Monday, 23 February 2009* View by Ihsan YILMAZ, TZ
The current state of Turkish-Israeli relations shows us once again that in order to be a more powerful and influential country, Turkey needs to make its handling of foreign policy affairs more democratic and transparent.
It is a widely known secret that the Turkish nation knows very little about the exact nature and content of Turkish-Israeli relations, which are mostly engineered by the military. While we enthusiastically ask for more democratic and transparent domestic politics, it is high time that we start asking for a more democratic and transparent Turkish foreign policy if we want to have more healthy domestic politics since in our age and in the Turkish context, international and domestic politics are increasingly intermingled and influence each other, the Turkey-Israel case being the prime example.
It is true that such transparency and democracy do not exist even in the Western polities that Turkey has been trying to emulate. But while endeavoring to reach the level of Western civilization, such as the Copenhagen criteria, in the domestic political arena is still a must, we should be aware of the fact that the West has been unable to improve its civilization. There are all sorts of signs and evidence that the West is, to a great extent, simply consuming what their predecessors left them. Europe is now full of sick men of Europe, and the list of these countries is not only limited to France, Britain and Germany. Not only their economies and demographics but also their inter-ethnic harmonies; their selfish and interest-oriented approaches to the South, mainly Africa; their relations with the Muslim world; their unethical stances towards the plight of Palestinians, etc., are not healthy at all. Despite the existence of "a few good men" among its intellectuals, academics, writers, politicians, clergy and ordinary people, unfortunately, vast majorities in these countries suffer from the above-mentioned illnesses, which are only getting worse with the recent economic catastrophe. Thus I am not hopeful that Western civilization can generate an equivalent of the Copenhagen criteria in international relations, but I am equally hopeful that Turkey can achieve a more democratic, transparent, humane and even altruistic foreign policy praxis. I am aware that this sounds like a utopian fantasy, but I am equally aware of many thousands of Turks who achieve similar kinds of "fantasies" and altruistic utopias in their ordinary daily lives. The number of these people will only -- hopefully -- increase, and their mentality will be reflected in Turkish foreign policy. Thus, making plans 20 years in advance is never too early for such a big project.
Just before the American and British invasion of Iraq, the Turkish Parliament, which was sensitive to the feelings of the people, was luckily not under the influence of the military (for some undemocratic reasons on the part of the military, they wanted the Justice and Development Party [AK Party] to be bogged down in the Iraqi mess) and thus rejected a proposal that would allow US occupation forces to use Turkish territory as a safe passage to Iraq. At that time, several Turkish foreign policy analysts predicted that Turkey would pay heavily. Now, almost all of them agree that Turkey has gained from its Parliament's democratic decision, let alone not paying a price. Now, we have a similar situation with regards to our government's firm criticism of Israel's massacre of civilians in Gaza, in line with 80, even 90, percent of people's feelings. But this time only a few say Turkey will suffer the consequences, and most analysts are hopeful. People's awareness of foreign policy issues will only make our governments and civil servants more powerful at the negotiating table. Even Middle Eastern peoples are hopeful about Turkey's humane and brave approach, risking facing the evil side of Israel, as proven by the recent "emotional" speech of the commander of the Israeli ground forces.
Turkey's moral, humane and even altruistic contribution to international politics in the recent Israeli butchering case is only one of the examples that will potentially increase in number. So, why not fantasize about theorizing this?
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Monday, 23 February 2009
View by Ihsan YILMAZ, TZ
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