Obama’s visit to Turkey in his first 100 days in office and his message to the Muslim world from the Turkish Parliament that “the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam” is quite significant.
He conquered hearts by speaking with students not as the president of a superpower but as one of us. Reminiscent of former US President Bill Clinton’s visit to Turkey, it was a visit that transformed the antipathy Turks had toward the US that formed as a result of the Bush administration’s occupation-hungry, cruel and arrogant manner into sympathy in just two days.
Aside from the emphasis he put on our Muslim identity and secular and democratic system, he referred to the distinguished cooperation between the US and Turkey. It was also important that he frequently emphasized the importance of our EU membership and called on both Turkey and Europe to recognize this importance.
Obama’s visit will trigger deep change in Turkey’s domestic and foreign policies in the short, medium and long term. In terms of foreign policy, the US president’s visit signals a new chapter that will solidify Turkey’s role in the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Project (UNAOC) and enhance relations between Ankara and Washington to an exemplary level.
In terms of domestic policy, it may be too early to make such a contentious statement, but I must say it anyway: Forget about the Turkey before Obama, there is now a new Turkey.
In this new Turkey, democracy will no longer be a concept we speak about. It will be implemented and it will be freed from bureaucratic tutelage. Secularism will no longer be a mechanism with which to impose one’s views on others. It will be transformed into democratic secularism that provides and protects the freedom of speech. Obama’s visit crumbled up the coup notebook and threw it out the window, bringing to an end the era of Ergenekon-like organizations. It also provided clues for those who wonder how the Ergenekon investigation will be concluded and whether coup suspects will be prosecuted.
No other presidential visit has served as a breakthrough for Turkey as strongly as Obama’s. The effects of this breakthrough will be deep and long lasting. The judiciary state will no longer try to threaten democracy through military interventions. Those who fail to accept this truth and try to pursue anti-democratic activities will find every road is a dead end. Political parties will be able to sustain their existence and grow in the new term only if they support democratization, the expansion of rights and undertake reforms to institute EU standards.
Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal is among the first to understand this. Just yesterday columnist Fikret Bila wrote in the Milliyet daily that “the solution is EU membership.” Noting that he conveyed to Obama the importance of Turkey’s full EU membership, Baykal said, “I thanked him for supporting Turkey’s EU membership,” the daily said.
This is not a minor change in attitude. We are facing a new situation. One that gives meaning to initiatives the CHP made before the elections. Those who must best understand the rapidly changing new Turkey in cooperation with the new America are my colleagues in the media sector. They should frame Obama’s words -- “Freedom of religion and expression lead to a strong and vibrant civil society that only strengthens the state” -- in the offices of their columnists and chief editors.
Yes, some of my colleagues, you are going to have to think it over at least 40 times before writing articles that accuse people of being unprogressive, uncivilized and religiously and politically reactionary.
Everyone should forever bear in mind what Obama continuously underlined: that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s greatest legacy is Turkey’s strong, vibrant and secular democracy -- and that is the work that Parliament carries on today, the importance of freedom of religion, commitment to the rule of law, use of justice and not force, the necessity to share and that Turkey cannot be pulled into one direction or another.
To the respectable people in the Encümen-i Daniş, or Consultation Council, we are referring to you in particular.
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