MILLIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen comments on Sunday’s by-election in Siirt which opened the way for Erdogan to become prime minister. A summary of his column is as follows:
Who would have thought that Siirt, a small province in southeastern Turkey, would one day become the focus of the world’s attention and play a crucial role on future course of the Iraq issue, thus on US President Bush’s decision making processes?
Repercussions Sunday’s by-election in Siirt has made in foreign media and certain diplomatic circles are two-fold. The first one is on Turkish democracy. Accordingly, it is emphasized that the by-election contributed to the consolidation of political system in Turkey and normalization of the relations between the Turkish military and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
For example, BBC’s Middle East expert Roger Harding makes the following important evaluation: ‘If there is a country in the world to prove that democracy and Islam could live together peacefully, that country can be only Turkey. In Turkey, an Islam-based party has shown that it could come to power through elections and govern a modern, democratic and secular country. If the AKP passes this test, it will confirm that democracy and Islam can get on well, and Turkey will become a model for Muslim world…’
The real reason why the world was focused on Siirt by-election is the wonder concerning AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s, who is expected to become prime minister soon, stance on the Iraq and Cyprus issues. In this sense, Americans, Europeans, Arabs and everyone else are curios about a number of points: Will the new government introduce a new proposal that would allow deployment of US troops? If it has such an intention, when will it do it, and will it put forward other conditions to do so? Moreover, how will Erdogan’s position on the Cyprus issue affect the new government’s policy on Cyprus? Could we expect a change? On the Iraq issue, foreign media and diplomatic circles believe that Erdogan government will submit a second US troop proposal. But before doing so it will wait for UN resolution to be taken on March 17, and see US’ reaction over Turkey’s recent demands over negotiations. Yesterday’s Washington Post said that Turkey will make its final decision on March 19, however that it’s uncertain that Bush administration could wait that long. Apparently, Washington’s war schedule doesn’t conform to Turkey’s concerns.
On the other hand, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges the Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides for quick move on the Cyprus issue. Both the UN and the EU’s expectations are that Erdogan government will make further steps concerning the question. But, Erdogan recent statements have indicated that he won’t make any hasty decision on Cyprus.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION