NEED FOR A CHANGE IN MENTALITY
BY ALI BAYRAMOGLU (YENI SAFAK)
According to sources familiar with the matter, this week is
shaping up as a critical one for the government’s emerging
policy on Iraq, even as important discussions continue over
possible Turkish troop deployments there. A delegation from
the General Staff Office, Foreign Ministry and the National
Intelligence Organization (MIT), plus a separate delegation
made up of parliamentarians and members of nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs), are both set to pay visits to Iraq at
the end of this week. The two delegations are set to meet with
Iraqi authorities and US military officials there. In addition,
Iraqi local officials are also expected to visit Ankara in the
coming days. /Star/
Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal yesterday met
with his visiting Pakistani counterpart Riaz Khokhar to
discuss the prospect of Islamabad sending troops to Iraq, a
measure Turkey is also seriously considering. Both nations
have been requested to do so by the United States. During
their talks, the two discussed details of the issue, with
Ziyal reportedly saying that sending troops would enhance
Pakistan’s international prestige. For his part, Khokhar said
that if Pakistan decides to send soldiers, he expected that
the US would meet their expenses, something the US has pledged
to partially do for Polish soldiers. Speaking after the
meeting, Ziyal stressed that they had discussed a number of
issues, including regional and bilateral issues and recent
developments in Iraq. He underlined that Turkish-Pakistani
relations were strong. /Milliyet/
A United States congressional delegation led by
Representative John Murtha, a senior member of the House
Appropriations Committee, yesterday arrived in Ankara. The
delegation came to Turkey via Iraq to discuss recent
developments in the region with Turkish military officials.
The delegation, the first of two separate congressional groups
due in Ankara this week, also includes Representative John
Larson, a member of the House Armed Services Committee as well
as the Caucus on Armenian Issues. /Cumhuriyet/
Appearing on news channel NTV, Ibrahim Al-Jaffari, who
currently holds the rotating presidency of the Iraqi Governing
Council, yesterday offered his views on planned foreign troop
deployments in Iraq. Stressing that the council considers the
deployments a serious and sensitive matter, Al-Jaffari said,
“The key factor our council must take into consideration is
Iraq’s bilateral relations with the country in question. The
other significant thing is both Iraq’s and the region’s
sensitivities. In order to head off future problems, these
issues should be given close attention.” During even the
1990s, Turkey kept diplomatic channels open with Iraq and
urged it to take steps to rejoin the international community.
Meanwhile, council member Adnan Pachaci stated that according
to his sources, Turkish troops would be deployed in western
Iraq. /Cumhuriyet/
In the wake of Iraqi Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (IPUK)
leader Jalal Talabani’s recent declaration of opposition to
Turkish troops deploying in Iraq, the US has reportedly warned
him to be more careful what he says about Turkey, stressing
that it was Washington which requested the troop deployments.
“The US wants Turkey to participate into the Iraq
stabilization force, and that’s what’s important at the
present,” said an anonymous official from the US Embassy in
Ankara. /Cumhuriyet/
Speaking to reporters yesterday, ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) Parliament Group Deputy Chairman Haluk
Ipek said that party leaders were urging their deputies to be
ready for an extraordinary session at the beginning of next
month. “Everybody is expecting an extraordinary session,”
stated Ipek. “No date has been settled yet. It could be at any
time next month.” Regarding what matters would face Parliament,
Ipek said that a motion on sending troops to Iraq as well as a
recently vetoed bill for the sale of state-owned former
forestland might be taken up among other matters. Commenting
on President Ahmet Necdet Sezer’s veto of the forestland bill,
Ipek criticized the action. “The president can’t send a bill
back to Parliament to be re-debated, as it was approved with
more than 367 votes [a two-thirds majority],” said Ipek.
“Instead he can either ask for a referendum or sent it on to
the Official Gazette.” /All Papers/
NATO’s military units must be transformed into a rapid-response
force, urged the alliance’s commander for Southern Europe
yesterday. Speaking at the command handover ceremony at NATO’s
Joint Command Southeast (JCSOUTHEAST) in Izmir, Adm. Gregory Johnson
praised Turkish Republic founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as a
model leader both as soldier and politician. In an apparent
echo of recent remarks by Turkey’s Deputy Chief of Staff Gen.
Yasar Buyukanit concerning Iraq, Johnson said Ataturk had
stated that nobody should remain indifferent to trouble
anywhere in the world, but rather should be concerned about
it. NATO cannot deal with today’s threats as a reaction force
only, he added, but must become a rapid-response force to
developing situations. At the handover ceremony, departing
commander Gen. Oktar Ataman told how though JCSOUTHEAST is due
to be closed next year, NATO’s South Air Forces Command was
due to be transferred from Naples, Italy to Izmir within two
years. Incoming commander Gen. Orhan Yoney said the new
command center would further the cause of peace, security, and
stability in the region. /Anatolia News Agency/
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Rauf
Denktas yesterday stated that a permanent resolution on Cyprus
could only be reached by maintaining the two current separate
states, warning that otherwise Turkish Cypriots would become
relegated to a minority status. “We mustn’t forget that the
Greek Cypriots make up 80% of the island’s total population,”
said Denktas. “What we want is a settlement based on idea of
two states, both of them permanent and well-established. [UN
Secretary-General Kofi] Annan’s plan would not only eliminate
our state but also cut the ties of Cyprus’ Turks with Turkey.”
Meanwhile, in an attempt to restart the stalled peace talks
over the island, Washington is reportedly planning to call on
the two parties to hold new meetings in October, little more
than eight months from Greek Cyprus’ scheduled May 2004
European Union accession. Sources stated that US Cyprus
Special Coordinator Thomas Weston is expected to meet with
Denktas and Greek Cypriot administration leader Tassos
Papadopulos next month in Washington to prepare for the
October meetings. /Turkiye/
The Cabinet convened yesterday in Sakarya in Turkey’s
northwest, the city hardest hit by the massive Aug. 17, 1999
Marmara earthquake. During the special meeting, the ministers’
discussion led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan centered
on the city’s continuing problems in the long-term aftermath
of the quake. Erdogan stressed that civil servants involved in
corruption would face punishment. “Education in Sakarya will
no longer take place in prefabricated shacks,” pledged Erdogan.
“Within two years, prefabricated schools will be replaced with
permanent structures.” Following the meeting, Erdogan attended
the foundation-laying ceremonies for a new highway and mass
housing projects as well as the opening ceremony for a new
Ulker Cola Turka production facility in the city. /All Papers/
As part of collective bargaining talks that began last week,
government officials and civil servants’ union representatives
are set to convene on Thursday. During this second meeting,
the government is expected to make an offer to the unions for
an increase in civil servants’ salaries next year. /Turkiye/
A delegation of three Treasury officials yesterday flew to
Washington, DC. The delegation headed by Melih Nemli, the
Treasury Undersecretariat’s director general for foreign trade,
is set to hold three days of meetings with their US
counterparts regarding the details of an $8.5 billion loan set
to be extended to Turkey for its Iraq war economic losses. /Turkiye/
State Minister Kursad Tuzmen yesterday said that a
government trade delegation is scheduled to travel to Libya
next month. Stressing that the visit aimed to boost bilateral
trade relations, Tuzmen said businessmen urging Libyan
companies to pay off their outstanding debts would also
accompany the group, and that the issue was expected to be
resolved during this visit. The announcement came amid Libyan
efforts to end the sanctions on it and rejoin the
international community, including an offer to pay
compensation for the 1988 Lockerbie airplane bombing. /Turkiye/
Columnist Yilmaz Oztuna comments on what Turkey’s
priorities should be. A summary of his column is as follows:
“For a long while now, we’ve been preoccupied with the Iraq
issue. We’ve all democratically aired our views on the issue
and eventually the state decided that we would send soldiers
to Iraq. No matter which force is within Iraq, we would take
an interest in it. Especially if the US is there, it would be
impossible for us to remain impartial. If Ankara assumes an
attitude at odds with Washington and rejects its strategic
ally, the US would make certain irrevocable decisions. Now we
stand on the brink of such a dilemma. I hope we won’t fall
prey to it.
We should certainly try to recover our relations with the
US and meanwhile stress our interest in Iraq. However, this
shouldn’t be our first priority. Instead, firstly we should
push our European Union candidacy and implement the EU’s
standards. When we succeed at this, we can be considered to be
at the level of civilized modernity. Then Turkey will have its
place in the sun, having reached the goal first set out by
Ataturk.
Quarreling with the US or sending soldiers to Iraq are
second-order issues for Turkey. However, our constant move
towards the West and winning the struggle for modernity would
be turning points in our history. The line on which we now
stand will be discussed in Brussels this October. Among the
host of issues and problems we now face, I hope we don’t trip
ourselves up.”
Columnist Ali Bayramoglu writes about the need for a
mentality change in Turkey. A summary of his column is as
follows:
“Democratization reforms, the shift of the periphery
towards the center and the emerging interaction between the
two are all developments long needed in Turkey. Despite
certain setbacks, our country is effectively making progress
on certain political and social issues. However, change is a
multidimensional phenomenon. Modernity dictates institutional
improvement, bridging the gap between the center and the
periphery, and political and economic standardization. But
just securing these won’t suffice to solve all our problems.
There is yet another very crucial point, one which constitutes
the hard nut of the issue: The need for a change in mentality.
The grave contradiction between ‘ideas’ and ‘sheer
interests’ is difficult to overcome in a social setting
dominated by a patriarchal mentality and an overwhelmingly
centralist political structure. In this order, interests turn
ideas into mere tools. Thus, the power alliances are
inevitably built not on an ideological basis but on shallow
interests. Since Ottoman times, the Turkish political system
has been plagued by this very contradiction. The problem is in
fact related to our definition of power and expectations from
it. It has to with the dominant imagery through which we
perceive power not as a transforming force but rather as an
instrument to distribute the vast resources of the state. The
problem is closely related to the state’s perception of
society, and, in turn, to society’s expectations from the
state. The most important consequence of this contradiction is
perhaps the failure of politics and politicians to effect the
transition from a ‘community understanding’ to a ‘societal
understanding.’ In other words, no matter what anyone says,
this country’s politicians have no sense of what a society is.
They lack a perspective which would embrace society in all its
various and sundry elements. Instead, the state substitutes
this understanding of society with an over-arching, obscure
definition of ‘nation’ and ‘national will,’ thus papering over
our differences. The agents of community politics – be they
Kurds, Islamists, secularists, or urban or rural groups – then
begin to seek to expand their own living space by worshipping
power at the expense of others.
This mentality must change before our country’s system can
be reformed and a broad consensus achieved. But first the
state should alter its understanding of society. Seeing
society as an undifferentiated totality cannot secure a
lasting rehabilitation of the system.”
