CUMHURIYET- Columnist Orhan Birgit comments on Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s tour of Europe. A summary of his column is as follows:
On his current tours of European capitals, Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan is unfortunately committing repeated violations of the rules of protocol. As he is the leader of the party in power, he thinks that if necessary, he can address the presidents of the countries he visits. Therefore during his bilateral meeting with the Portuguese prime minister two days ago, Erdogan told his host that he would be glad to welcome him in Turkey. Let’s say that he’s saying this because Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barosso is also leader of Portugal’s ruling party. However, then Erdogan also invited the Portuguese president to Turkey as well and announced this invitation at a joint press conference. I hope that President Ahmet Necdet Sezer learned about this call live on television, together with the entire Turkish nation. If a country’s head of state calls another country’s head of state, he does this face-to-face when he meets him at any international meeting or he invites him through the prime minister who officially visits that head of state. In both circumstances, following the oral call made on behalf of the president, the letter of the president is presented to the concerned person. The AKP leader’s invitations are turning these rules upside down. Of course nobody is taking him seriously, but it is becoming more and more important that Erdogan learn the rules of protocol.
Of course Erdogan’s tour of Europe, which he is making in order to receive a date for Turkey for European Union membership negotiations, should be appreciated. Even if Erdogan doesn’t speak a foreign language, he is tirelessly trying to work through and around this. In all the countries he visits, he tries to tell his hosts why Turkey should be an EU member. However, he also goes too far by trying to make jokes in Turkish or in the language of the country he visits. For all this, we thank Erdogan. However, if he doesn’t avoid subverting all the rules of protocol, then his visits will accomplish the opposite of his aim. Mr. Erdogan is not the prime minister, but the leader of the majority party in Turkey now. In other words, the hosts of the countries he visits should remind him of this fact, just like Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen did yesterday. What’s more, it was officially announced that in Paris, where he is now headed, Erdogan wouldn’t be welcomed as the representative of the Turkish government. France, which is known for its sensitivities to diplomatic rules, had to announce that it would welcome Erdogan as a guest accompanied by the Turkish minister of national defense. One could say that Erdogan’s current situation is temporary. Almost everybody thinks that this temporary situation should find a firm legal basis to a future transition. Therefore I wish that Erdogan had consented to send Prime Minister Abdullah Gul on these visits. Then nobody would have protested, as he would have been obeying the rules, and the awkward situation in Paris would have been avoided. Then Mr. Erdogan would now be in Ankara overseeing work to swiftly keep the promises that the AKP made during the elections campaign.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION