BY NURAY BASARAN
AKSAM- For some time now, people have been discussing Turkey’s foreign policy and recent changes in global dynamics. There are two different views concerning our foreign affairs:
The first one says that Turkey has recently begun to take some courageous steps in the international arena. It’s believed that this could help to create alternatives in our foreign policy. And the second says that the world is dividing itself into several groups and if Turkey doesn’t react quickly to this polarization, in the near future it will likely find itself alone.
It’s high time Turkey took active part in Iraq. In fact, we’re about to miss the train on that. But we must bear in mind that there are also other potential players on the field, such as the European Union.
On the other hand, we should observe well the transformation of the ex-Soviet republics towards liberalism and globalization. Today there are three types of nations holding power: developed nations which have completed their transformation, developing nations still experiencing transformation, and nations in which transformation is some time expected. We must decide whose side we’ll be on, and we should reconcile the transformation in our nation with this decision.
Of course, a nation’s foreign policy must contain alternatives, but overemphasizing these alternatives would make people see our foreign policy as ill-balanced and unstable. Therefore, we should try to spend more time observing other nations’ policies than reevaluating our own. This way we can establish an effective foreign policy.