later.<\/p>\n
Obama’s positive response to Erdogan’s request for a joint campaign
\nagainst the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] is viewed within this
\nframework. Similarly, Obama did not remain indifferent to Erdogan’s
\nrequests for support with respect to the [pending] Armenian genocide
\nresolution [before the US House of Representatives].<\/p>\n
In view of this, Erdogan’s repudiation of Obama’s request over the
\nIran sanctions is considered a first and a turning point in Turkish-US
\nrelations.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, the rejection of the 1 March 2003 authorization
\nbill – the first other instance that comes to mind – is not considered
\nto be in this category. That is because, according to US records,
\nthe Turkish prime minister kept his word to send the bill to the
\nAssembly but the Assembly did not approve it.<\/p>\n
The disappointment the current situation has caused in Washington has
\nalso become evident another way. Reporters in Washington are given
\nat least some information about every conversation US presidents
\nhave with foreign leaders. No information was given to reporters
\nabout Obama’s conversation with Erdogan even though questions were
\nasked about it. The explanation given for this is that Obama did not
\nwant the public to know that Turkey, an ally, turned down his request
\nabout Iran sanctions at a time when he is having a hard time at home
\nover the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n
In view of these, it would be too optimistic to interpret US Secretary
\nof State Hillary Clinton’s remarks that “we have differences of
\nopinion but we understand them and expect results” as meaning that
\nnothing has changed as far as the United States is concerned.<\/p>\n
[translated from Turkish]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Radikal June 11 2010 Turkey The [Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia] that was held in Istanbul on 7 and 8 June – which was marked mostly by debates over Israel’s attack on the Gaza flotilla – was over but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s work was not yet done. He received a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":19816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[742],"class_list":["post-19815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","tag-diplomacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}