BY DAVUT DURSUN
YENI SAFAK- Turkey has been preparing for next week’s NATO summit in Istanbul for a long time now. The Istanbul city government has been busy overhauling the region called the ‘NATO Valley’ where the summit will be held. When leaders provide a service, they generally don’t consider the reaction and expectations of those who will eventually benefit from it. Instead, they take pains over the satisfaction of high-ranking officials. During the 1996Habitat II summit in Istanbul, the city took on a completely different appearance. Similarly, now certain neighborhoods and streets in Istanbul are being revamped and improved for the NATO summit. Please don’t think that I’m complaining. Sometimes I want to say it’s fortunate these events are held because they make the city more beautiful. However, I’d like such work to be done not necessarily for special occasions but as a normal service. If certain streets in Istanbul had to be renovated, why are we waiting for the NATO summit to do so? Perhaps we put more importance on show and do such things in order to win the favor of bigwigs.
I think we’re overemphasizing the summit a bit. The security measures for it are extraordinary. Certain streets will be closed to traffic, and there will be land and sea restrictions for three days. As we see now, we’re good at making an event extraordinary by acting with agitation and excitement. The world’s top leaders will be in Istanbul. Of course that’s important, but we shouldn’t exaggerate the situation. There are also gradually increasing protests and demonstrations in many cities across Turkey. They are anti-Western signs saying ‘Stay Away Bush,’ and ‘No NATO.’ I wonder if those opposing NATO know anything about it. This slogan was very meaningful during the Cold War years. Particularly those who favored the Soviet Union voiced this slogan, but nobody said ‘No Warsaw Pact.’ When NATO was the defense alliance of Western countries, the Warsaw Pact was the same thing for the Soviet Bloc. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Warsaw Pact also ended. However, NATO still exists but since 1990 it’s been facing questions about its continued relevance. It’s wrong to think of NATO as being only the US and ignoring its 25 other members. Now there is a solidarity, cooperation and common action movement in the world in the areas of the economy, politics, social issues, sports, culture, defense and security. The NATO summit is important and meaningful for Turkey. Neither the Islamic world nor NATO can exist without Turkey.