By Bob Van Leer

  (ANKARA, TURKEY, June 10, 1987) - The weather is warm this evening and our air conditioner isn't working, so the windows of our sixth floor room are open and through the windows we hear the muzzein calling the faithful to prayer.

  We are told that in earlier years the muzzeins climbed the slender minarets to make the prayer calls. Now it is done electronically, but still from the minarets. An examination usually shows wires dangling from the minarets. 

  Today we met with the U.S. Ambassador, Robert Strausz-Hupe and some of his officials. We find that problems we have never heard of are poisoning U.S.-Turkish relations. There are three principal ones.

  One is a proposed resolution in the U.S. Congress setting aside a day to commemorate a massacre of Armenians alleged to have been done by the Turks in World War I days. Modern day Armenian terrorists have assassinated 41 Turk diplomats around the world, including in the U.S. and other people as well. The Turks are incensed by such a resolution, saying "Friends don't treat each other this way". The Turk contention is that such a resolution would be encouraging the terrorists.

  A second point of contention is a U.S. prohibition against using weapons supplied by the U.S. for anything except NATO purposes. The third is a ratio imposed by congress setting a 7-10 ratio, which means that for every $10 in military aid supplied to the Turks, the U.S. must supply $7 to Greece, even though Turkey borders Russia and Greece doesn't and Turkey has five times the population of Greece. This is attributed to a stronger Greek lobby. There are only 200,000 ethnic Turks in the U.S. but nearly 3 million Greeks.

  The ambassador says that government to government exchanges won't do it. They want more congressional contacts and other contacts. Personal exchanges are the only way to change attitudes and this will take time. U.S.-Turkey relations are cooling, but the Turks continue to work with us.

  The Turks are not as bound up in Cyprus as are the Greeks, possibly because the Turks have accomplished their aim and the Greeks have not. Turkey and the Turk Cypriots have accepted a U.N. offer to mediate but the Greeks and Greek Cypriots have not. The Greeks are convinced that the Turks are aggressive but our diplomats think not. Turkey is bordered by Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria and hasn't much time to worry about Greece. Besides, the diplomats say that if Turkey conquered all of Greece it wouldn't be any better off.

  The Turks have a population of 53 million now and expect to increase to 100 million by 2010. Unemployment is about 20 percent but a strong family structure helps in this. There are several million Turks working in the rest of Europe, although this number is being reduced now. The Turk army of 500,000 is the largest in the west except for the United States. There is universal conscription of men and during the 8 to 21 months they serve they are virtually unpaid

  Turkey has had military governments, but has an elected one now. There are lively opposition papers, so there is a great deal of press freedom contrasted to none under the military. There is little crime and I feel comfortable wandering the back streets at night for a little exercise.

  We find the people extremely friendly to us. The children especially seem fascinated to see these strangers from the other side of the world. Even in sign language we can have a conversation of sorts.

  In the late afternoon Dr. Ali Tigrel, director of economic planning for Turkey, met with us and explained the economy, complete with far too many graphs. The basic message is that the Turkish economy is rebounding from a dismal period around 1980 when inflation was in the three digits. In 1986 it was down to 25 percent and the Gross National Product was up 8 percent. Tourism dropped in 1986 because of the terrorism scare, but is rebounding.

  Tomorrow we have a full day, starting with a meeting with Abu Firas followed by sessions at the Turk Foreign Office in the morning and lunch. The afternoon calls for another briefing at the Foreign Offices. A possibility we are working on is a meeting with the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization).