Turkey and America
YALMAN, AHMED EMIN
Turkey and America Their strong friendship is serving as a model for the rest of the world By Ahmed Emin Yalman Istanbul First saw America forty years ago, when I was there as a student in...
...Turkey and America Their strong friendship is serving as a model for the rest of the world By Ahmed Emin Yalman Istanbul First saw America forty years ago, when I was there as a student in 1911-14...
...By contrast with four decades ago, Americans today have become the best-informed people in the world on international affairs...
...I found that the foreign editors of many leading American newspapers were Englishmen, who gave their readers a purely British picture of the outside world...
...The idea was also incorporated in the "National Pact," a blueprint for the future of Turkey drawn up by the revolutionary congresses of Erzerum and Sivas in 1919, and was officially ratified by Parliament in 1920...
...The United States showed its interest in closer relations by sending the King-Crane Commission to Turkey in 1919 and the Harbord Commission in 1920...
...On the eve of World War I, America seemed hardly interested in the outside world...
...The idea that Turkey and the United States would one day find themselves in close collaboration for a common purpose would have seemed inconceivable at that time...
...It is a partnership directed toward a common idealistic goal, in which the elements of greed and crass self-interest so characteristic of such relationships are conspicuously lacking...
...American-Turkish cooperation is more than an alliance...
...As long ago as 1919, Turkish patriots regarded close cooperation with America as the only solution, on an idealistic as well as an economic basis, for the problems of the struggling young Turkish Republic...
...For her part, America has learned a great deal from bitter past experience...
...The American people clearly showed in the way they greeted Turkey's President that they are aware of the unique and ground-breaking character of this partnership, which has so brilliantly passed the test of fire in Korea...
...The average American seems to realize now that individual security is no longer possible for any country, and that the United States cannot evade its role of world leadership...
...As a result of casting off the fetters of theocracy and monarchy, liquidating its imperial burden, and instituting fundamental reforms in every sphere of life, Turkey has accomplished a veritable national regeneration...
...The Turkish people, too, appreciate the opportunity this link with America affords them and are determined to merit the continuing confidence of the American people...
...The Wilsonian League--so named in order to remind America of her responsibility for the Wilsonian principles on the basis of which Turkey surrendered in World War I--was formed in that year to prepare the way for U.S.-Turkish collaboration...
...As for Turkey, the former Sick Man of Europe has made an amazing recovery...
...Clearly, many things must have changed on both sides to make the present relationship possible...
...When I came again this past winter as one of four newspaper editors accompanying Turkish President Celal Bayar on his official visit to the United States, I was astonished by the change...
...As regards Turkey, the prevailing sentiment was either hostility caused by Russian and British propaganda, indifference, or hazy ideas based on the Thousand and One Nights...
...The Truman Doctrine gave it its greatest forward push in 1947, and, seven years later, President Bayar's official visit has set the capstone on the new relationship...
...by the effective support accorded the new government in Ankara by Admiral Marc Bristol...
...I am convinced that the new friendship between the United States and Turkey will serve as a model for the rest of the world...
...and by its backing of Turkey during the Lausanne Peace Treaty negotiations in 1922 and 1923...
...The Turkish "National Congress," which briefly assumed legislative functions after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, approved the principle of close relations with the United States...
...On my recent visit, I found Americans --even in the supposedly isolationist areas--fully conscious of their responsibilities in world affairs and eager to express appreciation for Turkey's active contribution in the Korean fighting...
...Today, everything is different...
...The once imperialistic, militaristic nation has become immune to the viruses of irredentism and power-lust, and is thus able to share in building a secure foundation for world peace and freedom...
...It took 31 years for the promise of Lausanne to ripen into the present close alliance...
Vol. 37 • April 1954 • No. 16
