STAR- Columnist Murat Celik comments on his meeting with Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis. A summary of his column is as follows:
I had breakfast with Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis on Sunday morning, and our conversation was dominated by two issues, namely Iraq and Cyprus. Just before we sat down to the table, Yakis remembered that he was scheduled to travel to Brussels on Tuesday and return to Turkey on Wednesday rather late. Then he talked with his staff about postponing the visit and called Prime Minister Abdullah Gul before making his final decision. The reason for Yakis’ postponing his visit is Turkey’s upcoming Iraq summit, scheduled to be held in Istanbul on Thursday with the participation of countries in the region. This ‘Regional Peace Initiative’ summit is to be held on the foreign ministers’ level, and Yakis will host his colleagues from Arab countries.
Now let’s talk about the agenda at the breakfast table… Yakis requested that our conversation be off the record, that is, the questions and answers would be for background, rather than direct quotation. Thus what follows are my impressions from talking with Yakis. In some parts of our talk, Yakis skillfully used the language of diplomacy, but other times he spoke in direct, ordinary language. I reached a conclusion from this detailed talk concerning Iraq: the current atmosphere is not yet clear, and in such an atmosphere, Turkey suffers the most. Ankara is in a dilemma, impasse and deadlock. Obviously Turkey has the most precarious situation in the region. On the one hand, there are the dimensions of our allied relationship with the US, and on the other, the region that Turkey must continue to live in and our neighbor Iraq. On the one hand, our resistance to firing a single shot, and on the other, the necessity to open our bases and harbors for US military forces. On the one hand, our messages to Iraq, and on the other, the truth that it would be better to send those messages through the Arab world. On the one hand, the view that Saddam Hussein leaving Baghdad would solve the problem, and on the other, the questions of how the Iraqi nation will see us in the post-Saddam era. On the one hand, a largely silent Turkish public opinion, and on the other, the government’s reproach to the US that it should meet with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and understand that Turkey’s anti-war sentiment has been under-reported. At this point, let me emphasize that the last three sentences have nothing to do with my breakfast conversation with Yakis, but rather are all my personal opinion. We all know how to say ‘No war,’ but what are we doing to show this? During such times, the Turkish nation could do so much to help out and guide the government.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION