Is common sense gaining ground?
There have been two hopeful developments during the last few days.
The first one is the Armenian project that the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs recently passed. The possibility of this project being submitted to the full House grows weaker everyday. Even if it is, the chances of its being passed are very slim.
The second one was the approval of the incursion motion by the Turkish Parliament by a large majority and without causing any rift among main political parties. Although the essence of the motion was about the permission to intervene in Iraq, it also reflected a well-balanced and measured approach. These two developments prove how right it is for Turkey to balance determination with reasonable political and diplomatic attitudes in solving its problems. On the other hand, the support and understanding we’ve received from international circles show that the professional disaster criers are wrong in their claim that we are all alone in the world.
There are several reasons why the Armenian genocide project has lost so much support that even the House of Representatives Speaker Pelosi now hesitates to put it on the agenda. Turkish diplomacy is first in line for congratulations for its contribution to these developments after months of hard work. Our lobbying agency in Washington was also very effective and clearly deserves the money it is paid. Furthermore, the efforts made by President Bush and the U.S. administration, by military authorities and our friends in the Congress and by former foreign ministers have certainly been effective, too. Nor has the American media ever failed to bring forward Turkey’s strategic significance.
As for the motion, the arguments put forward during parliamentary debates were frankly startling. Taking every pretext to criticise the government may be an integral feature of democracy, but there is also a lot of virtue in moderation. The opposition, and especially the People’s Republican Party (CHP), maintains that the scope of the military operation should be enlarged to cover not only the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), but also Barzani and the north Iraqi administration among its targets. In other words, our objective must be to crush the possibility of an independent state in northern Iraq as well as the PKK. Naturally, the only way to do this would be to immediately occupy Iraq for an indefinite period. Put differently, if it were up to the CHP, we would be as crazy as the Americans and get stuck in Iraq. To sink our economy would be the least of our accomplishments. We would also forgo all possibility of solving the Kurdish issue in Turkey!
CHP’s phobia
CHP continues to chant that America wants to divide Turkey. Fine, but why did America deliver Öcalan to us if it wanted to divide Turkey? Why does the American government want to turn Turkey into an energy transit centre? Why did it support the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline? Why is it trying to block the Armenian project? The answer’s bound to be, “for their own good.” True, but this also means that their interests and ours overlap to a great extent. Isn’t this the basis of all international cooperation?
There is one point that both CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) speakers were missing. The text of the motion was not drafted by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government alone. The general staff was also consulted. There was no other possibility. Nothing could be more normal than providing a large framework for a motion subject to parliamentary approval. The timing, the scope and the targets of the operations in question can only be determined by the government in accordance with political and military developments. The Iraqi foreign minister has already called on the PKK to leave the country. It might have been a voting tactic. Still, there is nothing wrong with trying to accompany military pressure with diplomacy for some time to see if it works.
Turkey has chosen to use common sense in the matter of the incursion motion. Hopefully, the U.S. House of Representatives will do the same and wipe the Armenian project from our agenda, in order to establish gradual and mutual trust in our relations.