A Delicate Relationship

The U.S. Government has been watching the seemingly chronic economic and political crisis in Turkey with alarm, frustration and a measure of self-recrimination. TIME Diplomatic Correspondent Strobe Talbott reports:

When Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sat down in Vienna last week for a 90-minute private session, with only their interpreters present, one of the most sensitive issues between them concerned Turkey. The U.S. wants to send U-2 spy planes into Turkish airspace to monitor missile tests from the Tyuratam launch site in Kazakhstan, about a thousand miles inside the U.S.S.R. To verify Soviet compliance with the missile modernization provisions of SALT II, American intelligence must be able to get as close as possible to launches from Tyuratam. Before the fall of the Shah, the U.S. relied largely on nearby listening posts in Iran. When those installations were ransacked by supporters of Ayatullah Khomeini, the U.S. had to fall back on four electronic ground stations in Turkey -- and a request for permission to collect additional data by U-2 missions along the Turkish-Soviet border. The Turkish government has said it will grant permission only if the Kremlin does not object. Brezhnev made no promises but was encouraging. He knows that ratification of SALT II could turn on the Senate's confidence about verification.

The issue dramatizes the increased importance of the U.S.-Turkish relationship in the wake of the upheaval in Iran. It also illustrates the deterioration and current delicacy of that relationship. Before the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and the subsequent arms embargo imposed by Congress it would have been unthinkable for any government in Ankara to solicit a Soviet blessing for some thing like U-2 overflights. There is now widespread resignation in Washington that the damage done by the Cyprus crisis five years ago will never be fully repaired. Many in the Government see the U.S. as having abused a valued friendship. Says one U.S. diplomat: "People tend to forget that our three most important and successful postwar ventures in promoting democracy were Germany, Japan and Turkey." After a pause, he adds ruefully, "Of course, the Turks have practiced democracy so well that it often gets them tied into knots, as is happening right now."

The Carter Administration, like the Ford Administration, tends to blame Congress for overreacting to the Turkish occupation of Cyprus. The invasion was provoked by years of Greek-Cypriot repression of the Turkish minority on the island and by an abortive Athens-instigated coup in Nicosia. Ethnic loyalties have unquestionably played an unhelpful part in U.S. policy. An influential circle of a dozen or so legislators of Greek heritage rammed through the 1974 embargo, which was lifted only last year. The same "Greek lobby" was instrumental last week in blocking House approval of a $50 million military grant to Turkey. Since 1974 two leaders of the lobby have acquired more power--but no more sympathy for the Turkish position. Congressman John Brademas of Indiana is now the No. 3 man in the House Democratic leadership. Paul Sarbanes of Maryland has moved from a congressional seat up to the Senate.

State Department and White House officials are hoping that four factors will curb the anti-Turkish feelings on Capitol Hill:

1) the increased strategic importance of Turkey to NATO and the West now that Iran is neutral at best; 2) the desire to maintain Turkey as a moderate influence in the Islamic world; 3) the need to shore up Turkey against economic collapse; and 4) Turkey's geographic location, which is vital for the verification of SALT.

During West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's meeting with Carter at the White House three weeks ago, the U.S.-West European economic rescue operation was high on the agenda. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance has called Turkey "the southeastern anchor of the American security system." His principal troubleshooter, Warren Christopher, has made two trips to Ankara this year--in January to discuss the economic situation and in May to talk about U-2 overflights. Says Christopher: "Our relationship with Turkey is one of the most important and complex we have." National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski sees the coming months as critical. Said he last week: "The issue is fundamental. Is Turkey going to continue on the path laid out for it by Kemal Ataturk, namely toward westernization, or is it going to be driven back into the Middle East?" Brzezinski and other policymakers believe the answer could be important not only for Turkey but for its somewhat estranged and nervous ally, the U.S.

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