Turkey stabbed us in the back in the run up to the Iraq war. They didn't just refuse us passage. They strung us along, kept a key division on ships off Turkey for weeks, dropped the news on us at the very last minute, and screwed up our whole northern front during the invasion.
One of the reasons why northern Iraq has been a cesspit since the war is that we never had a chance to deal with those forces before they dispersed.
And it wasn't just the parliamentary government that screwed us. It was the Generals.
At the time, I suspected that Chirac and Schoeder had leaned on Turkey and persuaded them to do what they did, dangling the reward of EU membership in front of them. Then, of course, they reneged. I read a column somewhere recently that suggested the same thing.
It's a great pity. Turkey was always a counterweight to Islamic fanaticism. Turkey was a very long-term ally to the United States. No longer. A country that stabs you in the back at the crucial moment simply cannot be trusted.
I think you analysis in on target.
The Turks have forgotten the lessons of Attaturk. Unless the military steps in, the country's head back to the 17th century, 'cause they sure won't be part of Europe. Maybe we should just help the Greeks toss the Turks out of Europe and Constantinople and push them back into Asia Minor. Put the Straits in Western hands, cut off the Turk's spare parts and ammunition, arm the Kurds and recognize an independent pro-Western Kurdistan. Oh, and support the Armenians demand for a few hundred billion in reparations for the 1915 genocide.