AMBASSADOR'S REMARKS AND PUBLIC EVENTS

Ambassador Ross Wilson
Turkish-American Business Association Luncheon Remarks

April 4, 2006, Istanbul

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Let me say how delighted I am to be here.  I’m honored very much by the presence of all of you here today at lunch. I am especially delighted to be in Istanbul, and I’m especially delighted to be here at lunch on Tuesday, because this is I think the last event in what has been the most exhausting ten-day period since I was confirmed by the United States Senate for this position. 

About nine or ten days ago I departed Ankara for the United States.  Actually, I departed Istanbul for the United States for the ATC meetings.  Prior to that, we had a couple of very busy days in Ankara with a large congressional delegation led by the Chairman of our Senate Armed Services Committee, John Warner.  That was an extremely helpful opportunity for us and for Turkey to put a high level spotlight on the important work that Turkey is doing in support for peace and stability and prosperity in Afghanistan and in Iraq.  The main purpose of this delegation led by Senator Warner was to look at what is happening in those countries, the kind of support that the United States can and should be trying to provide to governments and peoples there and the kind of support that Afghanistan and Iraq are receiving from their neighbors.  On both accounts, these are areas where Turkey has a very, very good story to tell, and one of the things that Senator Warner did was to convey the United States’ appreciation, and certainly the appreciation of the United States Congress, for the work that Turkey is doing. 

Later on that same day, a week ago Thursday, the Chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace arrived in Turkey, also for some important and useful conversations both with the Turkish military and with the Prime Minister and I think with some others.  We came to Istanbul on Friday afternoon, and unlike yesterday and I think unlike today it was one of the worst days in the city.  The weather was ghastly.  We were not able to take advantage of what I thought would be great fun:  a helicopter ride across the city.  The military very nicely arranged this to avoid the city traffic, but a driving rain prevented General Pace from seeing some of the things there are to see here. 

In the first part of the last week I had the pleasure of attending, with a number of people here, with Adnan Nas and some others, the meetings of the American Turkish Council.  I thought my experience there was unique, but I have been talking with some others --- including Adnan --- and I discovered it wasn’t.  What happens in a conference like this is people are brought together, but then the bulk of what they are doing is either outside of the conference room or maybe outside of the conference location altogether in meetings elsewhere in Washington.  So at least my personal participation in the ATC consisted of making welcoming remarks and eating at successive breakfasts and lunches and dinners.   I had the opportunity to talk to some interesting people on the government side, on the military side and business side.  But I think I also gained about five kilos. 

The primary benefit of the ATC meetings, in my opinion, is that they provide a forum, they provide an excuse, for senior people from business, from government, from other walks of life, to get together in the same city to share views, share impressions and have some consultations about the issues that are before us.  This ATC meeting I think largely lived up to that although we were a little bit disappointed, as I think the Turkish government was, as I know the Turkish government was, when Foreign Minister Gul was unable to travel for health reasons that I think you’re all aware of.  In spite of that, there were some very helpful meetings that I was part of.  Minister of State for Foreign Trade Tuzmen met with our Trade Minister Ambassador Portman for what I thought was a very productive conversation about WTO, about some of the work that the United States and Turkey can do together.  Ways we can work together, to try to help bring about a Doha Round package on goods, on services, in agriculture and other fields that can lead to a successful conclusion of those talks, which we believe is exceptionally important for the United States and for the rest of the world.  They talked about several of our bilateral concerns, and Turkey’s bilateral concerns, whether it was rice, which is I think many of you know is a topic of concern to us; the matter of trade in textiles --- some of those concerns were addressed in the WTO discussion --- and various other pending bilateral matters, including intellectual property rights, which I know is an interest for at least a couple of the companies that are here.

Mr. Tuzmen also met with our Deputy Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Sampson.  That was the first time I met him.  He expressed to Mr. Tuzmen an interest in coming out to this part of the world, and I hope that that happens.  I think that is good.  High level dialogue is always good between our two countries.   If he is able to come here I’d like to use that visit as a way to put some focus on some of the right things that are happening in the Turkish economy and in U.S- Turkish trade. 

Now I might just turn to some of what was discussed at the ATC meetings in which I took part.  I think that there was widespread appreciation of Turkey’s impressive record of economic growth over the last four years.  I certainly commented about this, and a number of other guests commented on this as well.  And, even more so, focus on the opportunities that that represents for American companies to export their goods here, to invest in this country and also to develop partnerships with Turkish firms in third country markets. 

The last part is something that I particularly focused on, and some of the business people with whom I spoke asked, “What are you talking about?”  And I pointed to some of our cooperation in Iraq, U.S. – Turkish business cooperation in Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East.  I think there are some opportunities there that I would like to try to work with.  I hope that our friends in TABA and in the American Turkish Business Forum and other groups can help us to put some of those kinds of things together.

On Friday, I did something very interesting.  I attended in New York a business meeting that had been arranged by TAIK, by the Greek Chamber of Commerce and the Columbia University Business School Alumni Association to look at Turkish-Greek-U.S. business cooperation and collaboration.  I mention this because in getting ready to figure out what I would say in this group, I asked for some information about Turkish-Greek trade and Turkish-Greek levels of investment.  I discovered the good news: Turkish-Greek bilateral trade had increased from 200 and something million dollars to about 2 billion dollars in the course of approximately 10 years.  That is good, that is very good.  From growth from a small base, and 2 billion is not the biggest number, but it certainly is an extremely important accomplishment for businesses in both countries.  But the more interesting thing was on levels of investment.  U.S. businessmen know that business and exports often follow investment, go with investment.  And there the numbers that I was given were something like 260 Greek firms invested in Turkey, to the tune of about $165 million.   Not very big, not totally insignificant.  The figures for Turkish investment in Greece --- these, I think, were numbers that came from TOBB --- 10 Turkish firms invested in Greece, to a value of something like $450,000.  Mid-level bureaucrats in the U.S. government who have contributing to their pension plans for more than about 15 or 20 years have that much money saved in their pensions.  It is pretty insignificant.  I think all of us who were there reflected on those numbers, and on the overall trade opportunities that clearly exist, saw this conference as a way to try to foster some better ties, establish some better contacts, including through New York, which is always a good intermediary for business people.  Although as an American ambassador I was disappointed that the news I heard yesterday that Citibank lost out in its bid to purchase a share of Finansbank, it’s not bad, and in fact I think it is a strong statement of Turkey’s progress, progress in Greek-Turkish relations, and a good signal for some of the opportunities in the trade relations in this part of the world, that the National Bank of Greece will be taking a very significant role in the Turkish economy here. 

A lot of what was discussed while I was in the United States – and I’ll close with this --- was about where we are in U.S.-Turkish relations.  What really is happening?  Ambassador Sensoy and I both talked about some of the progress that we have made:  good bilateral dialogue that has been restored after several years in which there was not enough conversation between political leaders of our respective countries.  And that just sort of general talk that sometimes happens when you have very high level people come.   But also some very specific and concrete conversations like the kind that Ambassador Portman had with Kursad Tuzmen on very specific nuts and bolts issues; like the discussions that our FBI director and CIA director had here in December on issues of law enforcement, counter-terrorism and non-proliferation cooperation; meetings that other military people --- U.S. military people and Turkish military people --- have had in the four months that I had the privilege of being in this country.  We have, I think, significantly improved the tone.  We now have more open channels of communication than we did.  But we are still very much in a rebuilding mode.  There is still a lot of work to do.  On a lot of substantive issues we are more in synch, we have a better understanding.  But as any of you who were in Washington would know, there still is a lot of uncertainty in the United States.  Those of us who work here know that there is some uncertainty probably about the United States and about where our intentions are, including because we live in a very dynamic world where a lot of the things the United States is doing are controversial with some of our publics. 

I am happy now to be through --- more or less through --- the initial phase of my assignment here:  meeting everybody for the first time, collecting business cards -- now I have a pretty good set; collecting names, faces, attending functions.  I remarked at a dinner with the ABFT last month that I felt in Istanbul like I have met approximately 13 million people and was having a hard time keeping all those names and faces straight.  I still am and I probably always will.  But, to come to my point, I think that we’re past, and I feel like I am now past, that initial point, the initial establishment of relations, so that we can really get going on some of the important issues that are before our two countries, whether it is Iraq, whether it’s domestic issues in Turkey, or other matters further afield, that are of interest to our two countries.  Or, with respect to your concerns in the business sector, where there is plenty to do:  to improve the business climate here, the business relations between our two countries, to try to attract more American investors to this country.  I don’t want to see American companies miss the boat of rising Turkish prosperity.  I want them to be on that boat and I want them to be contributing to it and benefiting from it.  I’d also like to see more Turkish investment in the United States.  It works both ways.  Exports follow investments, and I think that the work that we can do to attract Turkish firms in our country, that can be very helpful as well. 

Those are some general observations.  I will be happy to try to answer some questions that people have a little bit later. Again I am delighted to be here.  I am exhausted after a busy ten days and I hope you’ll understand that.  TABA is an important group, this is an important part of our relationship with the business community, and therefore frankly with Turkey as a whole.  Thank you all very much.

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Gaziantep and Adana were the first places that I went in Turkey other than Ankara and Istanbul.  I waited until the winter was over before getting too deep into travel to other parts of the country.  I was extremely impressed with the dynamism that I saw, especially in the southeast, especially in Gaziantep.  Clearly, a lot of entrepreneurial activity, a lot of energy, a lot of construction.  Adana, in just what I observed in two days, is a little bit less dynamic.  But there clearly were also good things going on there.  The authorities that I talked to made clear their strong interest in trying to attract investment, their strong interest in trying to see if they can work with the U.S. government on some policy issues that will help to facilitate exports from that part of Turkey.  We will see how that works and it also depends on some other political factors and other business relationships that we can wire together with the support those kinds of steps.  But this is a hopping part of Turkey, and I think that there are a lot of opportunities for American business. 

QUESTION:  Ambassador, do you accept questions beyond the limits of American-Turkish trade or commercial affairs, but rather concerning political issues?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I will be happy to answer or try to answer whatever questions you might have.  If I cannot answer, I will say “no comment.”

QUESTION:  OK, thank you very much.  So, we all know that there is an expectation in the Turkish public opinion concerning the United States’ possible, concrete actions against the PKK terrorists in northern Iraq.  And there has been in many circumstances in meetings between Turkish and American officials, the American side has very often emphasized that some measures will be taken but until today we could not see any significant measures from the American side.  So can you say that there will be something which will happen in the future against the PKK in northern Iraq? 

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  First, in four months in this country, not to mention the time before that, I certainly was made very, very well aware of the concerns that Turks have about PKK violence.  In my confirmation testimony before the United States Senate, I talked about this as the number one security problem that Turkey faces.  We recognize that, and it is recognized at the highest levels of the U.S. government.  When General Pace was here in Istanbul a week ago -- Thursday and Friday -- he spoke rather extensively on this subject and, to reinterpret his remarks a little bit, the point that he emphasized was that we have an active set of measures that we are taking with respect to the PKK.  Some of them, many of them, are not things that we are prepared to talk about.  They may not be visible.  They may never produce the kind of visible results that I think your question implies that you have in mind.  The most important part of our PKK strategy with respect to northern Iraq is being played out right now in Baghdad, where we are working to try to stand up a strong central government that has broad national support, that can take control of a unified Iraq, protect its borders and deal with insurgents and terrorists all over, throughout the country.  If we are successful in that, I think the long-term problem of the PKK in northern Iraq, which existed under Saddam Hussein, was tolerated by Saddam Hussein, will come to an end.  Other parts of our PKK efforts, as I have said before and others have said before, focus on Europe, on cutting off the sources of funding.  That is what keeps the PKK alive, the funding that comes from elsewhere to support its activities.  Helping the Turkish authorities to get their hands on the PKK leaders who (inaudible) Turkey, by strengthening the cases that Turkish law enforcement authorities present to their European counterparts, to get these people arrested and get them extradited to Turkey to stand trial for the crimes they have committed.  That, too, doesn’t necessarily produce a banner headline or a big, spectacular show.  But we believe that the way to deal with the PKK problem that has gnawed at this country for 30 years is to try to come up with a more comprehensive approach that looks at what exists in Iraq and in northern Iraq, that looks at what exists in Europe, and is in the context of other moves that the Turkish government will need to take and the Turkish people will need to take on issues related to matters within Turkey, to deal with this terrorist problem and eliminate the terrorist problem once and for all.  A halfway set of measures, a piecemeal approach, would just repeat the failures that have gone on here for the last 30 years.  That is not what we want for our ally, for our allies in Turkey. 

QUESTION:  We’ve been sharing your views, but I’m sure that the other guests would like to have your views on how it was in Washington.  In a nutshell, tell us a little bit about the Hamas visit; how was this viewed in Washington?  What kind of questions were you asked?  What was wrong with it?  Was it the visit itself or was it just a matter of timing?  Give us your view on how is the relationship now between Washington and AKP government.  Is it going down or is it still in the same place?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Thank you very much.  This is an issue that I addressed in an interview I gave to several journalists in Washington I think last Wednesday.  I don’t know whatever happened to those remarks but they didn’t make into (inaudible), but to repeat what I said, there were a lot of questions raised during my meetings in Washington, during the meetings that other Americans that came with me from Turkey were asked and that a lot of Turks who attended were asked in meetings they had at the State Dept. or on Capitol Hill or with their business counterparts, elsewhere around town and even in New York.  I saw several people when I was there, too.  Questions you always get in the U.S., frankly: Where is Turkey headed?  What were my initial impressions?  There were a lot of questions raised about the Hamas visit.  I spent most of the day in Congress meeting with five or six different members of Congress and some of their senior staff.  Members expressed a lot of concern and frankly anger that Hamas had been allowed to come to Turkey; they expressed anger that representatives of an organization that has claimed credit for over 60 suicide bombings in Israel -- in public places, in shopping centers, in restaurants, in bus stations -- had been allowed to come to a country that itself has been a victim for so long of senseless and meaningless terrorism.  People told me that they found that very, very hard to understand and difficult to accept.  A number of people told me that they were surprised at how this became known.  Basically announced on the day that it took place or somewhat after, as I recall, after Hamas had actually arrived here.  It was a surprise.  Hamas’ travels elsewhere: in the Arab world, its visit to Tehran, its visit to Moscow; those have all been public knowledge that those were going to happen pretty far in advance.  It was less well known here.  A couple of Congressman told me that they had read in the newspapers statements by prominent Turkish officials that Hamas was not going to be coming here in the days prior to that visit, and that raised some questions in their minds.  I think I’d say two things about this.  The fact that this happened raised some questions about Turkey’s intentions, where Turkey is going, what kind of a relationship Turkey wants to have with the world on the issues of international terrorism, what kind of partnership it wants to have with us.  I don’t want to attach too much importance to it.  There is widespread recognition that Turkey is a friend, an ally of the United States.  It is a country that has been immensely helpful to what we’re trying to do and what others are trying to do in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in particular those two places.  It is a country whose success is extremely important to us.  Nevertheless people ask questions.  Americans have inquiring minds, and we’ve come out of a difficult period in our relationship.  I used the term when I was in Washington in the remarks I made at the ATC:  the last several years have been “disappointing.”  You can use lots of different adjectives but you get the idea.  We were unhappy, and I don’t think Turkey was particularly happy either.  We’ve been working over the course of the last eight or nine months to get out of that.  The adjective that I used in the interview that I gave Friday was that we are “rebuilding” our relationship.  We’re not done rebuilding.  We’re not done rebuilding the right kind of trust.  We’re not done rebuilding the right kind of common purpose.  We’re not done rebuilding a clearer common understanding, including of where we have differences.  That, I think, is extremely important for countries that need each other as much as the United States and Turkey and that have such a long and historical relationship as Turkey and the United States.

QUESTION:  Nagehan Alci, Aksam Newspaper: You said that Turkey and the United States are rebuilding the relationship.  One source of the relationship that was not going very well between the two countries was, I guess, that Turkey refused to open the borders during the Iraqi war.  There is now a threat of an Iranian war of which people speak, so if something like that happens and if the U.S. asks to open the borders again and if Turkey refuses once more, will this mean that the relationship will be in a negative period again? 

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Diplomats and government officials never like to speculate about hypothetical situations that are not presently in the plan.  What we are doing now is working diplomatically with our friends and our allies in the world, including Turkey, to build and to maintain a strong international consensus to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear programs.  That’s the beginning and that’s the end of what we’re working on with respect to the Iran nuclear power problem.  It’s a difficult problem.  It’s going to take a little while to get there.  The Iranians are a stubborn people, I suspect.  Turkey has been strongly supportive of what the international consensus is trying to achieve there.  The foreign minister has put out very strong and very effective statements.  Government Spokesman Cicek put out a very strong and very specific statement calling on Iran to resume its cooperation with the IAEA in full transparency with respect to its nuclear program.  Foreign Minister Gul said much the same thing I think about three weeks ago.  That’s the right place for Turkey to be.  It’s where we desperately need the broadest possible international consensus if we’re going to be successful in convincing Iran to abandon its program.  That’s the plan we’re working on. We’re not working on something else.

(Question in Turkish regarding AK party)

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  The United States does not take a position on matters of internal Turkish domestic politics, especially on issues related to elections in democratic countries that are friends of ours like Turkey.  We, of course, work closely with the government, we value our relationship with the government, and we will continue to cooperate with the government and collaborate with it on issues of common interest.

(inaudible)

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I don’t know.  The last time I checked (inaudible).  We don’t have a vote.  We’re not interested in voting.  The Turkish people should decide who their government is.  I’m sure that they will, and I’m sure they will decide wisely.

QUESTION:  I want to continue with one of the points I touched upon in my opening speech, Mr. Ambassador.  I said that, although we all like each other and are all proud of the so-called Strategic Partnership lasting for 50 years, we have to be more realistic and more proactive, and I said we have to redefine the common grounds for cooperation. Actually, I personally am thinking of this, everybody in this room is thinking of it.   What are your immediate considerations on this point?  What should be the concrete areas of common ground for cooperation from now on between Turkey and the U.S.?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  In the remarks that I gave at the ATC meeting in Washington and in the remarks that I gave when I was sworn in as Ambassador, I used almost exactly the same formulation as you did:  that we need to redefine U.S.-Turkish partnership and strategic cooperation to meet the needs of the 21st century.  Of course we are allies in NATO.  NATO is the process of some changes as well and we’re all working together on that.  But there’s a broader relationship that we’ve had that is bigger than just that and we need to redefine what that is because we live in a different kind of world than existed in the Cold War or even in the immediate post-Cold War world.  We’re looking at the issues in particular of international terrorism that are important.  What that redefined world will look like or what that redefined relationship will look like:  I’m not sure that I’m there yet and I fully understand and I’ve fully thought through and I’ve fully discussed with Washington and the Turkish authorities what it is that we specifically we want to try to do.  But I definitely agree with you.  We need to find a more modern way to find a common sense of purpose.  We need to find and perhaps be a little bit more specific about the common avenues that we wish to work in.  In general, I think it’s an outward-looking agenda that looks to the South, looks to the East, looks to the North, looks to the West.  All around Turkey, where there are issues that we have where Turkish-United States collaboration can play a significant role whether it’s in enhancing peace and stability, or (inaudible) in dangerous parts of the world, enhancing prosperity --- I mentioned the Greek-U.S.-Turkish discussions I was part of last week --- working on terrorism.  Turkey has always been a crossroads and it is an open society.  Those are good things that have enriched Turkey, but as is the case in a lot of places it exposes Turkey to some different problems in terms of terrorism.  We can work together on that, too.  There are probably a few other topics, but that is about as far as my thinking has gone.  Clearly there’s a lot of work to do to redefine this in a way that will ensure that the relationship has enduring support in both of our countries and maybe can a little bit better survive or cope when there are problems or issues that arise that exist among any allies: differences of opinion on one subject or another.

QUESTION:  Mr. Ambassador, to the same point, how do you see the EU agenda, overlaying on the search for common ground?  I’m sure that there are some EU commitments that Turkey should make and should pursue that would match your expectations of the future horizon for U.S.-Turkish relations.

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  For decades, the United States has given strong support to Turkey’s bid to begin accession negotiations to the European Union.  Secretary Rice, I think, played an important role that Turkish leaders have acknowledged last October, late September bringing things to where they are now.  We, in the present tense, are working with our friends in the European Union as well as on the island of Cyprus to try to work out arrangements that will lead to progress in the overall settlement negotiations which belong with the United Nations, but also to deal with some the EU’s specific issues as they relate to Cyprus.  We welcome the proposal that Foreign Minister Gul put forward in January.  We thought that those ideas were the kinds of things necessary to help get the process restarted.  We have encouraged, and I personally have encouraged, the authorities to work aggressively on the economic and political reform agenda that is part of accession to the European Union.  Trying to get ahead of that game.  I’m hoping the government will start working more aggressively on that in the upcoming periods.  It’s an extremely important aspect of Turkey’s future.  We’re not in the European Union and we’re not going to be party to these negotiations.  We have played a helpful role in moving things in the right direction, and that basically is the same kind of role that we want to play.

Let me just say again: thank you to all of you for making time available to me.  This isn’t my first visit to Istanbul.  I’ve been here several times.  But I’m delighted to be here with all of you in just a day over four months as American ambassador here.  I arrived four months ago to the day yesterday.  This is a wonderful country.  Our relationship is extremely important.  Turkey’s role in the region is very important to us.  I think that our collaboration and cooperation and our common interests can advance our interests and Turkey’s interests, and what I want to try to do here --- both what I do and what our Mission does --- is work to find the right areas of overlap and the right areas of common interests to ensure that we can accomplish useful things and that our relationship has a strong basis for the future.  So thank you all very, very much.