Only a few months ago, the relationship between the US and Turkey appeared to be as healthy as ever, a dependable friendship with many happy returns.
Officials here took comfort in the American push for a reluctant EU to open its door to Turkey. American officials figured they could count, and count heavily, on Turkey's cooperation in any military strikes on Iraq.
But the fighting began last week without that help, and several days into the war, the amity between the two nations is under severe strain.
In interviews over recent days, many Turkish and American officials said that a series of misunderstandings between -- and miscalculations by -- the two countries had created profound tensions that are likely to endure.
Political analysts cast those tensions as a clear example of collateral damage from the war -- a diplomatic setback to be placed alongside the messy, bitter American relations with France and Germany.
"It's quite serious," said Cem Duna, a former Turkish ambassador to the EU and to the UN.
"This is a relationship that was built up very carefully and meticulously for the last 40 years or so," Duna said. "It was always referred to as a strategic partnership."
"Now," he added, "that concept is lost, because it turned out to be neither a partnership nor strategic for that reason. That is very important damage. The trust that was built over this period is no longer here."
Other analysts and some Turkish leaders provided less pessimistic appraisals.
In an interview to be published in Newsweek on Monday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey disputed reports that he and US President Geirge W. Bush had a frosty telephone conversation almost two weeks ago.
But the magazine reported that before the war began, no Turkish official received notification from Washington, an apparent sign of a new estrangement.
Turkish air space remained closed to American warplanes until late Friday night, even though the Turkish Parliament had authorized its clearance, as American and Turkish officials argued for more than 24 hours over the details.
A principal sticking point was a plea by Turkish officials for a broad US endorsement for Turkish troops to enter Iraq, which American officials have urged them not to do. American officials in Washington were furious about the delay.
But Turkish officials said that Washington was asking for something without giving anything in return. Washington had already withdrawn an aid package worth about US$6 billion that it promised Turkey for a much broader degree of military cooperation.
A senior Turkish government official said on Friday that the friction between the countries was the worst in more than a decade, and senior members of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party expressed serious resentment toward the US.
"It's incredible how we made, within a few months, this relationship go from friendship to misunderstanding all over the place," said one of those party members.
US officials seemed no less upset.
"There's certainly a lot of disappointment," said a senior American official. "The relationship is not good right now, but we have a responsibility to make it better, because we have so many mutual interests."
The US and Turkey have been partners in NATO for more than 50 years, and their ties run deep. The US has given Turkey crucial economic support, and Turkey has provided a dependable, geographically important ally in a volatile region that features many governments hostile to the US.
For those and other reasons, American military planners expected to be able to move tens of thousands of American troops from southeastern Turkey into northern Iraq when an invasion began.
But the Turkish Parliament rejected that plan on March 1, and Erdogan was unable to put the issue before parliament again until it was too late to do the US much good.
"Turkey never fully appreciated how important deadlines were for us," the senior American official said. "They did not give priority to Washington's timeline."
Turkish political leaders said that Washington never appreciated the overwhelming opposition in Turkey to a war in Iraq. In public opinion polls, 94 percent of Turks said they disapproved of war.
"I believe it was really more like 99.9 percent," said Egemen Bagis, a leading Justice and Development party member who is close to Erdogan.
"The prime minister did his best," Bagis said. "There are some limitations in the democratic process."
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2