Forging a Coalition

JIM LEHRER:

Now, to one of today's Washington visitors, the foreign minister of Turkey, Ismail Cem. Turkey is a key country in the U.S. coalition efforts. It is a predominately Muslim nation, a member of the NATO alliance, a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. Mr. Minister, welcome.

ISMAIL CEM, Foreign Minister, Turkey:

Thank you.

JIM LEHRER:

You met today with Secretary Powell. You also met with Secretary Rumsfeld and with Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Advisor, as well as King Abdullah. On the U.S. part, are you comfortable with what you heard today about what the United States is planning in the way of a reaction to the September 11 attacks?

ISMAIL CEM:

Yes. Through all those meetings, and also I had a chance to have a meeting with Vice President Cheney in Ms. Rice's office. Well, I found all my colleagues a lot calmer. They were calm, they were cautious, and I said, well, there could have been a lot more emotion and justifiably so, after the tragedy that they went through. But I found them calm, resolute, determined and unemotional. And I think that's very positive. And that's a relief in a way to see that they're doing their job very cautiously.

JIM LEHRER:

Now, Secretary Powell said Turkey has pledged to allow U.S. flights, U.S. planes flyover right.

ISMAIL CEM:

Yes.

JIM LEHRER:

Use of bases. What else is Turkey prepared to do?

ISMAIL CEM:

Well, it will depend on the needs. It will depend on the environment. What I can say is that we will do whatever we can within our own realities and possibilities. And I'm rather cautious in speaking on that subject because I think the damage, the worse damage that one can give to the United States administration at the present is to be misleading, is to speak in big words and then not delivering what they speak about. So therefore, I follow a cautious line in that.

JIM LEHRER:

Well, let me be specific in a general way.

ISMAIL CEM:

Yes.

JIM LEHRER:

Is there anything that's been mentioned thus far by the United States, any request that has been mentioned either in real time or say, "hey we may ask you down the line to do a certain thing," that Turkey would have a problem with?

ISMAIL CEM:

No, because, well, another aspect that was interesting was to see that my American colleagues were not, you know, really demanding and putting pressure. On the contrary, their discourse was one which said, "well, this will be a floating coalition," in Rumsfeld's article today, a floating coalition. And everyone will contribute as to his possibilities. And therefore, there wasn't specific demands.

But they know that, as Turkey, as Turks, we shall do whatever is possible because, first, this is a fight which does not belong to U.S. alone. I mean Turkey has suffered from terrorists for a decade. We lost thousands of lives to terrorism, and we're threatened by terrorists. So we understand the situation in U.S., the feelings very well. Plus, I have to say that, in some very critical moments, junctures of our fight against terrorists, U.S. really did come to our assistance, and for this we are grateful and we shall do our best. And the administration knows that we shall do our best.

JIM LEHRER:

Your Prime Minister is reportedly in favor of the United States, or the coalition led by the United States, while they're at it, go ahead and eliminating the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Did you deliver that message today to the U.S. officials?

ISMAIL CEM:

No, I did not really speak on that particular point. But of course Taliban regime represents exactly the opposite of what we do represent as Turkey, because we're a secular country with a predominantly Muslim population. We're a country which is a democracy, like several democracies we have some problems in our system as well, but we're a secular democracy, and then of course a modern one with gender equality, upward mobility and everything. So we are the antithesis of what the Taliban represents.

JIM LEHRER:

So if they go away as a result of whatever happens, that would be fine with Turkey?

ISMAIL CEM:

If they wither away you mean?

JIM LEHRER:

Yes.

ISMAIL CEM:

Well, yes, of course, because well, in fact we have a long story, a long history with Afghanistan. In the early '30s, there was a leadership in Afghanistan which was progressist. And at that time Ataturk thought that we…

JIM LEHRER:

Who was the leader of Turkey?

ISMAIL CEM:

Of Turkey. We could be allies with Afghanistan and there were numerous professors from Turkey going to Afghanistan, students came over Turkey, military cadets came from Afghanistan to Turkey to participate in our military academies. So we always felt ourselves very close to Afghanistan, and even today, we have a very important insight to what goes on in Afghanistan, and we're sharing that information with the United States.

JIM LEHRER:

But you consider the Taliban your enemy?

ISMAIL CEM:

Well, we don't use that terminology, but they are the enemy of what we represent as Turkey.

JIM LEHRER:

Are you concerned, it was mentioned in the piece just now about the concern over backlash among the Muslim population in some of the Arab states. Are you concerned about that in Turkey, once a military action begins?

ISMAIL CEM:

Well, I'm not concerned about this in Turkey, but I think we should move very cautiously. And this is what the Administration, I'm very happy to have observed that. This is exactly what the Administration is doing. But this rhetoric about Muslim, Muslim, and terrorism and so on, I think this is absurd. And I'm, again, glad to say that the American administration, as well as some other administrations, are very cautious in their wording, in their discourse.

Whereas, in the media, we are not as cautious, even in the Turkish media, we see Islamic terrorism, Islamic terrorists, whereas, terrorism does not have a justification, whatever justification. But terrorism does not have a religion. Terrorism does not have a geography. I think these are points that we should be very careful about in order to really create that strong coalition. This is to say when we, well, they're Islamic terrorists, Islam is terrorism, as I said, it's absurd because if we are to discover tomorrow that the ones that financed the terror in New York and in Washington were Christians, Christian bankers, shall we call this whole event a Christian terrorism? So I think we should refrain from that.

JIM LEHRER:

What about the other part of the discussion about what to do in this campaign against terrorism? It has to do with not just going after the people who were responsible for these attacks in New York and Washington, but also go after the nation states that may have sponsored them, may have helped finance them, may have harbored them and whatever. What's Turkey's view of that?

ISMAIL CEM:

Well, our view is, as I try to state, our view is that terrorism does not have a geography. And it wouldn't be correct to say that that there is there was Afghanistan, there is the Middle Eastern region and these are the terrorists or the supporters of terrorism. It might very well be so, but terrorism is well represented in Europe. What about the terrorists that killed just about a week or so ago some innocent two policemen who were just doing their job, you know, a terrorist bomber, suicidal bomber who killed them? I mean.

JIM LEHRER:

What was that? You mean in Istanbul?

ISMAIL CEM:

In Istanbul. And all that kind of terror is encouraged, is directed even from some European capitals. I don't mean European countries themselves, but countries that tolerate, tolerate those kinds of manipulation, those kinds of finance, those kinds of encouragement to take place in their countries. So it doesn't have a, this is what I mean when I say terrorism doesn't have a geography, and we shouldn't discriminate about the places where these terrorist acts are planned, are encouraged and financed.

JIM LEHRER:

But for instance, Iraq has been mentioned as a possible.

ISMAIL CEM:

Any. I don't mention the name of one particular country, but I think if that particular country is harboring terrorism, of course we'll act against that. That may be a country in Africa, in Europe or in Asia.

JIM LEHRER:

You say you came away from your meetings today feeling good about the calmness and the steadiness of it. Are you going to leave here with some concerns? What are the concerns? What bothers you the most about what lies ahead?

ISMAIL CEM:

Well, one concern is the peace process between the Palestinians and the Israelis because so far, we have done quite well, and we have worked, as Turkey, and I have worked in order to, with the two parties to encourage them to meet and to make a cease-fire declaration. I think this is capital because if we do not consolidate this cease-fire, that will have a negative effect on the composition of the coalition and on the effectiveness of the coalition. Therefore, one of my major concerns is to keep up that rather positive process, hopeful process that was initiated. That's the first concern. The second one is for us all to know that terrorism does not have a pre-fix, there isn't a religion with terrorism, there isn't a geography with terrorism.

JIM LEHRER:

All right. Mr. Minister, thank you very much.

ISMAIL CEM:

I thank you very much. It's a pleasure.