A short foreign policy tour

These days developments in the field of foreign policy must be producing a debt of apology to many people, yet we are still waiting for who will be the first to voice it. They said that the policy Turkey pursued on Syria was wrong, and as the justification for this finding they claimed that Turkey had been left alone in the eyes of the international community. Their basis in this was that Assad had proved far more resilient than anticipated, which had even turned into a kind of wish and hope. However resilient Assad may prove from this point on, with so many murders left behind him, the brazen and accusatory attitude of these approaches, which lack even the simplest foresight about how he could govern Syria, nonetheless draws attention.

Yet Assad's resistance in Syria is rapidly approaching its end. The positions captured by the Free Syrian Army are tightening the noose around Assad more and more. There are even reports that Assad has left Syria, though of course this is not confirmed. There are other reports too. The reason the guards protecting the palace where he is currently staying are waiting at the door is not so much to protect him as to kill him should he attempt to leave the country.

As things move toward this point, we also see the international community gradually moving toward reconsidering its positions. The US moving its warship close to Syria toward the end of the affair is very meaningful. That they come to put their stamp on the outcome after 50 thousand people have died and it has become clear that the resisters will finish the job almost with their own means is of course not surprising.

Those who spoke of "Russia will punish us" over the grounding of a Syrian plane that took off from Russia on suspicion of carrying arms and munitions in Turkish skies, what kind of foreign policy vision were they proposing to Turkey?

They expressed the same attitude, out of fear of wrath from Israel, in the "one minute" outburst against Israel and in the Mavi Marmara incident. Now they show the same attitude differently in the turning back of Energy Minister Taner Yıldız's plane through the doing of Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq's central government. Instead of being angry at Maliki as citizens of this country, on the grounds that what Maliki did was an insolent act toward Turkey, they almost say that Turkey deserves this insolent attitude. That the opposition sentiment is flung about so desperately shows that nothing more can be expected from the opposition for a longer time, which is saddening, of course.

Those who argue that in our dispute with Russia over Syria we should give up immediately and surrender, otherwise Russia will punish us as well, evidently reduce Turkey to the level of a Karamürsel basket in the comparison of power. Yet Turkey is an actor that knows its position very well in the emerging new world, and both demands its due for this position and fulfills its requirements. Unfortunately, to see or show that this is so, Putin evidently had to make his visit to Turkey, which he had earlier had to postpone, again for health reasons, in his ailing state.

The simple truth that Putin's visit revealed is that Russia does not find Syria or Assad worth spoiling its relations with Turkey, and that it is willing to act together with Turkey both on this and on many other matters. Undoubtedly, the trade volume of 35 billion dollars that Turkey has already reached with Russia, and the 100 billion dollars it has set as a target to reach in 2020, are decisive in Russia's calculations on this. Approaches that ignore even this, though it is not the only element in the calculation, leave one amazed.

We are going by way of a quick survey. There is also the Libya matter. There were those who spoke of France and America leaving Turkey in the lurch by punishing it in Libya. What data they rely on, it is truly impossible to understand. It is quite clear that they are not following developments and have not understood at all what is going on there.

Libyan President Mohammed Yousef El-Magariaf is currently in Turkey with a large accompanying delegation, and is not at all in such a mood. Yesterday at the SETA Foundation, together with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, he took part in a panel titled "New Region, New Relations: Turkey and Libya" and gave a very interesting speech that put everyone watching into a state of tremendous emotional intensity. In his speech, El-Magariaf addressed Davutoğlu as a "great scholar and thinker", and also said that in other settings he had read Strategic Depth with great attention and been greatly influenced by it.

Thanking Turkey for the role it played in the revolutionary process, El-Magariaf said that without Turkey's stance in this process, God forbid, they might not have gotten anywhere. Drawing attention at the same time to the fact that before the Arab Spring there had been a democratic change and development in Turkey, El-Magariaf explained that the change in Turkey constituted an example for all Arab countries, themselves first of all. Explaining that these revolutions would be a means for the Islamic ummah to rise to its feet as much as for their political, economic and military successes, El-Magariaf could not hold back his tears as he said that the Islamic ummah would come to the place it deserves in the world. For those who witnessed this atmosphere, even to lend an ear to the claim that Turkey had ceded ground to others in Libya is truly not wise.

What more is needed, one wonders, to open their eyes?