Transcript
MARK PARRIS: There is no question that Prime Minister Erdogan's November 5th meeting with President Bush and the subsequent open cooperation among the United States, Turkey, and Iraq against PKK terrorism have fundamentally changed certainly the feel and probably the underlying dynamics of U.S.-Turkish relations. I saw some poll numbers a few days ago that U.S. approval ratings in Turkey have jumped from single digits to the mid-30s in a scant three months. When Abdullah Gul was here, the two sides seemed to be trying to outdo one another in their use of that much abused term "strategic partnership." The turnaround has been so breathtakingly abrupt, in fact, that one has to wonder why it seemed so hard for so long.
The past five years have been the most difficult in U.S.-Turkish relations in a generation, and it's appropriate as the Bush Administration enters its last year and as America and the world look ahead to who might take up the helm in Washington next year for us to pause and to take stock. How did things go so wrong in a relationship that once seemed so solidly founded? How could things turn around so dramatically since last fall? What lessons should Bush's successors draw from the arc of U.S.-Turkish relations from 2002 to 2008 if they are to do better?
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