ABSTRACT
In November 2001 the Ankara government announced that it would dispatch a contingent of 90 officers and noncommissioned officers to Afghanistan to train (Uzbek) elements of the United Front, as part of the U.S.–led, anti–Taliban coalition against terrorism. Foreign Minister İsmail Cem also subsequently announced that Turkey would send a much larger contingent as part of the international force being assembled for post–Taliban Afghanistan, making Turkey the only Muslim state to do so openly. The announcement came at a time when polls showed the Turkish public to be 80 percent opposed to military participation and the government coalition in general to have no more than 10 percent popular support. 1 One could wonder where here is loyalty to the legacy of reform from above left by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the legendary founder of the Turkish Republic These decisions speak volumes about the contemporary Turkish state and the nature of Turkish foreign policy making. The decisions underscore both Ankara’s Kemalist legacy and the issues Turkey faces in shaping its relationships with the European Union and the United States.
