It is not that the chief architect of Turkish foreign policy, current Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, was my master's thesis adviser and that I deeply respect him, but that as an ordinary Turk, I feel positively overwhelmed at the bright developments in Turkey's international relations. I am sorry, but any comment that I try to make on this issue will be nothing but hagiography and for the first time in my academic life, I am not afraid of writing a hagiographic piece.Until just five or six years ago, I had believed and observed for decades that the Turkish Foreign Ministry was foreign to its country, its people and their values. I observed in London, how little they were doing for Turkey and for Turks living in the United Kingdom. This was starkly understood after we all witnessed how both the embassy and consulate's performance tripled after the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) rose to power. I will not mention our ambassadors enthusiastically backstabbing Turkish businessmen, schools and interests in Central Asia. That is a completely different story that can easily fill a voluminous book. But today, we live in a golden age, as it were, that we can even speak of the democratization of Turkish foreign policy. One may also call it representational foreign policy. Turkish people, with a few exceptions such as some but not all of Hurriyet daily's ultra-Kemalist readers, are very happy with the developments taking place.
We could only dream that an Armenian president would come and visit Turkey, but he did indeed come a few days ago, and we watched in unison, happily not the football match that he came for, but the two presidents sitting next to each other. We only wish that he would come again, that they will arrive at a feasible and just peace agreement with our brother nation Azerbaijan, and that the word peace becomes a motto in the Caucasus.
Who would anticipate that Syrian nationals could come to Turkey without any visa requirement and Turks could go to Syria without any hassle. But this is now a reality. What is more, eight or nine Turkish ministers went to Syria a short while ago on a very busy official visit, and they had a common government meeting with their Syrian counterparts. It seems that not only tourists but academics, businessmen and others from both sides will flow back and forth in substantial numbers, paving the way for a kind of socioeconomic integration. I also hope that this journey will make Syria a more European society in a positive sense.
A few days ago, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with eight of his ministers went to Iraq for a very similar purpose and held a common government meeting with their Iraqi counterparts. They signed about 50 agreements. Erdoğan also announced that Turkey will open a consulate in Arbil, the capital city of the Kurdish-populated autonomous northern Iraq. We only hope for more Davutoğlu (and of course Erdoğan's AK Party) magic in Iraq. We also learnt that Turkey will have similar meetings with Russia. This is tremendous news.
Knowing that these relations are additions to the EU relations, not replacement of them, makes one happier as we will hopefully continue to stick to the EU process. I do not agree with them, but some might complain that countries need enemies to remain dynamic, as in the relation between horses and flies. I think, to their satisfaction, of the sick man of Europe, France -- full of many “Sarkozys” with the chewing gums -- is readying itself for such an ugly role. “Sarkozys” from outside and our ultra-laicist Ergenekonians from the inside can continue to keep Turkey dynamic, but at their own cost.
