Qatar, the winner of the 2022 World Cup

DOHA

We have reached the last two days of the World Cup organization that Qatar has been preparing for 12 years. Today, after the match between Morocco and Croatia for third place, tomorrow the competitions will be over with the final match between Argentina and France.

For a long time in Qatar, the most important topic on everyone's agenda has been the World Cup. For this organization the infrastructure of all of Qatar's settlements was renewed from top to bottom, and brand-new cities emerged. While all the arrangements necessary to become a global world city open to the world were being made, Qatar at the same time never forgot or neglected its mission of representing its beliefs and values in the best way. The effect that great wealth based on the natural resources God gave has had on the people of other countries in the region was not seen in the same way in Qatar's rulers or people.

Qatar has also been among the foremost countries in the world in humanitarian aid. It has stood among the oppressed and the victims everywhere in the world. In countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Myanmar, Sudan and Kashmir, Qatar's civil or governmental organizations have allocated and continue to allocate great resources to orphans and victims, as emergency or lasting aid. We have been saying from the start that Turkey, not the richest country in the world, was for years the first country in the world in humanitarian aid relative to national income. In this regard, the foremost country that has virtually raced with it in charity has again been Qatar.

Qatar's former and present Emirs use the national wealth bestowed upon them, without turning it into personal wealth, in a way that best represents and develops their country. This is seen very clearly. The satisfaction and contentment of citizens in the country with their rulers is at a very high level.

By delegating even the infrastructure construction and services of the World Cup organization to a great many countries, Qatar transferred resources to the people of many countries. In this way it involved many countries in the process. Turkey of course came first among these countries, but people from many countries, from Egypt to Bangladesh, from India to Pakistan, from Tunisia to Algeria and Morocco, took part at one point or another in this organization.

Although many people see and portray the size of the money spent on the World Cup as the size of waste, the brand value, effectiveness and efficiency gained on behalf of the country in return for this spending render talk about the waste dimension of the spending pointless. Thus the World Cup organization was used by Qatar in the best possible way as a very good opportunity to improve the country's quality and effectiveness. Just as Turkey used its EU membership process as an opportunity to improve the country's political and social structure. It is seen that in this process Qatar has done much more. Moreover, that it did so without casting aside its identity and its traditional and Islamic values, indeed by exalting them even further, gives Qatar a distinct originality.

Qatar has been an example showing that money does not corrupt and spoil everyone in the same way, and that even before money and power people have an opportunity to display their own differences.

Thus, even though its national football team was eliminated in the very first round of the World Cup, we can say with ease that the undisputed biggest winner of this organization is Qatar.

WHAT THOSE MOROCCAN BOYS DID

But without doubt the role played by the Moroccan national team in this process also deserves to be talked about a great deal. Our dear friend Hakan Albayrak's prophecy years ago began with "those Maghrebi boys." We saw again that "those Maghrebi boys," who at first glance seem to have adopted the Western way of life and forgotten their identity, were awaiting a small sign to wake up, to awaken others, and to return to the stage of history.

Although, as the first African and Arab team to reach the semifinal, they were eliminated by France in the semifinal, they had done what they were going to do and won what they were going to win.

By creating a traffic among the hearts, uniting not only Arabs but the whole Islamic world, Morocco in fact revived the magnetic attraction contained in the Islamic world's century-long expectations. It was in fact a repetition of the interest of the whole Islamic world that turned toward Turkey in the 2002 World Cup. This interest repeats itself in the enthusiastic goodwill toward all the successes that Turkey has shown in other fields.

THE TURKEY AGENDA IN QATAR

In Qatar, where the World Cup forms the main agenda, in all the majlises we attend, Turkey is again one of the most important agenda items. Ekrem İmamoğlu's sentence for insulting judges and the storm he is trying to stir up over it are among the topics discussed. There is no need for us to comment at all. I am just listening to the comments being made. Someone who follows Turkey with great affection says: To say that Erdoğan gave this sentence in order to block Kılıçdaroğlu's path is like mocking Erdoğan's intellect and political skill. Such a thing does not benefit Erdoğan; if he had done it by involving himself, it is impossible that he would not know it would not benefit İmamoğlu.

Another, agreeing with this, says: İmamoğlu appears so delighted by this sentence that this in fact lays out the picture very clearly. He is very eager to build a story of victimhood out of a lower court decision and follow the path Erdoğan walked in the past. But Erdoğan's path first passed through a great success, it was not based only on victimhood. Sheer victimhood, at most, makes one pitied in the world; no saviour leadership comes out of it. Though he has no achievement worth mentioning, İmamoğlu is trying to build a saviour-hero story out of mere victimhood.

It does not in fact escape anyone's notice that İmamoğlu, who has no success in municipal services, received this previously prepared decision as if awaiting good news and immediately turned it into a "celebration." The scene looks like a consistent stage of a game he has been playing with Meral Akşener from the start, with almost all the pieces falling into place.

That scene is not moral solidarity against a victimhood but an expression of a great joy that cannot be concealed before a lottery win, and it tells enough about everything, all the way to Qatar.