Opportunities arising from the ambassadors crisis

The ambassadors affair, which began very badly and turned into a very serious crisis, has turned into an entirely unexpected opportunity, a blessing. In fact, it is a divine custom that very negative developments which often sent everyone into great anxiety, at whose end no light was visible, turn into good in the end. Is it not so: "It may be that in what you deem evil there is much good for you."

Whatever its content, ten ambassadors issuing a joint statement against any matter of a country is something that exists in no custom of the world. This extraordinary act inevitably required an extraordinary response.

WAS ERDOĞAN'S REACTION NOT EXPECTED?

That it had not been calculated that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would give such a response is understood from the step back that was ultimately taken. In that case, with all due respect, the political vision, strategic mind or foresight behind these ambassadors must be seriously questioned.

We said it before, let us repeat: in the whole of the affair, what was extraordinary was not Erdoğan's reaction but this act of the ambassadors. That one would expect Erdoğan to remain silent in the face of such an extraordinary act, and suppose that Türkiye and Erdoğan would thereby be put in their place, shows that the mind behind this act has never known Erdoğan.

It is true that fulfilling the requirements of the raised stakes, for Erdoğan and for Türkiye, would have had a very heavy cost. But that cost would have been seen as one that it became a national duty to pay, rather than swallowing the colonial position that this act presupposed.

Of course, some opponents who immediately and eagerly bought this position that Türkiye was being pushed into, in return for a blow being dealt to Erdoğan, may regard themselves as exempt from this cost too. We have no words to waste on these wretches who sell all their dreams and their very being for a pittance.

ERDOĞAN'S FORTUNE OR HIS ADVERSARIES' LACK OF POLITICAL SENSE?

The New York Times has written that the mind behind this act was Biden. The fact that the US ambassador is already the one leading the affair further confirms this report. The feelings Biden has revealed toward Erdoğan since before his election are also well known. Should his making such a move against Erdoğan, motivated by these feelings, be attributed to his lack of strategic sense or to Erdoğan's fortune? His friends and allies in Türkiye are now brooding over that too.

The truth is, on human rights, on the independence of the law and the judiciary, on the fight against terrorism, or whichever file you open, the US today has much to hear from Türkiye, but nothing to tell Türkiye. In fact, in Türkiye's relations with the EU there is a legal, agreed-upon, mutually understood ground. The ECtHR and the negotiation processes with the EU of course keep Türkiye's judicial processes open to the EU's scrutiny and evaluation.

Regarding any rights violation in judicial processes in Türkiye, Türkiye does not regard the findings, evaluations and reports of the relevant EU institutions as interference in its internal affairs. Of course Türkiye also exercises its right of reply, questions and objects to the objectivity of the reports and decisions, but this cannot be regarded as interference. But the ambassadors have neither such a duty nor such authority, and these ambassadors do not consist only of EU ambassadors. Their taking the US alongside them gives the EU no greater rightfulness or power in a claim to law and justice.

THE US HAS ACCOUNTS TO GIVE, NOT TO DEMAND, IN THE FIELD OF LAW

In the geography we live in today, on violations of law and justice the US is not an arbiter but the defendant in every case. Setting aside the examples it has shown of politicizing law against other countries, it sees no harm today in shamelessly continuing and making public its support for terror. The crimes against humanity it has itself committed, or been a partner to, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel leave it no possibility of being a party to any legal case in Türkiye. In this geography the US has accounts to give in the field of law, and nothing to demand.

Moreover, it was seen that the only result it reached by organizing and mobilizing ten ambassadors in this way was a failed attempt at an uprising.

But in my view, the more beneficial side of the matter is that this attempt had a separate beneficial side in showing the helplessness of other, different attempts likely to be made against Türkiye.

ERDOĞAN'S MOVE WAS NOT UNCALCULATED

No one can say that Erdoğan's move, which looks radical but whose rightfulness no one could question, was entirely uncalculated either. The stakes were very radical and the consequences for Türkiye would have been very heavy, but what was forgotten is that this would not have come cheap for these countries either. A broken, worn or diminished relationship has two sides, and Türkiye is not a country that any of these countries can do without.

In fact, attempts to establish superiority through such tests are made in relations. The aim, of course, is not to destroy but to make one submit. Against these attempts you take a stance according to your own position, your power, your own outlook. Either you regard yourself as lowly and contemptible and swallow it, or you make your power felt, make it accepted, and open the door to a more equal, just relationship.

What Türkiye has been taught, even made to memorize, in the name of diplomacy toward these powers until now is Türkiye's one-sided neediness, helplessness, powerlessness. It is known that Erdoğan is not bound by these rote lessons, but it seems that lately a courage has come.

In between, it befell Osman Kavala, whose case, in my opinion, has become a matter of politicization that has led to an injustice against him as well. We had said that the ambassadors were using Kavala only as an instrument in this attempt, and sadly, that is how it turned out in the end.

One beneficial outcome of this incident will, we hope, be reviewing, without falling under any complex, our not at all good performance in politicizing some cases. If "justice" is the AK Party's most important cause alongside development, indeed even before it, then not deviating from justice, even if we do not like it, even if it is against us, even if its edge touches those close to us, should be the most important sensitivity.

This environment, in which everyone has made his own test and has learned his guard, is an opportunity to revive this sensitivity even further.