By Yusuf KANLI
TDN - A two-day symposium on "Cooperation Against Global Terrorism" convened in Ankara Monday with an opening speech by Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Büyükanit who took the opportunity to issue some preemptive warnings to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) plans to enhance powers of local administrations within the framework of a administrative reform package expected to be unveiled in April, probably during a trip to the southeast by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Decentralization of administration and giving wider powers to municipalities, particularly in rural affairs, health and education areas, as well as traffic control and local security has long been an issue on Turkey's agenda and at times there have been even suggestions that Turkey should introduce a provincial administration mechanism by dividing the country into some eight to 10 big provinces each composed of several cities.
Adversaries of such suggestions have always claimed that such moves might help improve administration of the country but would definitely fail providing better national governance and could in time help consolidate first micro-nationalism and later separatist moves.
The AKP government has long been supportive of the idea of an administrative reform and transferring some powers of the central administration - including local police, education and health services - to local administrations. Indeed, regarding transfer of health services to local administrations, the AKP has already achieved considerable headway.
Prime Minister Erdogan is tentatively scheduled to make a trip to Diyarbakir on April 6 where he is expected to reveal a set of "political openings" the government is planning to offer as part of a "civilian approach" aimed at answering some grievances - particularly the cultural and economic ones - of the ethnic Kurdish population of the country and thus achieve some headway in the fight against separatist terrorism by winning hearts and minds in the troubled east and southeast parts of the country. Expectations from the premier's Diyarbakir visit even include an announcement regarding the much-discussed revamped and enhanced version of the Penal Code article providing reduced or no penalty at all to repentant members of the separatist gang who did not involve in crime or provide concrete information about the gang's activities and thus help the struggle against terrorism.
Büyükanit on globalization:
The top general did not hide behind some shining words. He spoke to the point. He stressed the complaint of the Turkish military of the failure of the international community in defining what is terrorism; reluctance of some countries to cooperate against terrorism; failure of some countries to take adequate measures to prevent arms smuggling and arms landing in the hands of terrorists; of the great danger of terrorists acquiring weapons of mass destruction, but the real emphasis of his speech was the threat posed to nation states by globalization.
The top general stressed that the only guarantee against global terrorist threat was the nation state itself but nation states were under the threat of globalization. He said some big and advanced countries and international companies were behaving as if they are in a war of attrition against nation states in developing or under-developed countries and thus making them more vulnerable against terrorism. He said such efforts were all aimed at encouraging micro-nationalism; a threat than cannot be ignored.
He said there were efforts to strengthen and empower local administrations and thus weaken the nation states. He said such efforts conform well with the aims of global terrorism, which as well primarily targeted at promoting its goals by weakening nation states.
Developed countries, Büyükanit said, were unable to understand the problems of the developing or under-developed countries. Thus, he said, developed countries trying to impose some global values on those states in total ignorance of their peculiar conditions and problems was just adding further woes to the existing immense problems of those countries.
Finally, the top general stressed that besides terrorists, those abetting terrorists or providing them an area of operation were responsible as well of the blood shed.
The top general was appealing to the international community, but it appeared to us that he was indeed sending a strong warning message to the prime ministry in the heart of Ankara.
(Yusuf Kanli can be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected])