The Turkey agenda in Kuwait's diwaniyas

I am in Kuwait at an event organized by DACUM Akademi to explain the transformation Turkey has been going through over the last 14 years, particularly its economic dimension. I had come to Kuwait on various occasions before, and each time I witnessed the close interest in Turkey. When I last came, three years ago, I remembered how astonished I was that almost everyone I met in Kuwait had either recently been to Turkey or was going to Turkey in the coming days or weeks. Some of these trips were purely touristic, but many people had bought a home in Turkey and were therefore, as it were, now regularly tied to Turkey.

Frankly, this time I had that impression renewed. Every day, dozens of flights, with quite high occupancy rates, are operated both by THY and by private airlines, separately to Atatürk and to Sabiha Gökçen.

Thus the Kuwaiti people have become integrated with Turkey in an interesting way.

From the questions I encountered at the conference I attended and in the diwaniyyas to which I was subsequently invited, and from the people I met, I see that Kuwaitis' investments in Turkey have not remained at the level of mere real estate. A serious investment portfolio in which Kuwaitis participate has formed in Turkey, and they are seriously looking for more substantial investments.

This interest and search is, of course, very closely related to the sympathy they feel for the administration of a Turkey led by Erdoğan. The proportion of those who regard directing their investments to Turkey as a way of supporting Erdoğan, in their own way, is very high. They follow Turkey closely but, to my astonishment, they showed a remarkable care in these meetings to stay away from politics and close to the economy.

They themselves said that terror has recently aimed in particular to keep Arabs from setting foot in Turkey, and they themselves added that, despite this, terror does not affect daily life in Turkey at all, and that therefore one must insist on continuing to come to Turkey.

The decisions taken at the Islamic Summit gathered in Istanbul, and the image given by President Erdoğan together with King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, have aroused great excitement. The recent rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Turkey has generally had a very positive effect in the Gulf countries. For, especially during the counter-revolutions that followed the Arab Spring, the Gulf countries were experiencing the difficulty of being caught between Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Yet the need to keep relations with both countries at a good level created a situation that was not easy to sustain because of the dispute between the two. Now that this situation has been overcome, there is a great sense of relief in the Gulf countries, and it is clearly felt.

Of course, while there are great hopes within this relationship for a solution regarding Syria and Yemen, what kind of agreement will be reached on Egypt is a matter of curiosity. After all, no one doubts that Egypt is the most important link that will complete an Arab-Islamic cooperation.

As best I could, I tried to explain that the real pressure on this issue is deserved by Egypt's present administration. I explained that Muslim countries must agree to develop a great sensitivity regarding respect for human rights and dignity, otherwise Muslim unity has no meaning whatsoever. With human dignity trampled underfoot in Egypt, and massacre, dungeon and torture having become the routine of the regime, it of course does not befit countries that have come together in the name of Islam to behave as if nothing were happening. There is nothing in this that cannot be understood.

So, is this interference in Egypt's internal affairs?

Can the same be said of Turkey's PKK problem?

Of course not.

If only the PKK had said the very same thing that the unarmed opposition in Egypt declared to the entire world, the situation in Turkey would certainly have been much different. On the contrary, Turkey offered them great opportunities to lay down their arms and participate fully in politics.

Even when 3 thousand of those Egyptian opponents were subjected to a massacre in a single day, unarmed as they were, they did not refrain from saying,

"Our peaceful stance is stronger than their bullets, and we will never fall into their traps that provoke us to resort to violence."

Although our trade volume with Kuwait is increasing with each passing day, the Kuwaiti people also have an unrecorded contribution and trade arising from the relationship they have established with Turkey. Kuwait aspires to build the region's largest airport and has awarded the tender for it to Limak Holding, which will also build Istanbul's 3rd Airport. In Kuwait's choice among rival firms in this matter, the importance attributed to Turkey is emphasized at every level in particular.

On my last visit 3 years ago I had attended a Diwaniyya and had noted what an interesting institution of political participation it is. Indeed, Kuwait has a free environment of debate and freedom of expression such as is not found in comparable Arab countries, and this is possible to a great extent thanks to the Diwaniyyas, hundreds of which take place simultaneously every day all over Kuwait.

Diwaniyyas have their members and regular attendees, either on the basis of a family or tribe, or on the basis of a community, civil society organization or association. Reciprocal visits can be made to the diwaniyyas, each of which meets once a week and bears the name of the tribe or association.

The problems of the family, of the country or of the world are discussed there, literary and poetry performances are staged, and it serves as a kind of people's parliament. Such family assemblies, where everything concerning the country is debated, provide a thoroughly lively political environment toward which neither the King nor politicians can in any way remain indifferent. As I said before, as such, Diwaniyyas are an institution that could be very interesting to social and political scientists seeking Habermas's public sphere.

On the same night we were in Kuwait, we attended two separate Diwaniyyas, and in each we chatted, in the manner and etiquette of the diwaniyya, largely with people trying to understand the secrets behind Turkey's economic and political renaissance.