Ambassador's remarks and public events

Ambassador Ross Wilson Interview with Defne Samyeli, Show TV

Istanbul,April 9, 2007

SAMYELI: Mr. Ambassador, thank you so much for being with us tonight.

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Thank you, it is a pleasure to be here.

SAMYELI: I'd like to start with the latest developments regarding Iraqi Kurdish leader Barzani's latest remarks on how they would interfere in Diyarbakir if Turkey interferes in Kirkuk. And this caused, obviously, a natural outrage here in Turkey, and the Turkish Foreign Minister called Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this past weekend to tell her that Barzani should be urged not to continue his threats toward Turkey.  In the wake of this full conversation how would you say that Washington would respond to resolve this latest controversy?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Well, Washington may be speaking on this matter directly later today.  We will see.  From my point of view, I think these were very unhelpful remarks.  Turkey and Iraq have a very important relationship.  This country has been very helpful to the government of Iraq and to the people of Iraq in terms of reconstruction, reconciliation, dialogue and in many other ways.  It seems to me that what Turkey and Iraq and the leaders of Turkey and the leaders of Iraq, including the leaders in northern Iraq, should be working on the practical issues that confront them, including the PKK presence in northern Iraq, and not get diverted by rhetorical conflict or rhetoric that is unhelpful and takes the countries away from where they should be going.

SAMYELI: Would Washington be sending any message, related with what you just said, to Barzani?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Well, let Washington speak for itself.  I think, as I said, we regard these remarks as unhelpful, and we'd like to see Turkey and Iraq continue to work constructively and directly on the many issues that are important in this part of the world.

SAMYELI:  Could the relationship between the American government and the Kurds in northern Iraq be preventing Washington from taking effective measures in that sense?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  I am not sure I want to speculate in that particular way.  Of course, we have an important relationship with the leaders of Iraq, and we have a relationship with the leaders of northern Iraq.  We have an important relationship with Turkey as well.  This is an ally of 60 years standing, it is very important to us.  And its future is important to us.  And I think we will take that into account, in how we go forward in our dealings with Turkey and Iraq, and Turkey and the northern Iraqi leadership.

SAMYELI: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan today made very harsh comments on Barzani's remarks, and this raised another concern. Repeatedly there has been a consensus here about a cross-border operation which you repeatedly opposed.  You yourself and Washington.  What if Turkey mounts an operation like this?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Well, first on the remarks that Prime Minister Erdogan made, I have heard that he made the remarks.  I can't really comment on the specifics of those. From the sound of it, he is reflecting the deep frustration that the leaders here feel about these remarks made by Mr. Barzani, and I respect that.  On the matter of northern Iraq and the PKK specifically in northern Iraq, we are working very hard and I think very constructively together with Turkey in a collaborative manner; the United States and Turkey and we hope soon, the United States, Turkey and Iraq, to deal with this in a constructive way that eliminates the problem of PKK sanctuaries once and for all in northern Iraq.  We had an important meeting in early March here in Istanbul and at the end of the month in Washington. I hope that we can soon see some results of that.

SAMYELI: So we should be anticipating some result, concrete results...right?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: I would not be involved with this, General Ralston would not be involved with this, and General Baser would not be involved in this, unless we thought that there would be constructive results coming out of it.

SAMYELI: OK, so we will be waiting to see that. Good. Another topic is very important. There are two resolutions currently pending in the House of Representatives and in the Senate on Armenian claims and genocide. What do you think?  Will they likely pass?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Well, predicting what one House or the other House of the United States Congress will do is something that is probably not particularly wise. It is very difficult to predict what will happen with this.  There have been a number of important statements made to members of Congress on this issue both by important Turks and by the Bush Administration in Washington.  Turkey's defense minister, foreign minister, chief of the general staff, two different groups of parliamentarians,  at least one group of businessmen, I think there have been some others that I am forgetting, have all gone to Washington and have expressed Turkey's views very clearly and very directly.  Secretary Rice and Secretary Gates sent a letter to the leadership of the House and of the Senate a couple of weeks ago.  A variety of senior Administration officials have talked with members of Congress on this. I talked with members of Congress when I was there back in March. I think we are making some headway.  We will have to see where this ends up.

SAMYELI:  How about the Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, she has been backing this from day one. And she gave promises and so forth, what do you think she would do?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Again, I am not going want to predict what a political figure is going to do perhaps the least of all the speaker of the House of Representatives.  She is a responsible person.  She has been touring the region in the course of this week.  Previously, during the last Congressional recess, she went to Afghanistan, to more familiarize herself with the problems and the challenges that the Unites States faces in this part of the world. I hope that one lesson that she gets out of this is how important Turkey is for what we are trying to do.

SAMYELI: Hopefully.  Do you have a contingency plan, does Washington has a contingency plan if the resolutions pass?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: I think our efforts at the moment are aimed to try to make sure that these resolutions don't come to a vote, and if they do come to a vote, that they don't pass. 

SAMYELI: What if they do?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Well, we have to deal with that when it comes won't we.  We certainly hope that they do not pass.

SAMYELI: OK. Because to the average Turkish citizen, binding or non-binding, a House resolution of that nature would be no different from anything that the President does not veto so it doesn't make any difference.  It would be hard to tell the Turkish people here what this means. I have this poll result here, that says an overwhelming majority of Turks oppose the two resolutions that are pending in the U.S. Senate and the House.  And a massive portion of the Turkish society believes that relations with Armenia and the United States* will be negatively affected if Congress passes the resolutions.  And that is another concern I am sure you have taken into consideration.

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Those are among the reasons why we oppose this resolution.

SAMYELI: OK. What do you think of speaker Pelosi's Middle East tour, by the way? She has been going around in the Middle East.  She is covering her head and meeting with Syria’s leaders although the Administration opposes this.  Is this a part of American foreign policy, the Speaker of the House taking a tour of the Middle East, like this for instance, without the approval of the Administration?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: The White House spokesman and Vice President Cheney have both talked about this and objected to her travels.  I believe and I think most of us believe and I think the President believes as well that it is important for members of Congress to travel abroad and get a first-hand sense of how people think, what they say and what kinds of arguments get presented.  The foreign policy of the United States is determined by the President.  We believe it is important for the members of Congress to have an accurate and a full understanding of the world outside the United States borders.  I am always delighted when members of Congress come to Turkey because they get a first hand sense that they get any other way of how people here think.  Mrs. Pelosi, I believe, delivered some important messages in each of the various capitals that she went to, including on the importance of progress toward Middle East peace and the importance that Syria support that effort and give up its support to terrorism.  And I think that is a useful message to convey.

SAMYELI: Than why did President Bush say that this trip was dangerous?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: I am not aware that he used that word, but he might have.  The President and others in the Administration believe that it is not helpful to have these kinds of high-level contacts with the Syrian leadership, that those contacts are misused and misconstrued, that they give a sense of the world is accepting the kind of behavior the Syrians are engaging in. I think all those are givens; in addition to that, it is not such a bad thing, that people like President Assad, hear directly similar concerns from Democratic leaders in the United States.

SAMYELI: How about Iran? What do you think of the outcome of the latest Iranian hostage situation?

AMBASSADOR WILSON:  Well, clearly, I think any human being is going to be happy for the British sailors, that they are back and have been reunited with their families and with their country.  It is clear that those British forces were operating in Iraqi waters, that they were operating in Iraqi waters with the agreement of the Iraqi government, pursuant to a unanimously adopted UN Security Council resolution.  The behavior here is confirmation of the kind of country we are dealing with when we are dealing with Iran.

SAMYELI: How is the United States dealing with Iran?  Would the United States be changing the way in dealing with Iran?  Would the United States be using military force against Iran, to stop Iran from enriching uranium?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: A number of senior Administration officials, including most recently the Chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff General Pace, have said publicly we are not planning a military operation against Iran. Period.  Full stop.  What we have on the table is an offer that was extended in June last year to negotiate unconditionally with Iran on one term, that Iran suspend the reprocessing, the enrichment of uranium.  We think that that is important; it is an important statement for the Iranians to put on the table that they are willing to listen to, not just what we, but the international community as a whole is saying.  We are engaged step by step very patient diplomacy in the United Nations, in the UN Security Council that has brought two unanimous resolutions, all fifteen members imposing certain limited sanctions on Iran, but also very clearly showing that there is a door the Iranians can walk through that will end all of this.  That is what we want to see happen.

SAMYELI: Hopefully. We too. As Turkish people here there is an increased risk in our area: Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, and we are still facing some troubles, financially, economically, that resulted from the first Gulf War, that we haven't really fully recovered from.  As a close ally, Turkey being in this region, trouble part of the world, what does the United States think about this?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: I am sorry about what?

SAMYELI:  Well, like Turkey's position here, Turkey is an ally to the United States. We are under increased risk in terms of everything…

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Turkey is an extremely important partner of the United States, whether we are talking about Iraq, or Iran, or the Middle East, or the Caucasus, or the Black Sea, or NATO, Europe as a whole.  Turkey is extremely important to us.  And we recognize the difficult situation that this country finds itself in.  Our alliance was established almost exactly sixty years ago, in part because of where Turkey found itself, on the borders of the expansion of the Soviet Union.  That was threatening this country and threatening its territorial integrity, threatening its independence.  Today, 60 years later, Turkey is at least as important if not more so because it is on the frontiers of some of the biggest challenges the world has to face: Iran, Iraq, the Middle East, Afghanistan a little bit further away, but Turkey has been very helpful and very supportive of what the international community has been trying to do in that country.  And we appreciate that.

SAMYELI:  Ok. Thank you so much. Mr. Ambassador. I’d like to talk to you for a few more minutes about how you like living here in Turkey.  It has not been a year right? What do you think about living in Turkey?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: I have been here for about 15-16 months. Turkey is a wonderful country. It is extremely important, as I was just saying.  It is full of history, layer upon layer of history.  There are many interesting issues to work here.  I have had an opportunity to travel around the country a little, not as much as I would like.  Clearly, we have some significant issues to deal with here as we do in most countries around the world.  This is such an important country for us that it is a real privilege and honor to work here and to get to know people.

SAMYELI: Such as? What issues would you like to deal with?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Well, we are dealing with the issues you and I just talked about. Iraq, Iran, the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Black Sea, energy, Turkey's integration into the European Union, NATO, NATO modernisation, the War on Terror, Afghanistan; there are many interesting things here.  Not to mention of course Turkey’s own internal development, including especially its economic modernization, trade, investment ties, things of that sort.

SAMYELI: You talked about your travels around the country. Where did you go?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: I have obviously been to Istanbul many times. I have been in the south of the country, in Antalya, in the west, in Izmir.  I have been in the southeast, in Diyarbakir, Mardin and Sanliurfa.  I have yet to get to the far east, yet to go to the Black Sea coast.  Those are on my list of next places to visit.

SAMYELI: In 15-16 months that is really remarkable.  And what surprised you the most here in Turkey?  The way of life and culture?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: You know I had been to this country several times before. So Turkey was not new to me.  As you probably know, I served as an American Ambassador to Azerbaijan, a country that has important ties and kinship with Turkey.  I think the one thing that surprised me that I had not seen on previous visits here is the diversity of this country.   The diversity of its peoples that come from all sorts of different places, in the latter part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century -- you see here a much more diverse picture, a mosaic of different peoples, it is quite different from what you see in a country like Azerbaijan. It is much more like what you see in the United States.

SAMYELI: Do you see any similarity when you look at Turkish people and American people?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Well, I think this diversity is one big part of it, and tolerance that results from that, and the history of tolerance.  I think Turkey is a young, a very dynamic population. Turks are outstanding businessmen and traders, that is definitely a trait that they share with the United States.  They are very friendly and outgoing and adaptive in a way I think is different from much of the rest of Europe.

SAMYELI: You have been away from home for how many years?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Well, I have been in the Foreign Service for about 27 years, but I have been away from the United States for about 16 months.

SAMYELI: What do you miss the most? Living in the States for instance?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: The thing that I miss the most of not being in the United States is my family.

SAMYELI: You are away from your family the whole time?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: My personal family is here. My wife and children live in Ankara with me. I mean the rest of my family: my mother, my brother, my sister, our extended family. I don't see them very often, I wish I could.

SAMYELI: You have two sons, am I correct?  What are they dong in Ankara? Are they students?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: They attend school.

SAMYELI: What are their career plans?  Are they willing to serve, for example, in the State Department?

AMBASSADOR WILSON: I don’t know. Our oldest son is sixteen. He started to talk about these things. He has expressed some interest in an international career. His mother, my wife, is also a Foreign Service officer with the State Department, her father was a Foreign Service officer with the State Department, and his father was a Foreign Service officer with the United States Government. So there could, there is at least three; there could be a fourth generation that is interested in this kind of life. Our younger son is only fourteen. It is a little premature to know what he wants to do.

SAMYELI: OK. Thank you so much for being with us tonight.

AMBASSADOR WILSON: Thank you.
 
* that relations with Turkey and the United States