During a conference at the military academy in March 2002, Kılınç’s exact sentences were as follows: “Turkey has not been getting any support from the EU on our national priorities. The EU has a negative perspective on issues related to Turkey’s national interests. Russia is also standing alone. That’s why it is necessary to enter into a cooperation by including Iran as well, without ignoring the US.”The idea was not taken very seriously for two reasons: First, the soldier who suggested the idea was not considered to be speaking in the name of either the Turkish state or the military. He did not get much support other than some nationalist circles. Even some high-level soldiers, including then Chief of General Staff Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu, stated that “the EU dimension is a geo-strategic must for Turkey.” Besides, many believed that Kılınç also had a serious personal problem. For instance, he once became famous for his miraculous proposal to rescue the Turkish economy. His proposal was very simple: If Turkey has enough green ink and enough paper, why don’t we just print dollars?
Secondly, at that time, Turkey’s foreign policy conjuncture was much suitable for such radical debates. The US had been very helpful in capturing the PKK leader three years ago and it was also strongly supporting Turkey’s EU bid.
More important than all this, the proposal came before the Iraqi war and all its drastic consequences on Turkish-American relations, like the March 1 situation, rising anti-Americanism, the famous “hood event” (Çuval Olayı in Turkish, in Turkish soldiers were briefly detained and hooded), Abu Ghraib, etc.
However, today it seems that the ideas of Kılınç Pasha are not as crazy as they seemed five years ago, at least for the wider public. When I read the full text of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s Munich speech posted on the Turkish chief of general staff’s Web site, Kılınç’s previous remarks came rushing back to me. Putin’s speech was not an ordinary one. It was harshly critical of NATO and especially the US efforts to dominate the world. Yet, we do not know for which reasons why this speech was posted on the chief of general staff’s Web site or at which level the decision to post the speech was made. But whatever the answers are, I guess it gives some idea about the mood of Turkish public in general and that of the Turkish military in particular.
When one imagines a scenario in which the American Congress approves the so-called Armenian genocide resolution, Iraq disintegrates and Kirkuk is annexed by the Kurdish region after the referendum at the end of this year, I am sure Mr. Kılınç’s proposal will be revived, seriously debated and maybe he will even be honored for his strategic vision.
Political and economic relations between Ankara and Moscow are already in the best shape of centuries. Two natural gas pipelines are connecting two countries making them partners in energy field. Both Moscow and Ankara have very good relations as two neighbors in the Black Sea. More than 1.5 million Russian tourists swim in the “warm Turkish seas” off the Mediterranean coast each year. There are plenty of Turkish investments in Russia, from construction to retail, and more than 10 thousand common marriages. As a sign of rapidly developing relations, 2007 was declared to be the “year of Russia” in Turkey and 2008 to be the “year of Turkey” in Russia.
The list goes on and shows that the objective basis of good, maybe even strategic relations, is growing rapidly.
Personally, I am not a fan of creating an alternative to the already existing strategic axis of Turkey, like most of the Turkish public. But if the negative approach of some European countries continues on the EU dimension and the above scenario turns into reality, I have no doubt that this Turkish-Russian rapprochement will become a reality. Turkey’s friends in the West should never forget that this happened twice in the last century, almost at similar conjunctions where Turkey had terrible relations with the West. One was during the War of Independence, which tied two new republics until the expansionist claims of Stalin prior to World War II. And the other was during tense relations between Turkey and US over Cyprus in the 1960s.
One last remark may be the story of the Turkish-Russian Friendship Group in the Turkish Parliament. Prof. Nevzat Yalçıntaş, MP and chairman of the group, told us the story at a dinner where journalists from Russia and Turkey were brought together by the Association for Business and Friendship between Russian Federation and Turkey (RUTID) in İstanbul. He said we had to restrict membership to 300 MPs in order not to give a wrong impression, as if we are creating an alternative leadership within the party. It became the largest group, even compared to friendship groups with traditional Western allies. Can one find anything more illustrative than that showing the new psychology in Turkey?
