Highlights of the week

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül are gradually drifting apart, both in style and in opinion. Erdoğan, as the leader of the executive body, is losing his ability to run the country day by day and is presenting a picture of a lonely and ill-tempered politician. Gül, to the contrary, seems calm and reasonable as though he is an authority of a different country.

However, it would be beneficial if the President made a careful assessment of his supra-party position, refrained from pitching into every single issue and rather focus on some specific matters because he does not have sufficient staff, nor the time or authority to accomplish all tasks. Therefore, his initiatives run the risk of getting lost in cyberspace.

It would be enough for the President to be involved in the European Union accession works, bilateral relations with Armenia and the Kurdish issue. All of these, in fact, could take up all of his time in office. But besides dry rhetoric, he needs to counter the government on all these hot topics. On the EU, Gül will be convincing when he turns down EU-related laws passed by the government for their incompatibility with EU rules. As for the Kurdish issue, he will prove his supra-party position of embracing the entire nation when he issues counter-statements to the Prime Minister’s exclusionary remarks toward Kurds. Regarding Armenian relations, he will facilitate positive results if he inspires modesty among officials of the governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

’Obama, make no mistake and don’t make us lose our patience!’
Everyone in the world was happy to see Barack Obama chosen as president-elect and Joe Biden, labeled as the "Enemy of Turks," as vice president of the United States; everyone except Turkish politicians and "statesmen." The problem is, he may utter the word "genocide." Obama may also emphasize a democratic approach to sensitive issues, more than his predecessors. He may incline toward multi-party diplomacy, which Turkey does not like at all, despite being elected to the United Nations Security Council. And perhaps most crucially, Obama may insist on constructive relations with the Kurdistan Regional Government despite Turkey not liking to even pronounce its proper name, shyly calling it the "Northern Iraq Regional Administration!" At this juncture, access to the official KRG site, www.krg.org, is denied in Turkey even though the KRG was formed by the Iraqi Constitution, which Turkey recognizes.

Now all hopes are on Obama who may find the right way and not offend Turkey. As former President Süleyman Demirel put it, "When you come to power, you will be handed the black book and will understand the bitter facts and figures of the world." In other words, the burying of heads in the sand continues.

God puts the words in Gönül’s mouth
Last Monday, Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül in a Brussels address for the memory of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on the 70th anniversary of his death on Nov. 10, said the nation-state could not possibly be established with Armenians and Greeks. We would not know how subtly he calculated the reaction caused by his remarks. As I have written many times, the Turkish nation is shaped by the religion of Islam in content. Religion is the most concrete and basic pillar of the Turkish nation, shaped by Young Turks and then Republicans in the early 20th century. None of the other characteristics defining a nation, such as language, race, culture or economy, existed as much as religion did in this land in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Therefore religion, as the main element of the process of inventing a nation, excludes followers of the other religions and regards them as non-nationals. In this sense, Armenians, Greeks and Jews are the natural other, the potential enemy of the nation. Since the inception of the new nation, non-Muslims have had no place in it, while non-Turk Muslims have a place only if they accept Turkishness and overlook their own identity. Pains, mistakes and oppression caused by nation building are not experienced only in this land. For instance the formation of the Greek nation followed the same pattern. The common denominator being Orthodox Christianity: Muslims, Jews and Roman Catholics have no place in it. After all, nation building is probably the most terrifying episode mankind has experienced in recent history. The important thing is to acknowledge that this is so, and to learn lessons for the future.