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Turkey

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Overview

Turkey was once the home of the Ottoman Empire that stretched from the Persian Gulf to western Algeria. Lasting for 600 years, the Ottoman Empire was not only one of the most powerful empires in the history of the Mediterranean region, but it generated a great cultural outpouring of Islamic art, architecture, and literature. With the fall of the empire by the 20th century, Turkey’s political power waned, though it continued to be a force regionally. The country also became known for one of the modern era’s most horrific genocides, as more than one million Armenians died during the period of World War I as a result of atrocities committed by Ottoman leaders.

 
In the 1970s, Turkey provoked hostilities with Greece over control of the island of Cyprus. The ordeal also threatened relations at the time with the United States, which had been a strong partner of the Turkish government during the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Relations gradually improved with the US and Turkey during the 1980s, and in the 1990s, the partnership grew even stronger in the wake of the Gulf War of 1991. Although Turkey possessed important economic ties with Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi government, the Turkish government sided with the US when it led a coalition of countries in repelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Turkey also permitted the US to use military bases in its country to enforce a no-fly zone over Iraq following the war.
 

During the current decade, relations between Turkey and the US have been strained. In contrast to the Gulf War, Turkey did not side with Washington’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. The government in Ankara refused to allow US troops to deploy through its territory to Iraq, and later, Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States after the House Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution that labeled the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I as genocide. Shortly after taking office, President Barack Obama publicly proclaimed he wanted to repair relations with Turkey, saying the country played an important role in forging peace in the region and inside Iraq.

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Basic Information

Lay of the Land: Situated in both southern Europe and southwestern Asia, and bordering the Black, Aegean, and Mediterranean seas, Turkey forms a geographic and historic bridge between East and West. Asian Turkey, which includes 97% of the country’s land area, is separated from European Turkey by the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles.

 
Population: 71.9 million
 
Religions: Sunni Muslim 79.1%, Alevi Muslim 20.7%, Armenian Orthodox Christian 0.09%, Jewish 0.03%, Syriac Christian 0.02%, Baha’i 0.01%, Yezidi 0.007%, Greek Orthodox 0.006%, Protestant 0.005%. The Alevis combine Sunni and Shi’a practices along with indigenous beliefs; men and women often worship together through oratory, poetry, and dance. Although the government treats it as a formal branch of Islam, some Alevis and orthodox Muslims consider it an independent religion.
 
Ethnic Groups: Turkish 80%, Kurdish 20%.
 
Languages: Turkish (official) 67.2%, Northern Kurdish 5.7%, Dimli 1.5%, North Mesopotamian Arabic 0.6%, Adyghe 0.4%, Bulgarian 0.4%, South Azerbaijani 0.3%. There are 34 living languages in Turkey.
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History

Turkey was originally occupied by the Indo-European Hittites and later by Phrygians and Lydians. The Persian Empire occupied the area in the 6th century BC, giving way to the Roman Empire, then later the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Turks first appeared in the early 13th century, and gradually spread through the Near East and Balkans, capturing Constantinople in 1453 and storming the gates of Vienna two centuries later. At its height, the Ottoman Empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to western Algeria. Lasting for 600 years, the Ottoman Empire was not only one of the most powerful empires in the history of the Mediterranean region, but it generated a great cultural outpouring of Islamic art, architecture, and literature.

 
After the reign of Sultan Süleyman I the Magnificent (1494–1566), the Ottoman Empire began to decline politically, administratively, and economically. By the 18th century, Russia sought to establish itself as a dominant power in the Balkans. Though Russian ambitions were checked by Britain and France in the Crimean War (1854–1856), the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) gave Bulgaria virtual independence and Romania and Serbia liberation from their nominal allegiance to the sultan. Turkish weakness stimulated a revolt of young liberals known as the Young Turks in 1909. They forced Sultan Abdul Hamid to grant a constitution and install a liberal government. However, reforms were no barrier to further defeats in a war with Italy (1911–1912) and the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). Turkey sided with Germany in World War I, and, as a result, lost territory at the conclusion of the war.
 
During and after WWI, Ottoman rulers set out on a campaign against Armenians that resulted in the deaths of approximately one million people. The slaughter became one of the first modern, systematic genocides of the 20th century. Turkey has denied responsibility for the attacks ever since.
 
Turkey’s current boundaries were drawn in 1923 at the Conference of Lausanne, and Turkey became a republic with Kemal Atatürk as the first president. The Ottoman sultanate and caliphate were abolished, and modernization, reform, and industrialization began under Atatürk’s direction. He secularized Turkish society, reducing Islam’s dominant role and replacing Arabic with the Latin alphabet for writing the Turkish language.
 
After Atatürk’s death in 1938, parliamentary government and a multiparty system gradually took root in Turkey, despite periods of instability and brief intervals of military rule. Neutral during most of World War II, Turkey declared war on Germany and Japan during the closing days of the conflict. Turkey became a full member of NATO in 1952, was a signatory in the Balkan Entente (1953), joined the Baghdad Pact (1955; later CENTO), joined the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and the Council of Europe, and became an associate member of the European Common Market in 1963.
 
Turkey invaded Cyprus by sea and air on July 20, 1974, following the failure of diplomatic efforts to resolve conflicts between Turkish and Greek Cypriots. Turkey unilaterally announced a cease-fire after gaining control of 40% of the island. Turkish Cypriots established their own state in the north on February 13, 1975.
 
In 1980, the military took control of the government after a period of instability and poor economic performance. A constituent assembly, consisting of the six-member national security council and members appointed by it, drafted a new constitution that was approved by an overwhelming (91.5%) majority of the voters in a November 1982 referendum. Martial law was gradually lifted, though the military continued to control the country.
 
About 12 million Kurds, roughly 20% of Turkey’s population, live in the southeast region of Turkey. The government, however, does not officially recognize Kurds as a minority group, in effect excluding them from legal protection under the law. Oppression of Kurds and Kurdish culture led to the emergence in 1984 of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant Kurdish terrorist campaign under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan. Although the guerrilla movement sought independence at first, by the late 1980s the rebel Kurds were willing to accept an autonomous state or a federation with Turkey. Approximately 35,000 died in clashes between the military and the PKK during the 1980s and 1990s. Ocalan was captured in 1999, tried and convicted of treason and separatism. He was sentenced to death.
 
On August 17, 1999, western Turkey was devastated by an earthquake (magnitude 7.4) that left more than 17,000 dead and 200,000 homeless. Another huge earthquake struck in November.
 
In November 2002 elections, a new political party, the Justice and Development Party (AK), came out on top. But its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was barred from becoming prime minister because of a conviction for “inciting religious hatred” by reciting an Islamic poem at a rally in 1998. Another popular AK leader, Abdullah Gul, served as prime minister until Turkish law was amended to permit Erdogan to run for a seat in parliament again, which he easily won. Gul resigned as prime minister, making way for Erdogan.
 
In November 2003, two terrorist attacks rocked Istanbul. On November 17, truck bombs exploded near two synagogues, and on November 22, the British Consulate and a British bank were targeted. More than 50 were killed and hundreds were wounded in the attacks, which were blamed on al-Qaeda.
 
In an effort to gain entry into the European Union, Turkey began revamping some of its repressive laws and policies. In 2003, its parliament passed a law reducing the military’s role in political life and offered partial amnesty to PKK members, many of whom had sought refuge in northern Iraq. In 2004, Turkish state television broadcast the first Kurdish language program and the government freed four Kurdish activists from prison. Turkey also abolished the death penalty in all but exceptional cases.
 
In April 2007, Prime Minister Erdogan nominated Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, an Islamist, as the ruling party’s candidate for president over the objections of the military, which had historically been protective of a secular state. Gul, however, failed to win the necessary two-thirds majority in parliament, and a constitutional court later nullified the vote, citing a lack of a quorum. Many secularists in parliament, who accused Gul of harboring an Islamist agenda, boycotted the vote. Gul withdrew from the race in May, but he was ultimately victorious in the third round of elections in August.
 
Tension between Turkey and Iraq peaked in October 2007, as Kurdish separatists in Iraq and members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) escalated their attacks into Turkey. In response, Turkey’s Parliament voted 507-to-19 to allow the deployment of troops into northern Iraq. US and Iraqi officials feared a war on another front in Iraq would further destabilize the already fragile country.
 
In January 2008, police arrested 13 ultranationalists, including three former military officers, who were accused of organizing and carrying out political murders. One of the officers, Veli Kucuk, was suspected of running a secret unit within the police force that orchestrated political violence against religious and ethnic minority groups.
 
In February 2008, Parliament voted in favor of a measure put forth by Prime Minister Erdogan that would lift the ban on women wearing headscarves in universities. Secular lawmakers voted overwhelmingly against the laws, concerned that their secularism faced attack by the conservative government. In June, Turkey’s highest court overturned the measure, saying it violated secularist principles inherent in the country’s constitution.
 
On April 30, 2008, Parliament voted to soften Article 301 of the penal code, which restricted free speech by prohibiting the disparagement of being Turkish, and had been used to prosecute hundreds authors and journalists in the past.
 
On July 14, 2008, 86 people suspected of being part of a secular organization called Ergenekon were charged with attempting to overthrow the AKP government. Two weeks later, the 11-member Constitutional Court fell one vote short of banning the Justice and Development Party for violating the country’s secular constitution. The court did rule, however, to reduce by one-half the party’s public financing.
 
A Country Study: Turkey (Library of Congress)

All about Turkey

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Turkey's Newspapers
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History of U.S. Relations with Turkey

US-Turkish friendship dates to the late 18th century and was officially sealed by a treaty in 1830. About 360,000 Turks came to the US between 1820 and 1950, but the vast majority of these returned when Ataturk established the secular republic in 1923.

 
The United States first began to forge a strong relationship with Turkey in 1947 when Congress designated Turkey, under the provisions of the Truman Doctrine, as the recipient of special economic and military assistance intended to help it resist threats from the Soviet Union. A mutual interest in containing Soviet expansion provided the foundation of US-Turkish relations for the next 40 years. In support of overall American Cold War strategy, Turkey contributed personnel to the UN forces in the Korean War, joined NATO in 1952, became a founding member of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) collective defense pact established in 1955, and endorsed the principles of the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Turkey generally cooperated with other United States allies in the Middle East (Iran, Israel, and Jordan) to contain the influence of those countries (Egypt, Iraq, and Syria) regarded as Soviet clients.
 
The most difficult period in their relationship followed Turkey’s invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974. In response to the military intervention, the United States halted arms supplies to Turkey. The Turkish government retaliated by suspending American military operations at all Turkish installations that were not clearly connected with NATO missions.
 
The Cyprus issue affected US-Turkish relations for several years. Even after Congress lifted the arms embargo in 1978, two years passed before bilateral defense cooperation and military assistance were restored to their 1974 level.
 
During the 1980s, relations between Turkey and the US gradually improved. Although Ankara resented continued attempts by Washington to restrict military assistance to Turkey because of Cyprus and to introduce congressional resolutions condemning the 1915-16 massacre of Armenians, the Özal government generally perceived the administrations of President Ronald Reagan and President George H.W. Bush as sympathetic to Turkish interests. For example, Washington demonstrated its support of Özal’s market-oriented economic policies and efforts to open the Turkish economy to international trade by pushing for acceptance of an International Monetary Fund program to provide economic assistance to Turkey. Furthermore, the US did not publicly criticize Turkey over allegations of human rights violations, and American officials did not pressure Özal on the Kurdish problem.
 
The end of the Cold War forced Turkish leaders to reassess their country’s international position. Özal believed Turkey’s future security depended on the continuation of a strong relationship with the United States. For that reason, he supported the US during the Persian Gulf War, although Turkey’s economic ties to Iraq were extensive and their disruption hurt the country. After the war, he continued to support major US initiatives in the region, including the creation of a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, the Arab-Israeli peace process, and expanded ties with former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
 
Özal’s pro-US policy was not accepted by all Turks. American use of Turkish military installations during the bombing of Iraq in 1991 led to antiwar demonstrations in several cities, and sporadic attacks on US facilities continued in 1992 and 1993. Nevertheless, among Turkey’s political elite a consensus had emerged by January 1995 that Turkey’s security depended on remaining a strategic ally of the US. For that reason, both the Demirel and Çiller governments undertook efforts to cultivate relations with the administrations of presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
 
US-Turkey Military Relationship (Federation of American Scientists)

Arming Repression: U.S. Arms Sales to Turkey During the Clinton Administration

(

by Tamar Gabelnick, William D. Hartung, and Jennifer Washburn with research assistance by Michelle Ciarrocca, A Joint Report of the World Policy Institute and the Federation of American Scientists

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Current U.S. Relations with Turkey

Notable Turkish Americans

 
Muhtar Kent is the CEO and chairman of the Coca-Cola Company. Kent was born in New York City to a father who was the Turkish consul-general. He graduated from the University of Hull in the United Kingdom and received an M.A. in business from the Cass Business School at the City University in London. He started out at Coca-Cola as a salesman, touring the country and learning distribution, marketing, and logistics systems. He subsequently worked his way up the company, once serving as president of the Company’s East Central Europe Division from 1989 to 1995. In 2008, he was appointed chairman and CEO.
 
Ahmet Ertegün was a co-founder and executive of Atlantic Records. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, he came to the United States with his family when his father Münir Ertegün became the first ambassador from the young Republic of Turkey to the U.S. After fostering many young talents—including Ray Charles— through Atlantic Records, Ertegün passed away in 2006 from an accidental fall backstage prior to a Rolling Stones benefit concert. He was 83.
 
Tiffani Thiessen is an actress who was born to a father of German descent and a mother of Turkish, Greek, and Welsh descent. Thiessen is best known for playing Kelly Kapowski in the sitcom Saved by the Bell and Valerie Malone in Beverly Hills, 90210. Currently, she plays Elizabeth Burke on the USA TV series White Collar.

Cenk Uygur is a radio talk show host and political commentator known for being the host of the The Young Turks, a radio show and daily web television talk show. An ethnic Turk, Uygur graduated from the University of Pennsylvania–Wharton School of Business and Colombia University Law School. He also occasionally writes for the Huffington Post and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and E! Entertainment Channel.
 
US-Turkish relations focus on areas such as strategic energy cooperation, trade and investment, security ties, regional stability, and the global war on terrorism. Relations were strained when Turkey refused in March 2003 to allow US troops to deploy through its territory to Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States and threatened to withdraw its support of the war in Iraq in October after the House Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution labeling as genocide Turkey’s murder of some 1.5 million Armenians during World War I. Former President George Bush strongly urged members of the committee to vote against the resolution.
 
On July 5, 2006, the US and Turkey signed a Shared Vision Statement to highlight common values and goals between the two countries and lay out a framework for increased strategic dialogue. Former President George W. Bush welcomed Prime Minister Erdogan to Washington for a White House visit on November 5, 2007, during which he committed to provide greater assistance to Turkey in its fight against terrorism from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which he characterized as a “common enemy” of Turkey, Iraq, and the United States. He reiterated this commitment during President Gul’s January 8, 2008, White House visit.
 
On July 9, 2008, four gunmen attacked the US Consulate in Turkey, opening fire on security guards outside the consulate. Three police officers and three attackers are killed in a gun battle.
 
President Barack Obama told Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in February 2009 that he hoped to strengthen ties with their country and expressed support for Turkey’s growing relationship with Iraq.
 
A total of 117,575 people identified themselves as being of Turkish ancestry in the 2000 US census. Turks have congregated in urban areas like New York City, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Rochester.
 
In 2006, 326,652 Americans visited Turkey. Although there was a brief dip in 2003 (162,198 tourists), tourism has exploded since 2002 when 197,402 Americans went to Turkey.
 
Also in 2006, 90,122 Turks visited the US. Tourism stagnated between 2002 (78,662 tourists) and 2004 (76,404 tourists) but has grown consistently since then.
 
Human Rights vs US Arms Sales To Turkey (by Kevin McKiernan, CommonDreams.org)

U.S.-Turkey Relations Require New Focus

(Atlantic Council of the United States)

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Where Does the Money Flow

In 2002, the two countries indicated their joint intent to upgrade bilateral economic relations by launching an Economic Partnership Commission, which last convened in Washington in April 2008. The US and Turkey also have a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement to facilitate trade between the two countries. In 2008, Turkish exports to the US totaled about $4.6 billion, down from a high of $5.3 in 2006. American exports to Turkey totaled $10.4 billion in 2008, representing the highest total yet since 2004.

 
US imports from Turkey (2004-2008) were led by stone, sand, cement and lime, rising from $285 million to $357 million; petroleum products, increasing from $67 million to $213 million; synthetic clothes and fabrics, up from $103 million to $149 million; finished metal shapes, rising from $75 million to $128 million; drilling and oilfield equipment, leaping from $17 million to $123 million; agricultural machinery and equipment, increasing from $69 million to $113 million; and engines for civilian aircraft, up from $60.3 million to $122 million.
 
American imports on the decline included apparel and household goods (cotton), down from $1.1 billion in 2003 to $414 million in 2008; and iron and steel mill products, down from $887 million to $592 million.
 
In 2008, US exports to Turkey were led by two billion-dollar exports: steelmaking materials, rising from $138 million to $2 billion; and civilian aircraft, increasing from $63 million to $1.3 billion. Other top exports were fuel oil, catapulting from $37,000 to $814 million; metallurgical grade coal, jumping from $84 million to $382 million; raw cotton, up from $447 million to $536 million; and parts for military type goods, increasing from $121 million to $337 million.
 
The US sold $727.6 million of defense articles and services to Turkey in 2007.
 
The US gave $19.8 million in aid to Turkey in 2007, divided between Foreign Military Financing ($14.2 million), International Military Education and Training ($3.5 million), Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining and Related Programs ($2.1 million). The 2008 budget reduced aid to $12.2 million, and was entirely dedicated to various Peace and Security programs. The 2009 budget request will give Turkey $18.7 million, divided between Foreign Military Financing ($12.0 million), Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining and Related Programs ($3.4 million), International Military Education and Training ($3.0 million), and International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement ($0.3 million).
 
 
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Controversies

Nuclear Deal Proposed for Turkey

On July 9, 2006, the government of Turkey formally began ratification proceedings for a deal with the US for cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The underlying purpose of the agreement was to authorize transfers to Turkey of US civil nuclear technology, equipment, components, and material, including nuclear power reactors and their low enriched uranium fuel. The agreement would take effect if the United States completed its formal process for approving the pact. By 2015, Turkey expects to complete the construction of three nuclear power stations. These plans have generated controversy within the country among anti-nuclear activists and opposition members of the Turkish parliament. The US-Turkey nuclear agreement was discussed at the same time as the United States was negotiating a similar agreement with India.
 
Helicopter Deal for Turkey Prompts Protests from Greek-, Armenian-Americans
Both Boeing and Bell Helicopter Textron competed in 2000 for the right to compete with foreign competitors to sell more than a hundred advanced military helicopters to Turkey. The contract was estimated to be worth $4 billion to build 145 attack helicopters. Ultimately, Bell was the lone US finalist, along with the Italian manufacturer Augusta and a Russian-Israeli consortium, Kamov-Israeli Aircraft Industries. When news of the possible deal got out, the American Hellenic Institute, the lobbying arm for three million Greek Americans, planned to fight the sale, as did the Armenian National Committee of America, which represents 1.5 million Armenian Americans. Amnesty International also was organizing a letter-writing campaign to dissuade the State Department from granting an export license. Though Turkey’s war with Kurdish guerrillas in the southeast had subsided at that time, its human rights record remained “among the worst in the world,” said Republican Representative John Porter. Turkey had used US weapons in the past against the Kurds, and human rights groups worried that it would deploy the Cobras if Kurdish guerrillas again took up arms.

Human Rights Leave Chopper Deal in a Spin

(Time Europe)

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Human Rights

Turkey has generally respected human rights for its citizens, but some seriously problems the country is dealing with are torture and arbitrary abuse or deprivation of life, right to fair trial, civil rights, and women’s and children’s rights.  

 
One major human rights issue in Turkey is the problem of torture and abuse. Different sources have cited accounts of arbitrary abuse and deprivation of life due to armed forces or independent terrorist groups. In 2007, the Ministry of Justice handled 45 cases of torture that involved 298 suspects and 178 victims. It also handled 34 cases of “excessive force.” According to the Turkish government, in 2007, “27 civilians were killed and 134 were injured, 139 members of the security forces were killed and 216 were injured, and 295 terrorists were killed and 193 were injured in armed clashes related to the struggle against the terrorist PKK organization.” The number of cases of torture and abuse rose in 2008. Amnesty International (AI) cites a “culture of impunity” allowed police and Jandarma, or “paramilitary forces under joint Ministry of Interior and military control,” to continue practices, such as disregarding medical evidence of torture or accepting statements extracted under torture.
 
Another category of violators of the right to be free from torture are village guards, a civil defense force generally located in the southeast of Turkey. They are cited for repeated “drug trafficking, corruption, theft, and rape and other human rights abuses.” This problem is caused by inadequate oversight, corruption, and imputnity from prosecution.
 
In terms of right to a fair public trial, Turkey provides for an independent judiciary, but there are problems with corruption. There is also no jury system; a judge or a panel of judges decides all cases. The structure of the judiciary has been criticized by international human rights organizations and the European Union for giving unfair advantage to the prosecution.
 
The law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, but the government limits these rights at times. The government intimidated journalists into practicing self‑censorship. Some laws in violation of civil rights include one that prohibits insults to “the government, the state, “Turkishness,” Ataturk, or the institutions and symbols of the republic.” The Anti-terror Law and laws governing the press and elections, also restrict speech. Also, expression of sympathy toward Kurdish nationalism is suppressed.
 
According to the State Department, “the constitution and laws provide for freedom of religion, and the government generally respected this right in practice.” There are some restrictions, however, on Islam and other religions. Christians continue to be attacked. For example, on June 19, 2008, the Ministry of Interior “issued a circular to all governors that acknowledged an increase in individual criminal actions and attacks against non-Muslim citizens and their places of worship.” But governors were requested to take all necessary measures to prevent future incidents against non-Muslims.
 
Corruption is a problem in the Turkish government. The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, these are not well-enforced.
 
Rape, including spousal rape, and violence against women is prohibited, but this is not effectively enforced. Cases of rape are also underreported. Women’s NGOs reported that more than 150,000 women were victims of domestic violence between 2001 and 2005. Prostitution is legal.
 
Child abuse was a problem. There were a significant number of honor killings of girls by immediate family members, sometimes by juvenile male relatives. In 2005 police arrested over a dozen nurses, caretakers, and other employees of the Malatya state orphanage in connection with an investigation into the alleged torture and abuse of children at the institution.
 
There were reports of trafficking in women and children to the country for the purpose of sexual exploitation. There were allegations that official corruption contributed to the trafficking problem.Turkey was a destination and transit country for women and children trafficked primarily for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Women and girls were trafficked from Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, as well as from Kenya, Nigeria, and the Philippines.
 

Amnesty International

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Debate
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Past Ambassadors

George W. Erving
Note: Not commissioned, although his nomination was confirmed by the Senate.

 
David Porter
Appointment: Apr 15, 1831
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 13, 1831
Termination of Mission: Died at post Mar 3, 1843
 
Dabney S. Carr
Appointment: Oct 6, 1843
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 29, 1844
Termination of Mission: Presented recall on or shortly before Oct 20, 1849
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Jan 11, 1844.
 
George P. Marsh
Appointment: May 29, 1849
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 11, 1850
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Dec 19, 1853
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Jun 24, 1850.
 
Carroll Spence
Appointment: Aug 23, 1853
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 9, 1854
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Dec 12, 1857
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Feb 9, 1854. Nominated Feb 25, 1856 to be Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary; nomination withdrawn before the Senate acted upon it.
 
James Williams
Appointment: Jan 14, 1858
Presentation of Credentials: May 27, 1858
Termination of Mission: Left post on or soon after May 25, 1861
 
James Watson Webb
Appointment: Mar 20, 1861
Note: Declined appointment.
Edward Joy Morris
Appointment: Jun 8, 1861
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 22, 1861
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Oct 25, 1870
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Jul 15, 1861.
 
Joseph J. Stewart
Note: Not commissioned; nomination not confirmed by the Senate.
 
Wayne MacVeagh
Appointment: Jun 4, 1870
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 25, 1870
Termination of Mission: Relinquished charge, Jun 10, 1871
 
George H. Boker
Appointment: Nov 3, 1871
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 25, 1872
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, May 1, 1875
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Dec 14, 1871.
 
Horace Maynard
Appointment: Mar 9, 1875
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 12, 1875
Termination of Mission: Presented new credentials on Nov 15, 1876, after change of ruler; presented recall, Jul 15, 1880
 
James Longstreet
Appointment: Jun 14, 1880
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 14, 1880
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 29, 1881
 
Lewis Wallace
Appointment: May 19, 1881
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 6, 1881
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, May 15, 1885
 
Samuel S. Cox
Appointment: Mar 25, 1885
Presentation of Credentials: On or shortly before Aug 25, 1885
Termination of Mission: Left post Sep 14, 1886
 
Oscar S. Straus
Appointment: Mar 24, 1887
Presentation of Credentials: Jul 1, 1887
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Jun 16, 1889
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Dec 21, 1887.
 
Solomon Hirsch
Appointment: May 16, 1889
Presentation of Credentials: [Dec 28, 1889]
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 16, 1892
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Dec 16, 1889. Assumed charge of Legation on Dec 28, 1889, although he had presented credentials on Jul 3, 1889.
 
David P. Thompson
Appointment: Nov 15, 1892
Presentation of Credentials: Jan 11, 1893
Termination of Mission: Left post May 1, 1893
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Dec 8, 1892.
 
Alexander W. Terrell
Appointment: Apr 15, 1893
Presentation of Credentials: Jul 7, 1893
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Jun 15, 1897
 
James B. Angell
Appointment: Apr 15, 1897
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 3, 1897
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 13, 1898
 
Oscar S. Straus
Appointment: Jun 3, 1898
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 15, 1898
Termination of Mission: Left post Dec 20, 1899
 
John G. A. Leishman
Appointment: Dec 20, 1900
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 29, 1901
Termination of Mission: Presented new credentials on May 17, 1909, after change of ruler; presented recall, Jun 10, 1909
 
Oscar S. Straus
Appointment: May 17, 1909
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 4, 1909
Termination of Mission: Left post Sep 3, 1910
 
William Woodville Rockhill
Appointment: Apr 24, 1911
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 28, 1911
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Nov 20, 1913
 
Henry Morgenthau
Appointment: Sep 4, 1913
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 11, 1913
Termination of Mission: Left post Feb 1, 1916
 
Abram I. Elkus
Appointment: Jul 21, 1916
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 2, 1916
Termination of Mission: Turkey severed diplomatic relations with the US, Apr 20, 1917; Elkus left post May 29, 1917
 
Joseph C. Grew
Appointment: May 19, 1927
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 12, 1927
Termination of Mission: Left Turkey, Mar 13, 1932
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Apr 13, 1928.
 
Charles H. Sherrill
Appointment: Mar 17, 1932
Presentation of Credentials: May 20, 1932
Termination of Mission: Appointment terminated, Mar 23, 1933
 
Robert P. Skinner
Appointment: Jun 13, 1933
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 16, 1933
Termination of Mission: Left post Jan 16, 1936
 
John Van A. MacMurray
Appointment: Jan 24, 1936
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 16, 1936
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 28, 1941
 
Laurence A. Steinhardt
Appointment: Jan 12, 1942
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 10, 1942
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 2, 1945
 
Edwin C. Wilson
Appointment: Jan 27, 1945
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 11, 1945
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 20, 1948
 
George Wadsworth
Appointment: Aug 11, 1948
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 1, 1948
Termination of Mission: Left post Jan 2, 1952
Note: An earlier nomination of Jul 29, 1948, had not been confirmed by the Senate. Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Mar 2, 1949.
 
George C. McGhee
Appointment: Dec 8, 1951
Presentation of Credentials: Jan 15, 1952
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 19, 1953
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Jan 18, 1952.
 
Avra M. Warren
Appointment: Jul 28, 1953
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 17, 1953
Termination of Mission: Left post Feb 17, 1956
 
Fletcher Warren
Appointment: Mar 7, 1956
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 13, 1956
Termination of Mission: Left Turkey, Nov 15, 1960
 
Raymond A. Hare
Appointment: Feb 24, 1961
Presentation of Credentials: Apr 5, 1961
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 27, 1965
 
Parker T. Hart
Appointment: Jul 22, 1965
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 11, 1965
Termination of Mission: Left post Oct 3, 1968
 
Robert W. Komer
Appointment: Oct 28, 1968
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 3, 1968
Termination of Mission: Left post May 7, 1969
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate. A later nomination of Jan 9, 1969, was withdrawn before the Senate acted upon it.
 
William J. Handley
Appointment: May 1, 1969
Presentation of Credentials: Jul 1, 1969
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 19, 1973
 
William B. Macomber, Jr.
Appointment: Mar 27, 1973
Presentation of Credentials: May 16, 1973
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 15, 1977
 
Ronald I. Spiers
Appointment: May 26, 1977
Presentation of Credentials: Jul 12, 1977
Termination of Mission: Left post Jan 11, 1980
 
James W. Spain
Appointment: Feb 19, 1980
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 26, 1980
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 16, 1981
 
Robert Strausz-Hupe
Appointment: Jul 27, 1981
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 7, 1981
Termination of Mission: Left post May 18, 1989
 
Morton I. Abramowitz
Appointment: Jun 23, 1989
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 1, 1989
Termination of Mission: Left post Jul 25, 1991
 
Richard Clark Barkley
Appointment: Oct 9, 1991
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 8, 1991
Termination of Mission: Left post Dec 15, 1994
 
Marc Grossman
Appointment: Sep 29, 1994
Presentation of Credentials: Jan 3, 1995
Termination of Mission: Left post June 1, 1997
 
Mark Robert Parris
Appointment: Nov 4, 1997
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 12, 1997
Termination of Mission: Left post Sep 8, 2000
 
W. Robert Pearson
Appointment: Jun 14, 2000
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 21, 2000
Termination of Mission: Left post July 23, 2003
 
Eric S. Edelman
Appointment: Apr 16, 2003
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 29, 2003
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 19, 2005
 
Ross Wilson
Appointment: Nov 22, 2005
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 8, 2005
Termination of Mission: 2008
 

Former US Ambassadors to Turkey

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Turkey's Ambassador to the U.S.
ambassador-image Kılıç, Serdar

 

In January 2014, the government of Turkey announced that Serdar Kılıç, a longtime member of the country’s foreign ministry, was to be the next ambassador to the United States, although he did not arrive in Washington until April.

 

Kılıç was born March 28, 1958, in Samsun, a city in north-central Turkey on the Black Sea. He graduated from Ankara University’s political sciences department in 1980.

 

Kılıç didn’t join the Foreign Ministry right away. His first professional job was in 1977 with Turkey’s Ministry of Tourism and Culture. In 1982, he took a position in the private sector as a director for Ekşioğlu Holding, a construction company. 

 

Kılıç joined the Foreign Ministry in 1984 and was assigned to the Eastern Europe and Asia Department. His first overseas posting came in 1987 when he was named third secretary in Turkey’s embassy in Kuwait. Kılıç landed his first U.S. assignment in 1989 as assistant consul general in Los Angeles. He returned home in 1992 as second secretary and later first secretary in the ministry’s Gulf and Muslim Countries Department.

 

In 1993, Kılıç began a fairly long period dealing with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), initially as first secretary in Turkey’s delegation to NATO. He returned to Ankara in 1997 as chief of section in the ministry’s Deputy General Directorate of NATO and Euro-Atlantic Security and Defense Affairs. In 1999, Kılıç was back in Turkey’s NATO delegation as a counselor.

 

Kılıç returned to Turkey in 2003 as head of department for the Balkans and Central Europe desk. He was named deputy director general of NATO and Euro-Atlantic Security and Defense Affairs in 2006.

 

Kılıç’s first ambassadorial post came in 2008 when he was named envoy to Lebanon. While there, he worked to increase awareness of Lebanon’s ethnic Turkish population. He was brought home in 2010 to be secretary general of MGK, Turkey’s National Security Council. He was sent to Tokyo as ambassador in 2012, a post he held until being named to Washington.

 

Since coming to the United States, Kılıç has had to deal with various groups’ recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 100 years ago, in which the Ottoman government killed about 1.5 million ethnic Armenians. Turkey has long fought the use of the word “genocide” for the deaths.

 

Another confrontation came when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was asked to return a peace award given him in 2004 by the American Jewish Congress. The request came after Erdoğan referred to Israel’s attacks on Gaza in the summer of 2014 as genocide. He told supporters “They kill women so that they will not give birth to Palestinians; they kill babies so that they won’t grow up; they kill men so they can’t defend their country.” Kılıç acted as an intermediary in the dispute, telling the organization that Erdoğan would return the award.

 

Kılıç is married and has one son. He is the uncle of Çağatay Kılıç, Turkey’s Sports and Youth Minister.

-Steve Straehley

 

To Learn More:

Official Biography

Turkey Reshuffles Envoys in Washington, London and Paris (Hurriyet Daily News)

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Turkey's Embassy Web Site in the U.S.
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U.S. Ambassador to Turkey

Bass, John
ambassador-image

 

On July 15, 2014, the Senate Foreign Relations committee held a hearing into the nomination of John R. Bass as the U.S. ambassador to Turkey. Although the committee approved his nomination, the hearing did have one moment of controversy. When Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) confronted Bass with details of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s crackdowns on free speech, Bass proved reluctant to criticize Erdoğan. McCain asked, “Do you believe—it is a pretty simple, straightforward question—that with his repression of social media, of his desire to change the Constitution to give more power to the presidency, which he obviously will be, do you believe that is a drift towards authoritarianism?” Finally, when McCain threatened to withhold Bass’s nomination if he didn’t get a direct answer, Bass conceded that “It’s a drift in that direction, yes.”

 

If he’s confirmed, it will be the second ambassadorial post for Bass, a career Foreign Service officer who was formerly the U.S. envoy to Georgia.

 

Bass is from upstate New York and graduated from Syracuse University in 1986 and was a newspaper editor and political campaign consultant before joining the Foreign Service in 1988. Some of his early postings were in Belgium, the Netherlands and Chad.

 

In 1998, he went to work for Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, first as a special assistant for Europe and Eurasia. In that role, he was part of the peace negotiations for the Kosovo conflict. He was named Talbott’s chief of staff in 2000, coordinating policy on arms reduction with Russia.

 

Bass served in the U.S. Embassy in Rome from 2002 to 2004, when he was named a special advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney for policy on Europe and Eurasia. In 2005, Bass was named director of the State Department Operations Center, the department’s communication and crisis management center. It’s open around the clock and coordinates State Department responses to incidents throughout the world.

 

Bass was sent to Iraq in 2008 as leader of a provincial reconstruction team. After a year in that assignment, Bass was named U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, an important post at a time when that country was being used as a transit point for U.S. forces headed to Iraq. During his term there, Bass was charged by the Tbilisi government’s opposition with “meddling in Georgia’s domestic affairs” and his recall was urged, but nothing came of the protests.

 

Since 2012, Bass has been executive secretary of state. The executive secretariat coordinates activities between the department’s bureaus and leadership. It’s also the liaison between the State Department and the White House, the National Security Council and other agencies.

 

Bass is married to another career Foreign Service officer, Holly Holzer Bass. Holzer Bass most recently served as deputy director of the Office of Iranian Affairs. She is an accomplished photographer and has had several exhibitions of her work. The two are avid runners and have competed in the Bay-to-Breakers race in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bass speaks Italian and French.

-Steve Straehley

 

To Learn More:

Official Biography

Testimony before Senate Foreign Relations Committee (pdf)

State Department Cables (WikiLeaks)

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Previous U.S. Ambassador to Turkey

Ricciardone, Francis
ambassador-image

Francis J. “Frank” Ricciardone, Jr., a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who speaks Turkish, has returned to Turkey for his third tour of duty there. President Barack Obama nominated Ricciardone on July 1, 2010. However, Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) blocked a Senate confirmation vote on him. Ricciardone served as President George W. Bush’s ambassador to Egypt from 2005 to 2008, and received public support from some Egyptian democracy activists. But back in the United States, Brownback and other conservatives claimed that Ricciardone was not aggressive enough in pursuing democracy in Egypt. When Ricciardone’s confirmation failed to come to a vote after more than five months, Obama gave him a recess appointment on December 29. His term will run out at the end of 2011.

 
Ricciardone was born in Boston in 1952, the son of Francis C. Ricciardone, Sr., a Seabee veteran of World War II, and graduated from Malden Catholic High School.  He earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1973, and received a Fulbright Scholarship to teach and study in Italy.  He also went to Iran, before the Islamic revolution there, as a teacher in 1976, and traveled widely in Southwest Asia, Europe, and the Middle East until he joined the Foreign Service in 1978. 
 
After early assignments in Turkey, London, and elsewhere, Ricciardone was appointed to be Political Officer at the embassy in Cairo, Egypt, from 1986 to 1989, and remained in the region an additional four years, serving as Chief of the Civilian Observer Unit of the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai Desert from 1989 to 1991, and as Deputy Chief of Mission at the embassy in Amman, Jordan, from 1991 to 1993. Returning to the Middle East in 1995, he served again in Turkey, as Deputy Chief of Mission at the embassy in Ankara, where he remained for two tours into 1999. He was then appointed Special Coordinator for the Transition of Iraq, a post he held from 1999 to 2001, when he took on the dual roles of Senior Advisor to the Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of the Task Force on the Coalition Against Terrorism, from 2001 to 2002. 
 
Heading to East Asia for his first ambassadorship, Ricciardone served as Ambassador to the Philippines and Palau from 2002 to 2005, followed immediately by a three-year stint as Ambassador to Egypt from 2005 to 2008. While at this post, Ricciardone sent a secret diplomatic cable back to Washington, since made public by Wikileaks, in which he described the government of President Hosni Mubarak as a “dictatorship” suffering from “paranoia,” and speculated on the possibility of Mubarak’s being succeeded by his son, Gamal, whose failure to complete his military service may pose a large stumbling block. 
 
Ricciardone took a one-year leave of absence from the State Department in 2008 to serve as a guest scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. At State Department headquarters, Ricciardone has served in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and in senior management positions under the Director General of the Foreign Service and of Human Resources.
 
In addition to Turkish, Ricciardone speaks Italian, Arabic, and French. He and his wife Marie, a molecular biologist who was educated and later taught in Turkey during their previous tours there, have two children, Francesca and Chiara, one of whom, Francesca, was born in Turkey. Both daughters were educated in Ankara for three years. Marie Ricciardone served as an international affairs officer in the State Department’s Office of Environmental Policy and was Program Manager for USAID’s US-Asian Environmental Partnership. She was also the Program Coordinator for the U.S. Scientist Engagement Program in Libya.
 
Mr. Ricciardone Goes to Ankara (by İlhan Tanir, Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review)
Ricciardone: Iraq Needs Democracy (by Griffin Gordon, The Dartmouth)
 
 

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Table of Contents
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Overview

Turkey was once the home of the Ottoman Empire that stretched from the Persian Gulf to western Algeria. Lasting for 600 years, the Ottoman Empire was not only one of the most powerful empires in the history of the Mediterranean region, but it generated a great cultural outpouring of Islamic art, architecture, and literature. With the fall of the empire by the 20th century, Turkey’s political power waned, though it continued to be a force regionally. The country also became known for one of the modern era’s most horrific genocides, as more than one million Armenians died during the period of World War I as a result of atrocities committed by Ottoman leaders.

 
In the 1970s, Turkey provoked hostilities with Greece over control of the island of Cyprus. The ordeal also threatened relations at the time with the United States, which had been a strong partner of the Turkish government during the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Relations gradually improved with the US and Turkey during the 1980s, and in the 1990s, the partnership grew even stronger in the wake of the Gulf War of 1991. Although Turkey possessed important economic ties with Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi government, the Turkish government sided with the US when it led a coalition of countries in repelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Turkey also permitted the US to use military bases in its country to enforce a no-fly zone over Iraq following the war.
 

During the current decade, relations between Turkey and the US have been strained. In contrast to the Gulf War, Turkey did not side with Washington’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. The government in Ankara refused to allow US troops to deploy through its territory to Iraq, and later, Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States after the House Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution that labeled the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I as genocide. Shortly after taking office, President Barack Obama publicly proclaimed he wanted to repair relations with Turkey, saying the country played an important role in forging peace in the region and inside Iraq.

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Basic Information

Lay of the Land: Situated in both southern Europe and southwestern Asia, and bordering the Black, Aegean, and Mediterranean seas, Turkey forms a geographic and historic bridge between East and West. Asian Turkey, which includes 97% of the country’s land area, is separated from European Turkey by the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles.

 
Population: 71.9 million
 
Religions: Sunni Muslim 79.1%, Alevi Muslim 20.7%, Armenian Orthodox Christian 0.09%, Jewish 0.03%, Syriac Christian 0.02%, Baha’i 0.01%, Yezidi 0.007%, Greek Orthodox 0.006%, Protestant 0.005%. The Alevis combine Sunni and Shi’a practices along with indigenous beliefs; men and women often worship together through oratory, poetry, and dance. Although the government treats it as a formal branch of Islam, some Alevis and orthodox Muslims consider it an independent religion.
 
Ethnic Groups: Turkish 80%, Kurdish 20%.
 
Languages: Turkish (official) 67.2%, Northern Kurdish 5.7%, Dimli 1.5%, North Mesopotamian Arabic 0.6%, Adyghe 0.4%, Bulgarian 0.4%, South Azerbaijani 0.3%. There are 34 living languages in Turkey.
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History

Turkey was originally occupied by the Indo-European Hittites and later by Phrygians and Lydians. The Persian Empire occupied the area in the 6th century BC, giving way to the Roman Empire, then later the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Turks first appeared in the early 13th century, and gradually spread through the Near East and Balkans, capturing Constantinople in 1453 and storming the gates of Vienna two centuries later. At its height, the Ottoman Empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to western Algeria. Lasting for 600 years, the Ottoman Empire was not only one of the most powerful empires in the history of the Mediterranean region, but it generated a great cultural outpouring of Islamic art, architecture, and literature.

 
After the reign of Sultan Süleyman I the Magnificent (1494–1566), the Ottoman Empire began to decline politically, administratively, and economically. By the 18th century, Russia sought to establish itself as a dominant power in the Balkans. Though Russian ambitions were checked by Britain and France in the Crimean War (1854–1856), the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) gave Bulgaria virtual independence and Romania and Serbia liberation from their nominal allegiance to the sultan. Turkish weakness stimulated a revolt of young liberals known as the Young Turks in 1909. They forced Sultan Abdul Hamid to grant a constitution and install a liberal government. However, reforms were no barrier to further defeats in a war with Italy (1911–1912) and the Balkan Wars (1912–1913). Turkey sided with Germany in World War I, and, as a result, lost territory at the conclusion of the war.
 
During and after WWI, Ottoman rulers set out on a campaign against Armenians that resulted in the deaths of approximately one million people. The slaughter became one of the first modern, systematic genocides of the 20th century. Turkey has denied responsibility for the attacks ever since.
 
Turkey’s current boundaries were drawn in 1923 at the Conference of Lausanne, and Turkey became a republic with Kemal Atatürk as the first president. The Ottoman sultanate and caliphate were abolished, and modernization, reform, and industrialization began under Atatürk’s direction. He secularized Turkish society, reducing Islam’s dominant role and replacing Arabic with the Latin alphabet for writing the Turkish language.
 
After Atatürk’s death in 1938, parliamentary government and a multiparty system gradually took root in Turkey, despite periods of instability and brief intervals of military rule. Neutral during most of World War II, Turkey declared war on Germany and Japan during the closing days of the conflict. Turkey became a full member of NATO in 1952, was a signatory in the Balkan Entente (1953), joined the Baghdad Pact (1955; later CENTO), joined the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and the Council of Europe, and became an associate member of the European Common Market in 1963.
 
Turkey invaded Cyprus by sea and air on July 20, 1974, following the failure of diplomatic efforts to resolve conflicts between Turkish and Greek Cypriots. Turkey unilaterally announced a cease-fire after gaining control of 40% of the island. Turkish Cypriots established their own state in the north on February 13, 1975.
 
In 1980, the military took control of the government after a period of instability and poor economic performance. A constituent assembly, consisting of the six-member national security council and members appointed by it, drafted a new constitution that was approved by an overwhelming (91.5%) majority of the voters in a November 1982 referendum. Martial law was gradually lifted, though the military continued to control the country.
 
About 12 million Kurds, roughly 20% of Turkey’s population, live in the southeast region of Turkey. The government, however, does not officially recognize Kurds as a minority group, in effect excluding them from legal protection under the law. Oppression of Kurds and Kurdish culture led to the emergence in 1984 of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant Kurdish terrorist campaign under the leadership of Abdullah Ocalan. Although the guerrilla movement sought independence at first, by the late 1980s the rebel Kurds were willing to accept an autonomous state or a federation with Turkey. Approximately 35,000 died in clashes between the military and the PKK during the 1980s and 1990s. Ocalan was captured in 1999, tried and convicted of treason and separatism. He was sentenced to death.
 
On August 17, 1999, western Turkey was devastated by an earthquake (magnitude 7.4) that left more than 17,000 dead and 200,000 homeless. Another huge earthquake struck in November.
 
In November 2002 elections, a new political party, the Justice and Development Party (AK), came out on top. But its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was barred from becoming prime minister because of a conviction for “inciting religious hatred” by reciting an Islamic poem at a rally in 1998. Another popular AK leader, Abdullah Gul, served as prime minister until Turkish law was amended to permit Erdogan to run for a seat in parliament again, which he easily won. Gul resigned as prime minister, making way for Erdogan.
 
In November 2003, two terrorist attacks rocked Istanbul. On November 17, truck bombs exploded near two synagogues, and on November 22, the British Consulate and a British bank were targeted. More than 50 were killed and hundreds were wounded in the attacks, which were blamed on al-Qaeda.
 
In an effort to gain entry into the European Union, Turkey began revamping some of its repressive laws and policies. In 2003, its parliament passed a law reducing the military’s role in political life and offered partial amnesty to PKK members, many of whom had sought refuge in northern Iraq. In 2004, Turkish state television broadcast the first Kurdish language program and the government freed four Kurdish activists from prison. Turkey also abolished the death penalty in all but exceptional cases.
 
In April 2007, Prime Minister Erdogan nominated Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, an Islamist, as the ruling party’s candidate for president over the objections of the military, which had historically been protective of a secular state. Gul, however, failed to win the necessary two-thirds majority in parliament, and a constitutional court later nullified the vote, citing a lack of a quorum. Many secularists in parliament, who accused Gul of harboring an Islamist agenda, boycotted the vote. Gul withdrew from the race in May, but he was ultimately victorious in the third round of elections in August.
 
Tension between Turkey and Iraq peaked in October 2007, as Kurdish separatists in Iraq and members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) escalated their attacks into Turkey. In response, Turkey’s Parliament voted 507-to-19 to allow the deployment of troops into northern Iraq. US and Iraqi officials feared a war on another front in Iraq would further destabilize the already fragile country.
 
In January 2008, police arrested 13 ultranationalists, including three former military officers, who were accused of organizing and carrying out political murders. One of the officers, Veli Kucuk, was suspected of running a secret unit within the police force that orchestrated political violence against religious and ethnic minority groups.
 
In February 2008, Parliament voted in favor of a measure put forth by Prime Minister Erdogan that would lift the ban on women wearing headscarves in universities. Secular lawmakers voted overwhelmingly against the laws, concerned that their secularism faced attack by the conservative government. In June, Turkey’s highest court overturned the measure, saying it violated secularist principles inherent in the country’s constitution.
 
On April 30, 2008, Parliament voted to soften Article 301 of the penal code, which restricted free speech by prohibiting the disparagement of being Turkish, and had been used to prosecute hundreds authors and journalists in the past.
 
On July 14, 2008, 86 people suspected of being part of a secular organization called Ergenekon were charged with attempting to overthrow the AKP government. Two weeks later, the 11-member Constitutional Court fell one vote short of banning the Justice and Development Party for violating the country’s secular constitution. The court did rule, however, to reduce by one-half the party’s public financing.
 
A Country Study: Turkey (Library of Congress)

All about Turkey

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Turkey's Newspapers
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History of U.S. Relations with Turkey

US-Turkish friendship dates to the late 18th century and was officially sealed by a treaty in 1830. About 360,000 Turks came to the US between 1820 and 1950, but the vast majority of these returned when Ataturk established the secular republic in 1923.

 
The United States first began to forge a strong relationship with Turkey in 1947 when Congress designated Turkey, under the provisions of the Truman Doctrine, as the recipient of special economic and military assistance intended to help it resist threats from the Soviet Union. A mutual interest in containing Soviet expansion provided the foundation of US-Turkish relations for the next 40 years. In support of overall American Cold War strategy, Turkey contributed personnel to the UN forces in the Korean War, joined NATO in 1952, became a founding member of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) collective defense pact established in 1955, and endorsed the principles of the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Turkey generally cooperated with other United States allies in the Middle East (Iran, Israel, and Jordan) to contain the influence of those countries (Egypt, Iraq, and Syria) regarded as Soviet clients.
 
The most difficult period in their relationship followed Turkey’s invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974. In response to the military intervention, the United States halted arms supplies to Turkey. The Turkish government retaliated by suspending American military operations at all Turkish installations that were not clearly connected with NATO missions.
 
The Cyprus issue affected US-Turkish relations for several years. Even after Congress lifted the arms embargo in 1978, two years passed before bilateral defense cooperation and military assistance were restored to their 1974 level.
 
During the 1980s, relations between Turkey and the US gradually improved. Although Ankara resented continued attempts by Washington to restrict military assistance to Turkey because of Cyprus and to introduce congressional resolutions condemning the 1915-16 massacre of Armenians, the Özal government generally perceived the administrations of President Ronald Reagan and President George H.W. Bush as sympathetic to Turkish interests. For example, Washington demonstrated its support of Özal’s market-oriented economic policies and efforts to open the Turkish economy to international trade by pushing for acceptance of an International Monetary Fund program to provide economic assistance to Turkey. Furthermore, the US did not publicly criticize Turkey over allegations of human rights violations, and American officials did not pressure Özal on the Kurdish problem.
 
The end of the Cold War forced Turkish leaders to reassess their country’s international position. Özal believed Turkey’s future security depended on the continuation of a strong relationship with the United States. For that reason, he supported the US during the Persian Gulf War, although Turkey’s economic ties to Iraq were extensive and their disruption hurt the country. After the war, he continued to support major US initiatives in the region, including the creation of a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, the Arab-Israeli peace process, and expanded ties with former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
 
Özal’s pro-US policy was not accepted by all Turks. American use of Turkish military installations during the bombing of Iraq in 1991 led to antiwar demonstrations in several cities, and sporadic attacks on US facilities continued in 1992 and 1993. Nevertheless, among Turkey’s political elite a consensus had emerged by January 1995 that Turkey’s security depended on remaining a strategic ally of the US. For that reason, both the Demirel and Çiller governments undertook efforts to cultivate relations with the administrations of presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
 
US-Turkey Military Relationship (Federation of American Scientists)

Arming Repression: U.S. Arms Sales to Turkey During the Clinton Administration

(

by Tamar Gabelnick, William D. Hartung, and Jennifer Washburn with research assistance by Michelle Ciarrocca, A Joint Report of the World Policy Institute and the Federation of American Scientists

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Current U.S. Relations with Turkey

Notable Turkish Americans

 
Muhtar Kent is the CEO and chairman of the Coca-Cola Company. Kent was born in New York City to a father who was the Turkish consul-general. He graduated from the University of Hull in the United Kingdom and received an M.A. in business from the Cass Business School at the City University in London. He started out at Coca-Cola as a salesman, touring the country and learning distribution, marketing, and logistics systems. He subsequently worked his way up the company, once serving as president of the Company’s East Central Europe Division from 1989 to 1995. In 2008, he was appointed chairman and CEO.
 
Ahmet Ertegün was a co-founder and executive of Atlantic Records. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, he came to the United States with his family when his father Münir Ertegün became the first ambassador from the young Republic of Turkey to the U.S. After fostering many young talents—including Ray Charles— through Atlantic Records, Ertegün passed away in 2006 from an accidental fall backstage prior to a Rolling Stones benefit concert. He was 83.
 
Tiffani Thiessen is an actress who was born to a father of German descent and a mother of Turkish, Greek, and Welsh descent. Thiessen is best known for playing Kelly Kapowski in the sitcom Saved by the Bell and Valerie Malone in Beverly Hills, 90210. Currently, she plays Elizabeth Burke on the USA TV series White Collar.

Cenk Uygur is a radio talk show host and political commentator known for being the host of the The Young Turks, a radio show and daily web television talk show. An ethnic Turk, Uygur graduated from the University of Pennsylvania–Wharton School of Business and Colombia University Law School. He also occasionally writes for the Huffington Post and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and E! Entertainment Channel.
 
US-Turkish relations focus on areas such as strategic energy cooperation, trade and investment, security ties, regional stability, and the global war on terrorism. Relations were strained when Turkey refused in March 2003 to allow US troops to deploy through its territory to Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States and threatened to withdraw its support of the war in Iraq in October after the House Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution labeling as genocide Turkey’s murder of some 1.5 million Armenians during World War I. Former President George Bush strongly urged members of the committee to vote against the resolution.
 
On July 5, 2006, the US and Turkey signed a Shared Vision Statement to highlight common values and goals between the two countries and lay out a framework for increased strategic dialogue. Former President George W. Bush welcomed Prime Minister Erdogan to Washington for a White House visit on November 5, 2007, during which he committed to provide greater assistance to Turkey in its fight against terrorism from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which he characterized as a “common enemy” of Turkey, Iraq, and the United States. He reiterated this commitment during President Gul’s January 8, 2008, White House visit.
 
On July 9, 2008, four gunmen attacked the US Consulate in Turkey, opening fire on security guards outside the consulate. Three police officers and three attackers are killed in a gun battle.
 
President Barack Obama told Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in February 2009 that he hoped to strengthen ties with their country and expressed support for Turkey’s growing relationship with Iraq.
 
A total of 117,575 people identified themselves as being of Turkish ancestry in the 2000 US census. Turks have congregated in urban areas like New York City, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Rochester.
 
In 2006, 326,652 Americans visited Turkey. Although there was a brief dip in 2003 (162,198 tourists), tourism has exploded since 2002 when 197,402 Americans went to Turkey.
 
Also in 2006, 90,122 Turks visited the US. Tourism stagnated between 2002 (78,662 tourists) and 2004 (76,404 tourists) but has grown consistently since then.
 
Human Rights vs US Arms Sales To Turkey (by Kevin McKiernan, CommonDreams.org)

U.S.-Turkey Relations Require New Focus

(Atlantic Council of the United States)

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Where Does the Money Flow

In 2002, the two countries indicated their joint intent to upgrade bilateral economic relations by launching an Economic Partnership Commission, which last convened in Washington in April 2008. The US and Turkey also have a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement to facilitate trade between the two countries. In 2008, Turkish exports to the US totaled about $4.6 billion, down from a high of $5.3 in 2006. American exports to Turkey totaled $10.4 billion in 2008, representing the highest total yet since 2004.

 
US imports from Turkey (2004-2008) were led by stone, sand, cement and lime, rising from $285 million to $357 million; petroleum products, increasing from $67 million to $213 million; synthetic clothes and fabrics, up from $103 million to $149 million; finished metal shapes, rising from $75 million to $128 million; drilling and oilfield equipment, leaping from $17 million to $123 million; agricultural machinery and equipment, increasing from $69 million to $113 million; and engines for civilian aircraft, up from $60.3 million to $122 million.
 
American imports on the decline included apparel and household goods (cotton), down from $1.1 billion in 2003 to $414 million in 2008; and iron and steel mill products, down from $887 million to $592 million.
 
In 2008, US exports to Turkey were led by two billion-dollar exports: steelmaking materials, rising from $138 million to $2 billion; and civilian aircraft, increasing from $63 million to $1.3 billion. Other top exports were fuel oil, catapulting from $37,000 to $814 million; metallurgical grade coal, jumping from $84 million to $382 million; raw cotton, up from $447 million to $536 million; and parts for military type goods, increasing from $121 million to $337 million.
 
The US sold $727.6 million of defense articles and services to Turkey in 2007.
 
The US gave $19.8 million in aid to Turkey in 2007, divided between Foreign Military Financing ($14.2 million), International Military Education and Training ($3.5 million), Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining and Related Programs ($2.1 million). The 2008 budget reduced aid to $12.2 million, and was entirely dedicated to various Peace and Security programs. The 2009 budget request will give Turkey $18.7 million, divided between Foreign Military Financing ($12.0 million), Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining and Related Programs ($3.4 million), International Military Education and Training ($3.0 million), and International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement ($0.3 million).
 
 
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Controversies

Nuclear Deal Proposed for Turkey

On July 9, 2006, the government of Turkey formally began ratification proceedings for a deal with the US for cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The underlying purpose of the agreement was to authorize transfers to Turkey of US civil nuclear technology, equipment, components, and material, including nuclear power reactors and their low enriched uranium fuel. The agreement would take effect if the United States completed its formal process for approving the pact. By 2015, Turkey expects to complete the construction of three nuclear power stations. These plans have generated controversy within the country among anti-nuclear activists and opposition members of the Turkish parliament. The US-Turkey nuclear agreement was discussed at the same time as the United States was negotiating a similar agreement with India.
 
Helicopter Deal for Turkey Prompts Protests from Greek-, Armenian-Americans
Both Boeing and Bell Helicopter Textron competed in 2000 for the right to compete with foreign competitors to sell more than a hundred advanced military helicopters to Turkey. The contract was estimated to be worth $4 billion to build 145 attack helicopters. Ultimately, Bell was the lone US finalist, along with the Italian manufacturer Augusta and a Russian-Israeli consortium, Kamov-Israeli Aircraft Industries. When news of the possible deal got out, the American Hellenic Institute, the lobbying arm for three million Greek Americans, planned to fight the sale, as did the Armenian National Committee of America, which represents 1.5 million Armenian Americans. Amnesty International also was organizing a letter-writing campaign to dissuade the State Department from granting an export license. Though Turkey’s war with Kurdish guerrillas in the southeast had subsided at that time, its human rights record remained “among the worst in the world,” said Republican Representative John Porter. Turkey had used US weapons in the past against the Kurds, and human rights groups worried that it would deploy the Cobras if Kurdish guerrillas again took up arms.

Human Rights Leave Chopper Deal in a Spin

(Time Europe)

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Human Rights

Turkey has generally respected human rights for its citizens, but some seriously problems the country is dealing with are torture and arbitrary abuse or deprivation of life, right to fair trial, civil rights, and women’s and children’s rights.  

 
One major human rights issue in Turkey is the problem of torture and abuse. Different sources have cited accounts of arbitrary abuse and deprivation of life due to armed forces or independent terrorist groups. In 2007, the Ministry of Justice handled 45 cases of torture that involved 298 suspects and 178 victims. It also handled 34 cases of “excessive force.” According to the Turkish government, in 2007, “27 civilians were killed and 134 were injured, 139 members of the security forces were killed and 216 were injured, and 295 terrorists were killed and 193 were injured in armed clashes related to the struggle against the terrorist PKK organization.” The number of cases of torture and abuse rose in 2008. Amnesty International (AI) cites a “culture of impunity” allowed police and Jandarma, or “paramilitary forces under joint Ministry of Interior and military control,” to continue practices, such as disregarding medical evidence of torture or accepting statements extracted under torture.
 
Another category of violators of the right to be free from torture are village guards, a civil defense force generally located in the southeast of Turkey. They are cited for repeated “drug trafficking, corruption, theft, and rape and other human rights abuses.” This problem is caused by inadequate oversight, corruption, and imputnity from prosecution.
 
In terms of right to a fair public trial, Turkey provides for an independent judiciary, but there are problems with corruption. There is also no jury system; a judge or a panel of judges decides all cases. The structure of the judiciary has been criticized by international human rights organizations and the European Union for giving unfair advantage to the prosecution.
 
The law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, but the government limits these rights at times. The government intimidated journalists into practicing self‑censorship. Some laws in violation of civil rights include one that prohibits insults to “the government, the state, “Turkishness,” Ataturk, or the institutions and symbols of the republic.” The Anti-terror Law and laws governing the press and elections, also restrict speech. Also, expression of sympathy toward Kurdish nationalism is suppressed.
 
According to the State Department, “the constitution and laws provide for freedom of religion, and the government generally respected this right in practice.” There are some restrictions, however, on Islam and other religions. Christians continue to be attacked. For example, on June 19, 2008, the Ministry of Interior “issued a circular to all governors that acknowledged an increase in individual criminal actions and attacks against non-Muslim citizens and their places of worship.” But governors were requested to take all necessary measures to prevent future incidents against non-Muslims.
 
Corruption is a problem in the Turkish government. The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, these are not well-enforced.
 
Rape, including spousal rape, and violence against women is prohibited, but this is not effectively enforced. Cases of rape are also underreported. Women’s NGOs reported that more than 150,000 women were victims of domestic violence between 2001 and 2005. Prostitution is legal.
 
Child abuse was a problem. There were a significant number of honor killings of girls by immediate family members, sometimes by juvenile male relatives. In 2005 police arrested over a dozen nurses, caretakers, and other employees of the Malatya state orphanage in connection with an investigation into the alleged torture and abuse of children at the institution.
 
There were reports of trafficking in women and children to the country for the purpose of sexual exploitation. There were allegations that official corruption contributed to the trafficking problem.Turkey was a destination and transit country for women and children trafficked primarily for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Women and girls were trafficked from Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, as well as from Kenya, Nigeria, and the Philippines.
 

Amnesty International

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Debate
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Past Ambassadors

George W. Erving
Note: Not commissioned, although his nomination was confirmed by the Senate.

 
David Porter
Appointment: Apr 15, 1831
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 13, 1831
Termination of Mission: Died at post Mar 3, 1843
 
Dabney S. Carr
Appointment: Oct 6, 1843
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 29, 1844
Termination of Mission: Presented recall on or shortly before Oct 20, 1849
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Jan 11, 1844.
 
George P. Marsh
Appointment: May 29, 1849
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 11, 1850
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Dec 19, 1853
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Jun 24, 1850.
 
Carroll Spence
Appointment: Aug 23, 1853
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 9, 1854
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Dec 12, 1857
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Feb 9, 1854. Nominated Feb 25, 1856 to be Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary; nomination withdrawn before the Senate acted upon it.
 
James Williams
Appointment: Jan 14, 1858
Presentation of Credentials: May 27, 1858
Termination of Mission: Left post on or soon after May 25, 1861
 
James Watson Webb
Appointment: Mar 20, 1861
Note: Declined appointment.
Edward Joy Morris
Appointment: Jun 8, 1861
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 22, 1861
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Oct 25, 1870
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Jul 15, 1861.
 
Joseph J. Stewart
Note: Not commissioned; nomination not confirmed by the Senate.
 
Wayne MacVeagh
Appointment: Jun 4, 1870
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 25, 1870
Termination of Mission: Relinquished charge, Jun 10, 1871
 
George H. Boker
Appointment: Nov 3, 1871
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 25, 1872
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, May 1, 1875
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Dec 14, 1871.
 
Horace Maynard
Appointment: Mar 9, 1875
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 12, 1875
Termination of Mission: Presented new credentials on Nov 15, 1876, after change of ruler; presented recall, Jul 15, 1880
 
James Longstreet
Appointment: Jun 14, 1880
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 14, 1880
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 29, 1881
 
Lewis Wallace
Appointment: May 19, 1881
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 6, 1881
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, May 15, 1885
 
Samuel S. Cox
Appointment: Mar 25, 1885
Presentation of Credentials: On or shortly before Aug 25, 1885
Termination of Mission: Left post Sep 14, 1886
 
Oscar S. Straus
Appointment: Mar 24, 1887
Presentation of Credentials: Jul 1, 1887
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Jun 16, 1889
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Dec 21, 1887.
 
Solomon Hirsch
Appointment: May 16, 1889
Presentation of Credentials: [Dec 28, 1889]
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 16, 1892
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Dec 16, 1889. Assumed charge of Legation on Dec 28, 1889, although he had presented credentials on Jul 3, 1889.
 
David P. Thompson
Appointment: Nov 15, 1892
Presentation of Credentials: Jan 11, 1893
Termination of Mission: Left post May 1, 1893
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Dec 8, 1892.
 
Alexander W. Terrell
Appointment: Apr 15, 1893
Presentation of Credentials: Jul 7, 1893
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Jun 15, 1897
 
James B. Angell
Appointment: Apr 15, 1897
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 3, 1897
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 13, 1898
 
Oscar S. Straus
Appointment: Jun 3, 1898
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 15, 1898
Termination of Mission: Left post Dec 20, 1899
 
John G. A. Leishman
Appointment: Dec 20, 1900
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 29, 1901
Termination of Mission: Presented new credentials on May 17, 1909, after change of ruler; presented recall, Jun 10, 1909
 
Oscar S. Straus
Appointment: May 17, 1909
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 4, 1909
Termination of Mission: Left post Sep 3, 1910
 
William Woodville Rockhill
Appointment: Apr 24, 1911
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 28, 1911
Termination of Mission: Presented recall, Nov 20, 1913
 
Henry Morgenthau
Appointment: Sep 4, 1913
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 11, 1913
Termination of Mission: Left post Feb 1, 1916
 
Abram I. Elkus
Appointment: Jul 21, 1916
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 2, 1916
Termination of Mission: Turkey severed diplomatic relations with the US, Apr 20, 1917; Elkus left post May 29, 1917
 
Joseph C. Grew
Appointment: May 19, 1927
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 12, 1927
Termination of Mission: Left Turkey, Mar 13, 1932
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Apr 13, 1928.
 
Charles H. Sherrill
Appointment: Mar 17, 1932
Presentation of Credentials: May 20, 1932
Termination of Mission: Appointment terminated, Mar 23, 1933
 
Robert P. Skinner
Appointment: Jun 13, 1933
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 16, 1933
Termination of Mission: Left post Jan 16, 1936
 
John Van A. MacMurray
Appointment: Jan 24, 1936
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 16, 1936
Termination of Mission: Left post Nov 28, 1941
 
Laurence A. Steinhardt
Appointment: Jan 12, 1942
Presentation of Credentials: Mar 10, 1942
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 2, 1945
 
Edwin C. Wilson
Appointment: Jan 27, 1945
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 11, 1945
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 20, 1948
 
George Wadsworth
Appointment: Aug 11, 1948
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 1, 1948
Termination of Mission: Left post Jan 2, 1952
Note: An earlier nomination of Jul 29, 1948, had not been confirmed by the Senate. Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Mar 2, 1949.
 
George C. McGhee
Appointment: Dec 8, 1951
Presentation of Credentials: Jan 15, 1952
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 19, 1953
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate; recommissioned after confirmation on Jan 18, 1952.
 
Avra M. Warren
Appointment: Jul 28, 1953
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 17, 1953
Termination of Mission: Left post Feb 17, 1956
 
Fletcher Warren
Appointment: Mar 7, 1956
Presentation of Credentials: Jun 13, 1956
Termination of Mission: Left Turkey, Nov 15, 1960
 
Raymond A. Hare
Appointment: Feb 24, 1961
Presentation of Credentials: Apr 5, 1961
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 27, 1965
 
Parker T. Hart
Appointment: Jul 22, 1965
Presentation of Credentials: Oct 11, 1965
Termination of Mission: Left post Oct 3, 1968
 
Robert W. Komer
Appointment: Oct 28, 1968
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 3, 1968
Termination of Mission: Left post May 7, 1969
Note: Commissioned during a recess of the Senate. A later nomination of Jan 9, 1969, was withdrawn before the Senate acted upon it.
 
William J. Handley
Appointment: May 1, 1969
Presentation of Credentials: Jul 1, 1969
Termination of Mission: Left post Apr 19, 1973
 
William B. Macomber, Jr.
Appointment: Mar 27, 1973
Presentation of Credentials: May 16, 1973
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 15, 1977
 
Ronald I. Spiers
Appointment: May 26, 1977
Presentation of Credentials: Jul 12, 1977
Termination of Mission: Left post Jan 11, 1980
 
James W. Spain
Appointment: Feb 19, 1980
Presentation of Credentials: Feb 26, 1980
Termination of Mission: Left post Aug 16, 1981
 
Robert Strausz-Hupe
Appointment: Jul 27, 1981
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 7, 1981
Termination of Mission: Left post May 18, 1989
 
Morton I. Abramowitz
Appointment: Jun 23, 1989
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 1, 1989
Termination of Mission: Left post Jul 25, 1991
 
Richard Clark Barkley
Appointment: Oct 9, 1991
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 8, 1991
Termination of Mission: Left post Dec 15, 1994
 
Marc Grossman
Appointment: Sep 29, 1994
Presentation of Credentials: Jan 3, 1995
Termination of Mission: Left post June 1, 1997
 
Mark Robert Parris
Appointment: Nov 4, 1997
Presentation of Credentials: Nov 12, 1997
Termination of Mission: Left post Sep 8, 2000
 
W. Robert Pearson
Appointment: Jun 14, 2000
Presentation of Credentials: Sep 21, 2000
Termination of Mission: Left post July 23, 2003
 
Eric S. Edelman
Appointment: Apr 16, 2003
Presentation of Credentials: Aug 29, 2003
Termination of Mission: Left post Jun 19, 2005
 
Ross Wilson
Appointment: Nov 22, 2005
Presentation of Credentials: Dec 8, 2005
Termination of Mission: 2008
 

Former US Ambassadors to Turkey

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Turkey's Ambassador to the U.S.
ambassador-image Kılıç, Serdar

 

In January 2014, the government of Turkey announced that Serdar Kılıç, a longtime member of the country’s foreign ministry, was to be the next ambassador to the United States, although he did not arrive in Washington until April.

 

Kılıç was born March 28, 1958, in Samsun, a city in north-central Turkey on the Black Sea. He graduated from Ankara University’s political sciences department in 1980.

 

Kılıç didn’t join the Foreign Ministry right away. His first professional job was in 1977 with Turkey’s Ministry of Tourism and Culture. In 1982, he took a position in the private sector as a director for Ekşioğlu Holding, a construction company. 

 

Kılıç joined the Foreign Ministry in 1984 and was assigned to the Eastern Europe and Asia Department. His first overseas posting came in 1987 when he was named third secretary in Turkey’s embassy in Kuwait. Kılıç landed his first U.S. assignment in 1989 as assistant consul general in Los Angeles. He returned home in 1992 as second secretary and later first secretary in the ministry’s Gulf and Muslim Countries Department.

 

In 1993, Kılıç began a fairly long period dealing with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), initially as first secretary in Turkey’s delegation to NATO. He returned to Ankara in 1997 as chief of section in the ministry’s Deputy General Directorate of NATO and Euro-Atlantic Security and Defense Affairs. In 1999, Kılıç was back in Turkey’s NATO delegation as a counselor.

 

Kılıç returned to Turkey in 2003 as head of department for the Balkans and Central Europe desk. He was named deputy director general of NATO and Euro-Atlantic Security and Defense Affairs in 2006.

 

Kılıç’s first ambassadorial post came in 2008 when he was named envoy to Lebanon. While there, he worked to increase awareness of Lebanon’s ethnic Turkish population. He was brought home in 2010 to be secretary general of MGK, Turkey’s National Security Council. He was sent to Tokyo as ambassador in 2012, a post he held until being named to Washington.

 

Since coming to the United States, Kılıç has had to deal with various groups’ recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 100 years ago, in which the Ottoman government killed about 1.5 million ethnic Armenians. Turkey has long fought the use of the word “genocide” for the deaths.

 

Another confrontation came when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was asked to return a peace award given him in 2004 by the American Jewish Congress. The request came after Erdoğan referred to Israel’s attacks on Gaza in the summer of 2014 as genocide. He told supporters “They kill women so that they will not give birth to Palestinians; they kill babies so that they won’t grow up; they kill men so they can’t defend their country.” Kılıç acted as an intermediary in the dispute, telling the organization that Erdoğan would return the award.

 

Kılıç is married and has one son. He is the uncle of Çağatay Kılıç, Turkey’s Sports and Youth Minister.

-Steve Straehley

 

To Learn More:

Official Biography

Turkey Reshuffles Envoys in Washington, London and Paris (Hurriyet Daily News)

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Turkey's Embassy Web Site in the U.S.
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U.S. Ambassador to Turkey

Bass, John
ambassador-image

 

On July 15, 2014, the Senate Foreign Relations committee held a hearing into the nomination of John R. Bass as the U.S. ambassador to Turkey. Although the committee approved his nomination, the hearing did have one moment of controversy. When Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) confronted Bass with details of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s crackdowns on free speech, Bass proved reluctant to criticize Erdoğan. McCain asked, “Do you believe—it is a pretty simple, straightforward question—that with his repression of social media, of his desire to change the Constitution to give more power to the presidency, which he obviously will be, do you believe that is a drift towards authoritarianism?” Finally, when McCain threatened to withhold Bass’s nomination if he didn’t get a direct answer, Bass conceded that “It’s a drift in that direction, yes.”

 

If he’s confirmed, it will be the second ambassadorial post for Bass, a career Foreign Service officer who was formerly the U.S. envoy to Georgia.

 

Bass is from upstate New York and graduated from Syracuse University in 1986 and was a newspaper editor and political campaign consultant before joining the Foreign Service in 1988. Some of his early postings were in Belgium, the Netherlands and Chad.

 

In 1998, he went to work for Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, first as a special assistant for Europe and Eurasia. In that role, he was part of the peace negotiations for the Kosovo conflict. He was named Talbott’s chief of staff in 2000, coordinating policy on arms reduction with Russia.

 

Bass served in the U.S. Embassy in Rome from 2002 to 2004, when he was named a special advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney for policy on Europe and Eurasia. In 2005, Bass was named director of the State Department Operations Center, the department’s communication and crisis management center. It’s open around the clock and coordinates State Department responses to incidents throughout the world.

 

Bass was sent to Iraq in 2008 as leader of a provincial reconstruction team. After a year in that assignment, Bass was named U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, an important post at a time when that country was being used as a transit point for U.S. forces headed to Iraq. During his term there, Bass was charged by the Tbilisi government’s opposition with “meddling in Georgia’s domestic affairs” and his recall was urged, but nothing came of the protests.

 

Since 2012, Bass has been executive secretary of state. The executive secretariat coordinates activities between the department’s bureaus and leadership. It’s also the liaison between the State Department and the White House, the National Security Council and other agencies.

 

Bass is married to another career Foreign Service officer, Holly Holzer Bass. Holzer Bass most recently served as deputy director of the Office of Iranian Affairs. She is an accomplished photographer and has had several exhibitions of her work. The two are avid runners and have competed in the Bay-to-Breakers race in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bass speaks Italian and French.

-Steve Straehley

 

To Learn More:

Official Biography

Testimony before Senate Foreign Relations Committee (pdf)

State Department Cables (WikiLeaks)

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Previous U.S. Ambassador to Turkey

Ricciardone, Francis
ambassador-image

Francis J. “Frank” Ricciardone, Jr., a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who speaks Turkish, has returned to Turkey for his third tour of duty there. President Barack Obama nominated Ricciardone on July 1, 2010. However, Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) blocked a Senate confirmation vote on him. Ricciardone served as President George W. Bush’s ambassador to Egypt from 2005 to 2008, and received public support from some Egyptian democracy activists. But back in the United States, Brownback and other conservatives claimed that Ricciardone was not aggressive enough in pursuing democracy in Egypt. When Ricciardone’s confirmation failed to come to a vote after more than five months, Obama gave him a recess appointment on December 29. His term will run out at the end of 2011.

 
Ricciardone was born in Boston in 1952, the son of Francis C. Ricciardone, Sr., a Seabee veteran of World War II, and graduated from Malden Catholic High School.  He earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1973, and received a Fulbright Scholarship to teach and study in Italy.  He also went to Iran, before the Islamic revolution there, as a teacher in 1976, and traveled widely in Southwest Asia, Europe, and the Middle East until he joined the Foreign Service in 1978. 
 
After early assignments in Turkey, London, and elsewhere, Ricciardone was appointed to be Political Officer at the embassy in Cairo, Egypt, from 1986 to 1989, and remained in the region an additional four years, serving as Chief of the Civilian Observer Unit of the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai Desert from 1989 to 1991, and as Deputy Chief of Mission at the embassy in Amman, Jordan, from 1991 to 1993. Returning to the Middle East in 1995, he served again in Turkey, as Deputy Chief of Mission at the embassy in Ankara, where he remained for two tours into 1999. He was then appointed Special Coordinator for the Transition of Iraq, a post he held from 1999 to 2001, when he took on the dual roles of Senior Advisor to the Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of the Task Force on the Coalition Against Terrorism, from 2001 to 2002. 
 
Heading to East Asia for his first ambassadorship, Ricciardone served as Ambassador to the Philippines and Palau from 2002 to 2005, followed immediately by a three-year stint as Ambassador to Egypt from 2005 to 2008. While at this post, Ricciardone sent a secret diplomatic cable back to Washington, since made public by Wikileaks, in which he described the government of President Hosni Mubarak as a “dictatorship” suffering from “paranoia,” and speculated on the possibility of Mubarak’s being succeeded by his son, Gamal, whose failure to complete his military service may pose a large stumbling block. 
 
Ricciardone took a one-year leave of absence from the State Department in 2008 to serve as a guest scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. At State Department headquarters, Ricciardone has served in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, and in senior management positions under the Director General of the Foreign Service and of Human Resources.
 
In addition to Turkish, Ricciardone speaks Italian, Arabic, and French. He and his wife Marie, a molecular biologist who was educated and later taught in Turkey during their previous tours there, have two children, Francesca and Chiara, one of whom, Francesca, was born in Turkey. Both daughters were educated in Ankara for three years. Marie Ricciardone served as an international affairs officer in the State Department’s Office of Environmental Policy and was Program Manager for USAID’s US-Asian Environmental Partnership. She was also the Program Coordinator for the U.S. Scientist Engagement Program in Libya.
 
Mr. Ricciardone Goes to Ankara (by İlhan Tanir, Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review)
Ricciardone: Iraq Needs Democracy (by Griffin Gordon, The Dartmouth)
 
 

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