KurdistanObserver.com

US Asks Anti-Americanism To Be Stopped In Turkey

By Foreign News Services

Zaman- Feb 20, 2005- A debate on anti-Americanism in Turkey, started by Robert L. Pollock's article in the Wall Street Journal, was deepened by the intervention of the US Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith yesterday.

Noting that Ankara should take action in order to stop anti-Americanism, Feith warned that otherwise relations between the two countries might suffer. Expressing that the US highly values good relations with its allies and wants to preserve them, Feith said, with reference to Turkey, that they hope their allies would also try hard to provide public opinion support regarding this relation as they have provided it in their country. Feith stressed that without the necessary sensitivity to maintain strong ties between the two countries, the relations could no longer be sustained.

President of the Federation of Turkish American Associations Ata Erim has sent an official letter to the Wall Street Journal expressing the strong reaction of the Turkish community against the article titled "The Sick Man of Europe-Again". Erim underlined that a false portrayal of Turkey through news or editorials in some newspapers as if they represented the views of all segments of society is neither right nor fair.

A survey broadcast by the BBC including a question on how the re-election of Bush was viewed showed the most negative answer to this question from Turkey causing speculation that Turkey is the strongest anti-American country. In the survey conducted by GlobeScan for the International Policy Attitudes Program at the University of Maryland in 21 countries, 82 percent of respondents in Turkey said that the re-election of Bush is dangerous for global security. The survey, which was held between November 15th 2004 and January 3rd 2005, also included another question about how the re-election of Bush affected their opinions about Americans. 72 percent of Turks answered "negatively", which also made Turkey the country expressing the most negative opinion on the question.