Porter: "Economic ties are key to better relations btween Turkey and the US"

As a relationship based on military security alone isn't enough to maintain healthy ties between Turkey and the US, stronger economic ties are also needed, according to Robert Porter Lynch, a descendant of Commodore David Porter, the first US diplomatic representative in Istanbul. In an interview, Lynch spoke about how Commodore Porter helped establish the 180-year-old friendship between the US and Turkey, and what could be done to boost these ties. According to Lynch, in the recent past, much of the Turkish-American relationship has been based on military security. This should remain in place, but military security alone is not enough, he argued. "As Napoleon once observed, the sword is never as powerful as the spirit," said Lynch. "The economic spirit of our two nations is also in our mutual interest. As Commodore Porter realized nearly 200 years ago when opening up the Ottoman Empire to American economic interests, longstanding commercial relationships are built on personal relationships: one-on-one bonds between people. At a business level, the intertwining of our economies can produce great value beyond mutual security interests."