Turkey steps in as global player thanks to non-stop diplomacy

Turkey’s term presidency appears to be a rather remarkable example of how the country has become a towering figure in its latest steps to become a global player. Any type of peace initiative would constitute a major foreign policy achievement for Turkey, as it prepares to re-launch a ministerial level meeting on fighting against terrorism.

According to diplomatic sources, Turkey has also assiduously worked over the past two years to organize a summit chaired by Turkish President Abdullah Gül on Sept. 23 that will deal with peace in a broad context. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is also expected to attend.

Turkey’s rising profile as a diplomatic power also matched its economic clout and it was an expression of large-scale dissatisfaction about the minimal role Turkey played in disputes in its vicinity. Although sometimes behind closed doors, Turkey played a vanguard role in the past years to transform deeply seated hostilities into lessened tensions.

Turkey represents a more sustained, albeit not untroubled, diplomatic process that is aimed at eradicating conflicts and borders and creating “zones of peace.”

“We want to see the Turkish flag waving in every corner of the world,” Davutoğlu said this week during his visit to the eastern province of Iğdır.

Speaking to Sunday’s Zaman, Fikret Ertan, an independent expert based in Turkey, said Turkey’s two initiatives at the Security Council could be linked to its ambitious demarche to bring about peace and security.

Since the new Turkey will be hard for some to digest and it is likely to face a much steeper climb to be acknowledged as a global actor, the Turkish foreign policy establishment has spent much energy to reiterate to the international community that its aim is purely aimed at establishing peace and building cooperation.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Turkey’s ambassador to the UN, Ertuğrul Apakan, said the key aim of the summit is to have leaders reaffirm the council’s determination to play a stronger role in the political settlement of disputes and in implementing peace agreements.

The high-level exchange, the ambassador said, “is expected to raise global awareness on the new and evolving threats and challenges to international peace and security and empower the council and operational tools available to it -- namely, preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, peacekeeping and post-conflict peace building.”

Turkey joined the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member in January 2009 and will have the seat until the end of 2010.

Dismissing the fact that it is very important to chair the Security Council, Ertan said it is not a post that should be exaggerated. He added that it does not have much value. It is impossible to get anything out without urging the permanent members of the Security Council to act the way you want them to act. He said Turkey could lobby and advocate that Security Council members take positions close to its own.

Turkey will also preside over Security Council meetings on Afghanistan, Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and the Middle East region during its term presidency.

Noting that Davutoğlu might have played a greater role in these initiatives, Ertan said the foreign minister’s ideas were regional but that he is now thinking to go global. “Turkey is walking to be a global actor,” Ertan underlined.

Turkey will also hold a ministerial meeting of the council on Sept. 27 which will take stock of the global fight against terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Apakan expressed hope that the discussion and a statement to be adopted by the ministers “will help re-energize the international community’s campaign against terrorism and highlight the areas of priority that require continued and concerted action.”

Noting that the General Assembly -- although its resolutions are non-binding -- and the Security Council are the two most important and effective UN bodies, Ertan said Turkey’s term presidency could be used as an opportunity to be a global player.