Turkish President's Visit to Washington Heralds Upturn in Bilateral Ties

Less than three months ago, the United States and Turkey seemed poised for a political falling out. Since then, bilateral ties have made a stunning comeback, and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who arrived in Washington on January 7, is expected to stress "the new found warmth" during a meeting with US President George W. Bush.

Closer strategic cooperation opened the way for the rapid US-Turkish rapprochement. Gul's visit is coming two months after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured a US pledge to provide real-time intelligence support for Turkish raids against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. With US backing, the Turkish military opened an aerial bombardment campaign of PKK camps on December 16. Two days later, Washington turned a blind eye to a small army incursion into Iraq.

Turks saw the US intelligence support as the first serious sign that Washington was taking their struggle against the PKK seriously. Accordingly, anti-American sentiment in Turkey began experiencing a decline. "The latest developments have been a turning point" in US-Turkish relations, Gul told Turkish journalists accompanying him to Washington. He added that Turkish "aid to northern Iraq and Iraq as a whole would increase tenfold