An Analysis of Turkish-American Relations from a Historical Perspective

The historical depth of relations between the United States of America (USA) and the Turks dates back to the Ottoman Empire period. The Ottoman-American relations were conducted mostly through economic linkages in the 19th century. With the dissolution of Ottoman Empire, Republic of Turkey (Turkey) has been the successor and the relations with the USA has been reoriented as being the nation-state at the new international system level. Although relations between these two countries were interrupted occasionally, following the World War II, they were seen to remain unbroken. Basically, the strategic partnership formed in the axis of common enemy perception and interests during the Cold War period was a kind of transformation of the relations coming from the Ottoman times since during the Ottoman era, relations were mostly economy based. As a matter of fact, Turkey-USA relations, which show an ups and downs picture from the 1950s to the present day, continue uninterrupted. In this regard, the evaluation of the relations between the two countries will be discussed in this study over certain crisis issues.