STAR- Columnist Zeynep Gurcanli comments on an upcoming “troika period” in Turkey’s foreign policy. A summary of her column is as follows:
Our foreign policy seems to be indexed on Erdogan’s current tour of Europe. However, there are other very important international meetings besides the contacts of Erdogan, who lacks an official title. All the newspapers and TV stations are concentrating on the meetings held by Erdogan with the British, Spanish and Italian prime ministers. However, nobody seems to be aware that President Ahmet Necdet Sezer will also hold similar meetings within the same week. Sezer will go to Prague today to participate in the NATO summit there. The list of bilateral meetings to be held by Sezer is also long. The interesting thing is that Sezer will meet with leaders whom Erdogan has also just met with. In Sezer’s list, there are Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose-Maria Aznar. Sezer will also meet with French President Jacques Chirac, European Union Term President Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and US President George W. Bush. Comparing Sezer and Erdogan’s rendez-vous lists, it’s likely that the foreign leaders who’ve met with Erdogan are also looking for an appointment with Sezer as if to answer the question, ‘Is Erdogan telling the truth? Will Turkey’s foreign policy unfold the way Erdogan has pledged?’
When both our official and unofficial political figures meet with the same foreign leaders with only a few days in between, interesting things can happen. Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis’ situation demonstrates this. Yakis accompanied Erdogan on his visits to Rome, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Athens under the title of Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy. While still en route, he learned that he had been named foreign minister. Then Yakis participated in Erdogan’s meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose-Maria Aznar in his capacity as foreign minister. Actually Yakis should also participate in the NATO summit with his new duty because according to the summit program, there are separate programs and meetings for the foreign and defense ministers besides the NATO member countries’ heads of state and government. However, Yakis preferred to participate in Erdogan’s tour of Europe instead of accompanying Sezer during the NATO summit. Then it fell to Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal to accompany Sezer. It’s very normal for Ziyal to participate in meetings in which the foreign minister is unable to attend. However, the bilateral meetings to be held by Ziyal in Prague are interesting because Ziyal will meet not with the EU member countries’ foreign ministry undersecretaries, but with their full-fledged foreign ministers. There are also Dutch, Irish, Austrian, German and Swedish foreign ministers in Ziyal’s slate of meetings. For now, Turkish politics is being carried out on two tracks, Erdogan and Yakis for the ruling AKP, and Sezer and Ziyal for the government. Another detail confirming this is that the new AKP Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul won’t accompany Sezer to Prague, although he isn’t in Erdogan’s delegation either. So we now have a ‘two-headed’ foreign policy, but Prime Minister Abdullah Gul hasn’t yet started his own foreign contacts. Coming soon will be a ‘troika period’ for Turkey’s foreign policy.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION