A road from Kuwait to Kayseri

I am in Kuwait to take part in a series of conferences and diwaniyas on the historical and current relations between Turkey and Kuwait, on Ottoman history, and on matters concerning the region. I had mentioned the diwaniya tradition in Kuwait before. It is a deeply rooted social institution that certainly deserves to be studied sociologically and dwelt upon as the most traditional, organic dimension possible of the public sphere. In all the diwaniyas we have been able to attend, there is of course great interest in Turkey, because Kuwaitis see Turkey almost as their second home. Of nearly every three Kuwaitis we meet, two will be going to Turkey soon or have come from Turkey; they have a house there, an investment, a child studying at a university, or a treatment they received in its hospitals.

This is also true for Qataris, and, because of the traffic that has recently begun to work again, for Saudi Arabians, Emiratis, Bahrainis and Omanis. The tourism traffic flowing to Turkey from these countries lately, whether at the level of education, health, culture-faith-history or economic investment, has now become an important source for Turkey, and it is expected and necessary that it develop further. The investments Turkey draws today especially from the Gulf countries are still not comparable with those of Britain, the Netherlands, Italy or France. It is very clear that Turkey badly needs this traffic and that it will bring Turkey a great deal. As for its increasing further, there is in fact a very great desire on the part of the Gulf Arabs.

Contrary to what is supposed, when there are equal options, very few will ever prefer another Western country to Turkey, but only if...

The question of whether Turkey really offers a suitable and encouraging environment for foreign investors is increasingly forming a serious agenda that feeds perceptions against Turkey. When we get them to open their mouths about the aggravating bureaucratic obstacles that still exist in the system for foreign investors, we hear a thousand sighs.

Truly, our ministry of trade, our migration administration and our ministry of labor must join hands and carry out serious work on how favorable Turkey is regarding foreign investors. There are processes in operation in Turkey that make a foreigner who invests here regret a thousand times what he has done and what he will do, and we are not even aware of it. People must be listened to directly, with field data and real experience, and the problems of fit within the system must be eliminated. Foreign investors are not attracted by systems on paper that have never passed through any field experience. It is very saddening to hear that some countries that we do not like at all today, that are not in Turkey's league, have become much more attractive for drawing foreign investors.

On top of these, of course, the recently increased xenophobia is the most serious subject of complaint. Those who prefer Turkey for investment, education, health-treatment or normal tourism because they love Turkey, because they feel heart bonds with Turkey in particular, are subjected recently in Turkey to incidents that do not happen to them in any other country. When shall we see that this issue, a crude and degenerate hostility toward Arabs, has become a far more serious problem threatening Turkey's security, image, brand value and level of values, and begin to take measures?

In the middle of a conversation in a diwaniya, most of whose participants have serious investments in Turkey, in which we were trying to explain precisely what Turkey has done for the Syrians over 13 years, news about the vandal racist incident in Kayseri began to hit the media. Unfortunately a development that was not at all surprising. That the provocations carried out up to now by the political vandals who make their living from racist incitement and from manipulations that invest in ignorance would produce such a result could have been expected.

In fact that it could have been expected is, unfortunately, one of those matters for which we must once again prick ourselves with the needle. There must be a counterpart in our laws for this incitement, for these provocations. Perhaps racism by itself may come under freedom of expression, but provoking the people against one another with lies and tricks and hate speech, inciting them to commit crimes, does not come under freedom of expression. The stage the event has reached is plainly terror, and it is obvious that this racist provocation would reach dimensions that harm life and property. Why this is still not being stopped is a question that needs to be asked.

It is not the case, as is supposed, that xenophobia exists in society and that someone sets up a stall here. Because someone has set up a stall here, xenophobia, hatred and the desire to do guilty harm to foreigners become a possible option for people. This path must by all means be closed. When this path is blocked, be sure that the discontent that may arise naturally in Turkey against asylum seekers will be pulled back to its normal limits. The necessary measures must be taken so that hate speech and racism cease to be a political livelihood.

Truly, although I have very serious reservations about the rapprochement with Syria that has recently come onto the agenda, when I first heard about the Kayseri incident I could not stop myself from thinking that it was related to this rapprochement.

Indeed, the first investigations show that Erdoğan's latest remarks on the possibility of meeting with Assad have moved stones out of place somewhere. How could they not? The Turkey-Syria relations that have continued in one way or another for 13 years have created a status quo in many fields and especially at the level of international relations. This status quo is not one that Turkey created; perhaps it is even one that Turkey was drawn into. Within this status quo, there is an order that the USA, stationed in the region, is trying to establish in favor of Israel and against Turkey and the peoples of the region. For this plan to continue, everything must presumably continue the same way on Turkey-Syria relations. But someone moving the stones out of place in some way may ruin the whole thing for them. This move, with which I was at first certainly not pleased, may be thought to be worth something from this angle alone.

But for any move to be effective, valid and beneficial, it is essential that it be acceptable in some way, especially to the Syrians who have been deported from their country for 13 years. For the real problem is not between Turkey and the Syrian regime, but between the Syrian regime and its own people. For this, a step that we previously proposed with Prof. Mokhtar al-Shanqiti of Qatar University must be taken. Aleppo must be taken, even temporarily, out of Assad's control, perhaps under the guarantorship of Turkey and Russia, perhaps placed under the control of the UN. The majority of Syrian refugees in Turkey are from Aleppo, and such a transition period is essential for them to be able to return willingly. Otherwise, whatever level of rapprochement there is between Turkey and Syria, it does not provide or instill confidence in the Syrian people to be able to return.