Kamil Pasha

From Ihsan Dagi’s column (click here for full text):

A highly critical public attitude toward the United States that emerged after 2003 has certainly damaged Turkish-American relations. This state of mind toward the US, however, is not confined to the public at large but apparently influences some critical sectors and institutions too, including the Turkish military. … It is obviously hard to measure the exact scope of the negative opinion and attitude within the Turkish military toward the US, but we have some clues. One of these is a book prepared by Fikret Bila, a veteran journalist who is well acquainted with the men in uniform, “Komutanlar Cephesi” (The Commanders’ Front.) The book is a collection of interviews conducted with various high-level generals who were involved with the fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

While talking about the fight against the PKK, comments made by retired Turkish generals about the US are striking…. It seems that the “comrades in arms” notion from the Cold War years is a thing of the past, even a distant past. What we see instead is a deep distrust. Turkish generals expect the worst from the Americans, including an outright occupation of Turkey. There is only one exception, Gen. Hilmi Özkök; the rest speak of the US just as they did of the USSR two decades earlier.

Tags: Nationalism, Politics //