BY MURAT YETKIN
RADIKAL- President Abdullah Gul paid his first domestic visit as a president to the Southeastern region, which is a meaningful behavior. If this is the sign that functions of the state are reviving again following the crisis about the presidential election which started in Ankara in April, this situation can be understood from the liveliness of interpretations on this visit. According to an interpretation, Gul is pursuing a stance of the state this way. The facts that Ahmet Necdet Sezer also paid his first domestic visit as a president to the Southeastern region, Gul plans to pay his first visit abroad to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) as a president and that he sent messages of solidarity to Algerian President Abdulaziz Bouteflika, as he faced an attempt of assassination, are viewed as evidences supporting this stance.
According to another interpretation, Gul is paying his first visit to the Southeastern region in order to have better relations with the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and that he's sensitive about fighting terrorism and such issues as border safety and separation. As part of this, there is a foreign dimension of this visit and actually the president is also inspecting Iraqi and Iranian borders. The fact that this visit started immediately after Chief of General Staff Yasar Buyukanit's first official visit to Gul is also meaningful for this reason.
According to another comment, Gul is paying this visit for the purpose of serving domestic peace, in other words, for solving the Kurdish issue and fighting the understanding that all the Kurds are considered as supporters of the terrorist PKK. The visit coincided with just the beginning of Ramadan month, which also indicates this. The reality probably lies just in the middle of these three interpretations.
Israeli jets violated the Syrian airspace last weekend and two fuel tanks dropped on the Turkish territory; it was claimed in the Arabian press that these jets took off from Turkey; the Foreign Ministry requested information from Israel after two days of silence, when Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem wanted to visit Ankara and then Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, who met with Walid al-Moallem, condemned this stance of Israel by defining it `unacceptable'. These incidents are all parts of this. It can be seen that neither the Foreign Ministry, nor the General staff want to exaggerate this issue at a time when the Armenian bill is about to reach the US Congress again and certain cracks emerged within the Jewish lobby in the US. In addition, interesting information about the Cabinet started to leak within lobbies, where Gul paid a visit of thanks yesterday. It's said that there is an incredible competition between ministers about duties and authorities of the Ministry of Environment, City Planning and Water, and the Ministry of Forestry and Natural Resources, which will be newly established. It's also claimed that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who isn't glad with the functioning of customs, want to attach the income part of customs to the Finance Ministry and the security part to the Interior Ministry. Similarly, it's also claimed that the issue of sports was attached to Labor Minister Murat Basesgioglu, who rejected Gul's presidential candidacy and that this is like a punishment, rather than a reward.
None of these things are as worth mentioning in terms of politics as this incident: Indicating the reporters, President Gul said to Gen. Buyukanit, who came to congratulate him yesterday following a process which is full of debates, that they were all here for him. Obviously, there is a part of reality about this joke. Gul wants to show that debates which started in the process of a crisis concerning the presidential election are over. Is the picture which emerged yesterday indicating this? This is not certain. However, it can be certainly said that a new period started yesterday.